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Self Report 2018

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 1B
    Act early

    Individual Commitments (10)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to further develop a new early warning unit of the Federal Foreign Office (FFO) and to institutionalize the use of foresight methods within the ministry. A pool of scenario-planning experts will be established.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany commits to make successful conflict prevention visible by capturing, consolidating and sharing good practices and lessons learnt in existing expert and dialogue networks such as the OECD DAC'€™s International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) as well as other partnerships.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany commits to regular inter-ministerial exchanges on early warning signs (high-level format chaired by the undersecretary of state).
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany commits to review its existing peace and conflict and risk assessment and early warning methodology in order to incorporate a multi-risk and conflict-sensitive approach at the nexus of conflict, fragility and disasters.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany is committed to strengthening conflict early warning mechanisms at local, national and regional level, e.g. through capacity development support for the African Peace and Security Architecture of the African Union and its Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
    • Capacity
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany supports that the Secretary-General develop a comprehensive plan to strengthen conflict prevention at the United Nations based on lessons learnt and recommendations emanating from the Advisory Group of Experts on the 2015 Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture, the Report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, and the Global Study on the implementation of resolution 1325, in time for the World Prevention Forum by 2020.
    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany will establish effective partnerships with the World Bank, the European Union and academic institutions for planning and delivering on collective conflict prevention and resolutions strategies based on shared conflict analysis.
    • Partnership
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany will support the United Nations in convening a World Prevention Forum by 2020 to identify how Member States, the UN Secretariat, the Security Council and regional organizations can work more effectively together on conflict prevention and resolution.
    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany will use early warning system and peace and conflict analysis approach to identify needs in countries of large forced displacement and take rapid action to contribute preventing situations from becoming protracted.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • In preparation for the international conference [i.e.World Prevention Forum], Germany aims at convening a regional forum on conflict prevention to identify and advance elements of successful conflict prevention, which include the participation of the private sector and civil society.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to act early upon potential conflict situations based on early warning findings and shared conflict analysis, in accordance with international law.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to make successful conflict prevention visible by capturing, consolidating and sharing good practices and lessons learnt.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In 2017, Germany published new national guidelines on “Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace” which have further fostered political coherence and inter-ministerial cooperation. Consequently, a new protocol for qualitative inter-agency early warning reports has been developed, including biannual high-level inter-ministerial “horizon scannings” that facilitate an integrated exchange on potential crises and conflict developments.

    Besides establishing an early warning unit at the Federal Foreign Office, Germany has also made progress in designing a qualitative data analysis system (“PreView”) to improve early warning and risk assessment capacities. In addition, various foresight and scenario planning workshops with a focus on specific country contexts were organized in 2017.

    Building on its long-standing partnerships with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank, EU and UN, Germany has also significantly contributed to improving early warning capacities of multilateral organizations and specifically the African Peace and Security Architecture. For instance, Germany supported the World Bank-UN joint flagship study on “Pathways for Peace, Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict” and participated in and contributed to the EU internal Early Warning/Early Action cycle in 2017. Furthermore, Germany is actively supporting the Secretary-General in strengthening conflict prevention at the United Nations and implementation of Sustaining Peace resolutions.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany takes an active role in international initiatives and partnerships to ensure that results-based monitoring mechanisms are developed to assess impact on the ground. All bilateral projects funded by Germany are required to report results and impacts on a yearly basis.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • It remains a challenge to feed the different interests and internal procedures into an inter-ministerial process.
    • Conflict analysis has yet to be better imbedded into programming and strategy development.
    • Insecurity leads to remote management of programs, which in return limits successful implementation.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In 2018, “PreView” will be operational and a new Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) mechanism will be piloted at the Federal Foreign Office. Germany will also host the 2nd EU EWEA forum in Berlin in April.

    Besides further inter-agency co-ordination and cooperation with EU and World Bank on EWEA, Germany will continue to support international processes to operationalise the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. As co-chair of OEDC International Network on Conflict And Fragility (INCAF), Germany will actively strive for progress in this regard.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    The toolbox for crisis prevention must be continuously improved, which requires dedicated funding for prevention and preventive tools, making crisis prevention a priority in programming and funding schemes. On the side of the UN as the eminent organization in this field, the reform process must be concluded successfully and the donor base needs to be broadened for peace-building activities. 

