Resources

The paper highlights best practices from selected pooled funds, focusing on approaches that may be
useful for the Aid Fund for Syria (AFS) in three key areas:

• Complementarity and coordination with other pooled funding mechanisms
• Localisation and accountability
• Expanding beyond emergency response

This is not a full review of pooled fund best practices or AFS’s strategic needs. However, the findings aim to be relevant in the fast-changing context of northern Syria and AFS’s funding goals.

Click on the link below to read the paper.

This impact study evaluates the first three-year cycle of ICVA’s 2030 strategy, and the performance against the strategic priorities set for 2022-2024.

Authored by Adrio Bacchetta from Sandstone Consulting, its key findings include:

• ICVA is a key interlocutor in the highly complex ecosystem that is humanitarian action today.
• ICVA’s impacts can be connected to these ways of working. They include community building within the humanitarian system, policy change, strengthened knowledge and capacity, improved access to quality funding, equitable partnership agreements, more inclusive, fit-for-purpose coordination structures, among other things.
• Considering ICVA’s reach, convening power, access to all levels of the system, together with the calibre of their team, while direct attribution may be difficult, it is clear that a humanitarian system without ICVA would be much the poorer and the community more fragmented and less inclusive.
• ICVA has and continues to champion principled humanitarian action. A lot has been done, but these principles are under fire.
• ICVA has advanced climate change issues, related on one level to the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations and establishment of the secretariat ICVA is hosting; on another level there has been deep engagement on the impact of climate change on humanitarian crises in regions most impacted (Africa and Asia-Pacific (AP)).

ICVA’s Forced migration work has:

• Interfaced with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Office for Migration (IOM), the World Bank (WB) Group and others to influence policy and practice using mechanisms that both address common areas of concern and build communities in the process.
• Created alliances with concrete initiatives such as the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) such as the multistakeholder pledge for locally led action linked to the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). This global work has been complemented by regional and country work on mobility issues including in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA, e.g. Gaza, Syria, Yemen) in Asia (e.g. Afghanistan and Myanmar) and Africa (South Sudan) and Latin America (Cartagena +40 process).

ICVA’s Humanitarian Coordination work has:

• Delivered through multiple dimensions (hands-on, policy advocacy, training) to enhance principled and coordinated NGO interventions, with particular investments in negotiating access.
• The work on humanitarian principles has been extensive but the reality of some of the most politicised conflicts has exposed cracks in terms of adherence of warring parties to the humanitarian principles and law and the preparedness of the sector to speak out against it. ICVA can do a lot, but only as far as the members allow it.
• The team invested regionally and particularly at country fora level to improve the inclusivity and capacity of coordination. Compared to the last strategic period the number of surge interventions or hands on support increased which speaks to the trust the humanitarian community has in ICVA, though such interventions have tested ICVA’s capacity.

ICVA’s humanitarian financing work has: 

• Invested heavily in improving access to quality funding, particularly (but not only) in the area of pooled funding with one initiative leading to another in a positive flow. This work has contributed to a recognition of the positive impact of pooled fund mechanisms on localisation objectives, the potential for increased learning and innovation among Funds, as well as required areas for further improvement, including increasing access for local and national actors and more effective risk sharing.
• Delivered with regards to effective partnerships and risk management between UN actors, INGOs and local and national NGOs.
• Partnership terms and conditions have been adapted, and local and national actors in particular have been empowered through greater understanding of what equitable partnership terms and conditions are and what they are entitled to be demanding.

ICVA Statutes revised at the 20th General Assembly, March 2025.  They are available in English and French.

Humanitarian Takeaways is a collection of selected and summarised materials on relevant topics for the humanitarian sector. It is published by the Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA) and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).

Click on the below links to read the 2025 and 2024 Editions.

Collective NGO Statements delivered at the 92nd meeting of UNHCR’s Standing Committee, 11-13 March 2025

ICVA has prepared this report to provide a snapshot of the immediate consequences and emerging trends resulting from the abrupt shifts in U.S. foreign aid policy. It draws on insights from ICVA members, the broader NGO community, and public sources, as well as survey findings on how these changes are affecting NGOs’ operational and organisational capacities. Given the rapidly evolving situation, this report does not aim to provide an exhaustive analysis but highlights a few key findings.

Click on the link below to read the report.

To understand the impact of the US Foreign Aid Suspension, ICVA ran a global survey among NGOs and NGO networks between 27th January and 7th February.

We received 246 responses.  Here is what we’ve learned…

Proposed Statutes amendments for approval by members at the 20th General Assembly on 18 March 2025.

Draft minutes from the 19th General Assembly, held on 20 March 2024. These minutes will be approved by the members attending the 20th General Assembly on 18 March 2025.

As African Leaders meet in Addis Ababa for the African Union (AU) Summit this week, all efforts should be deployed to address the long lasting and deteriorating crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where millions of people are trapped in an endless cycle of violence, displacement and humanitarian needs.

Click on the link below to read the Full Joint Statement by the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) and the FONGA (Forum des ONG en Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale.

This working document is intended to share considerations for NGOs on the reporting obligations of the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) to relevant UN Sanctions Committees1 outlined in UNSC R2664, promote the widespread understanding and informed participation in the process. It covers the objective, scope, and format of the reporting process, how NGOs are concerned, potential risks for NGOs and considerations to help navigate them.

Click on the below links to access the document in English, French and Arabic.

The Summary Report of the Webinar on Refugee Integration Policies in Eastern Africa: Local, National and Global Perspectives, held on 30 January 2025. The event highlighted efforts to strengthen peer exchange, collaboration, and collective action within ICVA’s membership across East and Southern Africa and beyond. It provided a platform to connect members, enabling their contributions to ICVA’s global policy and advocacy efforts while influencing refugee integration and durable solutions at both regional and global levels. It also facilitated the sharing of best practices in programme implementation, policy-making, and advocacy, fostering mutual learning among participants.

Click on the below link to read the Summary report.

The draft statements can be downloaded from the links below.

To provide feedback please insert your suggestions using track changes and send them to the email addresses indicated in the header of each document.

Deadline to provide feedback is 27 February 2025.

Due diligence reform has emerged as a critical issue in the humanitarian sector, with frequent surveys of local NGOs highlighting the challenges posed by lengthy, repetitive, and complex due diligence assessments as main barriers to localisation and partnership equity. At the same time, many INGOs and some donors and UN agencies have prioritised reforming due diligence processes to make them more efficient and less burdensome through simplified, streamlined approaches, creating risks of overlapping initiatives. There is a clear need for a coordinated approach to harness existing momentum and ensure reforms are impactful and sustainable.

Click on the below link to read the Concept Note.

To understand the impact of the 90 Day Funding Suspension, ICVA is conducting a survey with NGOs, NGO networks and Fora in four languages. Results are still arriving.

Here is what we’ve learned from the first 76 responses in English and French.

Click on the below link to access the results.