Demystifying Humanitarian Financing

In the first webinar in this series on demystifying humanitarian financing experts from OECD, Development Initiatives, and World Vision gave presentations and answered questions regarding the current state of humanitarian financing and how recent trends are affecting NGOs.

The session concentrated on the current realities and emerging trends of humanitarian financing. Participants were provided with an overview of the different traditional and emerging financing streams coexisting in the humanitarian sector, with a focus on how NGOs access humanitarian funding and the challenges they currently face.

UN agencies often partner with international and local NGOs to implement humanitarian assistance and protection. NGOs, on their part, are faced with the challenge of understanding and dealing with different, and often complex, UN partnership frameworks. Understanding how these frameworks function and how humanitarian funding through the UN is evolving.

Experts from two major agencies – the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Program (WFP) – presented their organizations’ approaches to implementing partnerships and discussed challenges related to the existing funding modalities. Participants will be provided with an overview of key procedures, as well as trends and challenges regarding UN humanitarian funding opportunities for NGOs.

Pooled funds have enabled more timely and flexible funding for responding to sudden humanitarian crises, and have made it possible to operate in otherwise underfunded emergency settings. In the context of the World Humanitarian Summit, the UN Secretary General, recommended that member states and other donors should double the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to $1 billion, with the Grand Bargain calling for an exploration of whether NGOs could directly access CERF. The SG also called to increase the aid funneled through Country Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) to 15 per cent by 2018. Given the current and growing importance of pooled funding, it is important that humanitarian NGOs understand how these mechanisms function and how they can be accessed in order to be part of improving the overall response to humanitarian crises.

NGOs are also managing a growing number of pooled funding mechanisms. The START fund (established and managed by a consortium of NGOs) is providing a quick alternative avenue for NGOs to access timely humanitarian funding.  The NEAR Network is exploring options for NGO-run pooled funds at the local level.

ICVA and PHAP organised the third session of the humanitarian funding learning stream. The session provided participants with an overview of the different existing pooled funding mechanisms accessible directly to NGOs, including CBPFs, the START fund and the NEAR network’s pooled fund mechanism. Presenters addressed current challenges and opportunities regarding NGO access to pooled funds followed by an opportunity for questions and answers.

Learning Objectives:

While bilateral funding between implementing organizations and donors can reduce transfer and administrative costs, such direct funding relationships can sometimes lead to challenges for NGOs. Different rules and requirements, pre-qualification requirements, delayed disbursements, and overly restrictive budget lines are just some of the issues frequently faced by NGOs.

Nonetheless, the Grand Bargain aims at bringing donors closer to implementing organizations and overcoming these challenges. At the same time, emerging donors are becoming increasingly important sources of funding for humanitarian organizations. ICVA and PHAP organised the fourth session of the humanitarian financing learning stream to help participants understand this changing context for NGO access to bilateral funding.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding of the concept of bilateral funding
• Knowledge of the overall size, flows, and forms of bilateral funding and the main donors and recipients
• Awareness of the main trends, challenges, and opportunities for NGOs trying to access funding from bi-lateral donors
• Knowledge of the different sources of information on bilateral funding

Private funding of humanitarian work is changing – from having been primarily targeted at natural disaster response, in 2015, the response to the conflict in Syria received the majority of reported private funds. With most private funding channeled through non-governmental rather than governments or multi-lateral organizations, understanding current developments in private funding flows and mechanisms has become more pertinent than ever for NGOs.

ICVA and PHAP organised the fifth session of the humanitarian financing learning stream where private sector and NGO representatives explored current trends relating to private funding for humanitarian NGOs. Participants were provided with an overview of the different existing private funding mechanisms, with a particular focus on emerging trends such as private humanitarian innovation and Islamic social financing –as well as key challenges for NGOs.

Learning Objectives:

• Awareness of the primary factors that drive funding from the private sector to the humanitarian sector
• Familiarity with different sources of private funding, including donations, trusts, foundations, and fundraising campaigns
• Awareness of the main trends and challenges regarding NGO access to private funding sources
• Knowledge of the different sources of information on private funding

Throughout PHAP’s and ICVA’s series on humanitarian financing, speakers have referred to a process that promises to significantly reshape humanitarian funding – the “Grand Bargain”. This package of commitments to improve humanitarian financing was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit last year and aims to reduce the humanitarian funding gap and improve funding processes. Given the interest expressed in this topic by participants in previous sessions, ICVA and PHAP hosted an additional event focusing on this reform process on 3 March 2017.

In this session, participants were provided with an overview of the origins and current processes related to the Grand Bargain and how it might impact the work of NGOs. Based on the interests expressed in previous sessions, the session focused on three areas of the Grand Bargain: increasing support to local and national responders, harmonized and simplified reporting, and the humanitarian-development nexus.

Learning Objectives:

• Knowledge of the main processes (and their origins) and actors involved in the Grand Bargain
• Awareness of the current trends and emerging policies in relation to increasing support to national and local responders
• Awareness of the challenges faced by NGOs regarding the harmonization and simplification of reporting vis-à-vis donors
• Familiarity with current discussions relating to the humanitarian-development nexus and its implications for humanitarian planning and funding