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    On the national level, the Guidelines “Preventing Crisis, Resolving Conflict, Building Peace” serves as a better framework for the German crisis engagement. The study „Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict“ that Germany has supported suggests best practices for crisis prevention. 

  • 1C
    Remain engaged and invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (13)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to further support the complementary use of available national instruments within Germany's approach to fragile contexts coordinated through the Steering Group of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Approximately 40% of German development cooperation funds (country programmable aid) are currently spent in fragile states; Germany endeavors to further strengthen its engagement in fragile contexts in its effort to sustainably reduce root causes of conflicts and humanitarian needs. Germany is committed to implement all its development cooperation measures in a conflict-sensitive manner using the peace and conflict assessment methodology.


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity
    • As a signatory member of the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, Germany is committed to the New Deal principles which include the use of fragility assessments and joint risk analysis amongst donor and partner countries for joint planning purposes, wherever possible. Germany has supported the piloting of a joint risk assessment exercise in Somalia.
    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany commits a yearly development assistance budget of approximately EUR 1.3 billion for measures directly and indirectly targeted at peacebuilding, conflict prevention and conflict in fragile partner countries by addressing structural root causes of conflict and fragility. A new strategic orientation on conflict prevention and management will provide the conceptual basis and strategic direction for the engagement of the German development cooperation. This includes strengthening the participation of women and youth in peacebuilding.


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to continuously taking an active part in international fora and contact groups (in various formats) addressing crises and conflicts, including inter alia on Ukraine, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany commits to further increase its stabilization efforts in order to foster peaceful political solutions in situations of acute conflict, building on past experience and using a continuously refined methodology.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany commits to its ongoing support to the recently established Stabilization Facility for Libya that aims to bridge the critical period of transition from humanitarian relief towards mid- and long-term structural and sector-specific support.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany commits to strengthen its conceptual basis for conflict prevention, stabilization and peacebuilding to increase coherence and effectivity. To this end, it is currently working with multiple stakeholders including various civil society organizations on a process to revise the National Action Plan on Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding. This will form the basis for future activities of the Federal Government in this field.
    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany commits to the implementation of the collective outcomes of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in crisis situations, especially also of the Sustainable Development Goal 16. For the implementation in these crisis contexts, Germany recommends the use of existing dialogue platforms with fragile states such as the IDPs.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany is strengthening mediation, conflict analysis, prevention and resolution capacities at the local, national regional level through e.g. through its Civil Peace Service activities at grassroots level as well as strengthen the Panel of the Wise support structures of the African Union and similar structures at the RECs which are involved in preventive diplomacy and conflict prevention measures. This includes identifying entry points to strengthen women'€™s participation in conflict prevention and resolution.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany will continuously engage in developing and strengthening the effectiveness of its variety of conflict prevention and crisis management tools: instruments such as democracy-building aid and election observation, peace mediation and mediation support as well as rule of law and security sector reform.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Germany will improve the skills of staff working on conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity, prevention and resolution in national ministries, regional and international organizations as well as of staff working in fragile and crisis contexts by holding a minimum of 5 yearly specific and targeted trainings.
    • Training
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Germany, as an active member of the Steering Group of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) engages continuously and directly with fragile states (g7+) and civil society to address root causes of conflict and to focus on collective peace- and statebuilding goals based on shared fragility assessments according to the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States principles and its renewal: "The Stockholm Declaration: Addressing Fragility and Building Peace in a Changing World" of April 2016.


    • Partnership
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to improve prevention and peaceful resolution capacities at the national, regional and international level improving the ability to work on multiple crises simultaneously.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to sustain political leadership and engagement through all stages of a crisis to prevent the emergence or relapse into conflict.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to address root causes of conflict and work to reduce fragility by investing in the development of inclusive, peaceful societies.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In June 2017, the Federal Government of Germany adopted its new national guidelines on “Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace”. The guidelines strengthen the inter-ministerial approach in crisis contexts, e.g. from early warning to context analysis, to formulating shared goals, to the planning and implementation of specific measures, and all the way to evaluating the results of this engagement. To this aim, the German government has strengthened its inter-ministerial coordination by establishing a coordination group that gives guidance to working-level co-ordination mechanisms.

