What was agreed upon at the Humanitarian Summit
1. The most concrete outcome of the summit was the top 30 donors and aid agencies signing a so-called “Grand Bargain” to make aid more efficient.
2. As expected, “localization” came out a winner in the discussions, with a target agreed in the Grand Bargain to direct 25 percent of humanitarian funding “as directly as possible” to local and national agencies. Twenty-seven international NGOs also signed the new Charter4Change, committing to passing 20 percent of their funding to national NGOs by 2018.
3. One former Save the Children staffer said she almost cried at the launch of the Education Cannot Wait fund, a recognition – after years of lobbying – that education is just as important as food and shelter in a crisis. On average, less than two percent of humanitarian aid goes towards education (some donors pledged to individually raise that to 30 percent).
4. Nearly 100 governments, aid agencies and others signed on to another Charter, committing not to discriminate against people with disabilities in humanitarian action, to better meet their needs.
5. It is a long-established factoid that investing $1 in preparing for crises will save you $7 responding to them, and yet it has proven very difficult to make that shift. The UN’s disaster risk reduction body had called for a “marker” to track DRR spending, though no specific target was set.
6. Facing a funding gap very roughly estimated at $15 billion in responding to crises, the summit emphasized the need for innovative approaches to financing. Several initiatives were announced.
7. Regional inter-governmental organizations have long complained that, despite being well-positioned to respond to crises in their regions faster and in a more culturally sensitive way, they do not have enough of a place at the humanitarian decision-making table.
8. The summit’s structure sought a range of ideas from both civil society organizations and the private sector, meaning many voices that do not traditionally have power were heard.
This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.