    Throughout the year, Germany has continued to participate in the relevant international fora and groups that promote peaceful solutions to current conflicts or coordinate stabilization responses, among them the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region and the meetings of the International Contact Group (ICG) for Afghanistan.

    In 2017, Germany strengthened instruments, such as mediation support, as well as programs for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DRR) and security sector reform (SSR) through specific projects, as well as by enhancing the relevant structures within the Federal Foreign Office with additional expertise and training, and by refining and adapting concepts and policies.  

    Germany has supported relevant research and studies by various international organizations and agencies, among them the World Bank-UN joint Flagship study “Pathways for Peace” which has delivered best practices and policy recommendations on prevention and peace-building.
     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    With the guidelines “Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace” Germany committed itself to standardize procedures in an inter-ministerial Operation Manual on best practice. As a Steering Group member of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding, Germany is involved in the regular monitoring of the commitments to the New Deal.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • The New Deal on Engagement in Fragile States is a trilateral initiative with commitments that require extensive institutional change and political will.
    • Local security constraints, unforeseen crises, and/or massive forced displacement impede progress and represent challenges in implementation.
       

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In 2018, Germany will continue to demonstrate leadership in crisis prevention, stabilization, peacebuilding and humanitarian assistance and adapt guidelines, budgets and structures. Inter-ministerial working groups currently develop strategies for specific instruments. In addition, the German Government will very actively support international processes contributing to crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding and to the operationalisation of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. In 2018, Germany will be the co-chair of the OECD International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF).

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    International crises, conflicts as well as post-conflict environments need quick and decisive actions from the international community plus prudent and coordinated approaches. A focus on the prevention of crises will be key.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Germany considers its national guidelines a prime example of conceptual work. Germany has also initiated, jointly with the UN, innovative funding mechanisms for stabilization that are by now considered best practice. Germany has also supported research by international organizations, among them the WB-UN joint Flagship study “Pathways for Peace”.

  • 1D
    Develop solutions with and for people

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to continue its cooperation with UN Women in South Sudan and Mali to increase the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict management. In South Sudan Germany commits to support women's participation in implementing the peace agreement and commits to provide vocational training and microcredits to at least 6,000 women and girls in Mali and South Sudan.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to follow through on its National Action Plan (2013-2016) on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 and will thus continue to promote the principles underlying the "Women, Peace and Security" Agenda with regards to gender equality and the empowerment of women.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In 2017, Germany adopted the second National Action Plan (NAP) on the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) for the period 2017 to 2020. It builds on the comprehensive approach of the first NAP (2013-2016). Through the measures and projects contained in the new NAP, Germany has continued to promote greater involvement of women in crisis prevention, conflict management and post-conflict peacebuilding.

    Germany supported for instance the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), an initiative that seeks to enhance the leadership of women in Africa with a focus on governance, peace and stability. In partnership with the African Union Commission and UN Women, Germany organized the “Women Leaders Forum for Africa’s Transformation” in New York that served as a platform to launch the AWLN. This high-level meeting brought together approximately 80 participants from across Africa, including women in leadership positions in politics and the public sector, in business, civil society and the media.

    In addition, Germany funded projects and initiatives, such as the UN Women program “Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Contexts in the Middle East North Africa region”, which seek to increase the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict management and strengthen their presence and voice in national dialogues. Germany also continued its development cooperation with UN Women in South Sudan and Mali, where vocational trainings started in July 2017. As part of the project community volunteers also counsel and support women who have been affected by violence.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    • Project partners submit reporting on spending and impact against pre-approved indicators.
    • Initiatives and measures of the second NAP are reviewed through evaluation mechanisms at ministry level. In addition, the Development Policy Gender Action Plan (2016–2020) is implemented through annual road maps with priority measures and impacts.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of disaggregated data is a difficulty in measuring impact with regards to affected populations, including vulnerable groups. Especially in conflict-affected areas, it is necessary to adapt measures according to the needs of vulnerable and traumatized individuals. Moreover, difficult and insecure field conditions continue to hinder access to affected populations. 

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany has taken over the chairmanship of the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network in 2018 and will host the network’s annual meeting on 9/10 April in Berlin. The meeting will provide a platform for exchange of best practices and knowledge among Member States and regional organizations that have nominated a focal point, as well as civil society representatives.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Especially in disasters, conflicts and situations of displacement, a people-centered approach is needed, which ensures participation and consideration for the different capacities and needs of those affected, including the most vulnerable.

    Moreover, in line with human rights principles of non-discrimination, Germany promotes multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiatives in order to achieve gender equality in societies.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    With its second NAP, Germany has established two new formats to strengthen the qualitative exchange between government ministries and civil society (a consultative group and an exchange at technical level, both taking place twice a year). This allows Germany to integrate civil society’s experience and expertise in its Women Peace and Security engagement.

    Keywords

    Gender, People-centred approach

  • 2A
    Respect and protect civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to strengthen its support to programmes in the area of victim assistance and aimed at improving access of victims to services as outlined in the new Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office for Humanitarian Demining.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to support humanitarian mine action programs aimed at clearing explosive remnants of war (ERW) through providing information and technical, financial and material assistance to locate, remove, destroy and otherwise render ineffective any type of explosive hazard.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Germany will support, in appropriate cases, impartial humanitarian actors' efforts to engage in dialogue with, and operate in areas controlled by, non-state armed groups.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In 2017, Germany expanded its support for the ICRC, which has a special mandate for the protection of civilians. Thereby, Germany supported ICRC’s efforts to engage in dialogue with, and operate in areas controlled by, non-state armed groups. Germany also supported German humanitarian actors in strengthening and building capacities in humanitarian negotiating to enhance and preserve humanitarian access. 

    Moreover, Germany used various international fora to strongly condemn attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure and especially medical facilities. In 2017, Germany, in cooperation with the German Red Cross, published the bilingual (English and German) omnibus publication “Documents on International Humanitarian Law”.

    Additionally, Germany continued to be an important donor and vocal proponent for mine action. In implementing its new strategy on humanitarian mine action, Germany successfully doubled the amount of funding for mine action for the second year in a row (from 33.5 million EUR in 2016 to 75 million EUR in 2017). Mine action projects were funded in ten priority countries and acute humanitarian crises. Multi-year funding was provided whenever possible and encompassed all pillars of mine action, from risk education and clearance of landmines, improvised explosive device (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war to victim assistance and physical rehabilitation. In order to support the development of strong, efficient and effective local capacities, Germany also funded UNMAS, UNDP and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). Moreover, Germany sought to promote the universalization of the Ottawa and Oslo Conventions by funding the International Campaign to ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    • All implementing partners submit detailed reporting on spending and impact against pre-approved indicators; on a random basis additional evaluations of projects and programs are commissioned.
    • In the case of mine action, the reported number of victims remains one main indicator.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Non-adherence to UN Security Council resolutions as well as pervasive impunity continue to be major challenges in promoting compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL).
    • Additionally, unequal access to beneficiaries, especially in armed conflict, makes it difficult to adhere to humanitarian principles. Safe access for mine action operators also remains a challenge.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • Following up on the “Conference on Issues of Humanitarian Mine Action” in 2017, Germany plans to integrate mine victim assistance projects into wider health projects in accordance with the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
    • Moreover, Germany will fund the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiations’ regional hub in Bangkok that focuses primarily on frontline negotiation experiences in the contexts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar. Based on region-specific negotiation experiences, the hub will mobilize practitioners to develop tailored negotiation tools.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Protection needs to be mainstreamed across all sectors of humanitarian assistance. Also, capacity building for humanitarian actors as well as weapon bearers as part of a collective approach is essential to achieve stronger adherence to IHL and IHRL.

    Additionally, non-state armed groups need to adhere to IHL and seize the production and widespread use of victim-activated improvised explosives. Local mine action authorities need to fully implement the land-release approach to ensure efficient use of funding.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    In 2017, Germany hosted a “Conference on Issues of Humanitarian Mine Action” which convened relevant stakeholders and project partners. Highlighting challenges faced in several regional contexts, participants discussed how to increase the efficiency of German mine action funding.

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability, Protection

  • 2B
    Ensure full access to and protection of the humanitarian and medical missions

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany continues to support and promote the ICRC's initiative to protect patients, health care workers, facilities and transport, and to ensure access for all to life-saving health interventions, as formulated in resolution 4 adopted at the 32nd International Conference.


    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Partners: ICRC

    Individual Commitments (10)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany will ensure that protection considerations inform its humanitarian planning, decision making and responses and are sufficiently reflected in the prioritization of humanitarian response plans.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to actively promote the humanitarian principles pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding on Domestic and External Cooperation between the German Red Cross and the Federal Ministry of Defense, signed on November 24, 2015.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to continue active dialogue with States and humanitarian partners on the value and importance of respecting humanitarian principles, including in natural disasters and protracted crises.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to continue to enhance unconditional adherence to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence as enshrined in the Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office for Humanitarian Assistance Abroad.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to continue to participate in negotiating access for principled humanitarian action.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to continue to support and to promote a clear distinction between humanitarian and political action.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to ensuring that all humanitarian response activities have the aim of making people safer, preserving their dignity and reducing vulnerabilities by building the skills of staff according to their duties in areas such as protection, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, negotiations with parties, security and access, internal policies, conflict sensitivity and by improving the safety and security of relief personnel by building trust with armed groups and local actors, and adhering to humanitarian principles.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to make sustained funding conditional on the inclusion of respect for humanitarian principles in internal policies and training as well as transparency on how humanitarian principles are uphold in practice.
    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to support full respect of the humanitarian principles in enhancing engagement between humanitarian and development actors.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to use leverage and influence including, where warranted under the circumstances of individual incidents by the overriding need to maintain international peace and security, through the Security Council, to prevent and end any arbitrary withholding of consent to impartial humanitarian relief.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to ensure all populations in need receive rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to promote and enhance efforts to respect and protect medical personnel, transports and facilities, as well as humanitarian relief personnel and assets against attacks, threats or other violent acts.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany continued to advocate for principled humanitarian action and a strengthened humanitarian system in different international fora such as the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) Initiative, which was co-chaired by Germany in 2017. Germany also highlighted the importance of adhering to humanitarian principles in its role as ICRC Donor Support Group Chair 2016/2017.

    Through its diplomatic channels, Germany strongly condemned violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and attacks on humanitarian and medical missions and continued to advocate in international fora for the respect of IHL and humanitarian access. Complementary to that Germany supported principled humanitarian actors in their humanitarian negotiation efforts.   

    Germany also remained committed to further strengthening global capacity in humanitarian safety. With its support to the International NGO Safety Organization (INSO), Germany contributed to the fulfilment of INSO’s mission to reduce the risks faced by humanitarian aid workers in violent or conflict-affected countries, thereby saving lives and improving humanitarian access.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    According to German funding guidelines for humanitarian assistance, funding is only granted to those implementing organizations that act in line with humanitarian principles. Implementing organisations submit detailed reporting on spending and impact against pre-approved indicators; they also have to report on safety regulations and security trainings for their staff.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Overall deteriorating security situations and an increase in targeted attacks on humanitarian personnel and medical facilities impede humanitarian access and put humanitarian and medical workersincreasingly at great risk.

    Additionally, respect for and awareness of humanitarian principles must be given due attention in efforts to operationalize the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In revising its strategy for humanitarian assistance in 2018, Germany will reinforce its commitment to principled humanitarian assistance.

    In 2018, Germany will further strengthen the negotiation capacities of humanitarian actors in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar by funding the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiations’ regional hub in Bangkok and its activities, e.g. country-specific workshops and advisory services to humanitarian agencies

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Progress in this area requires a collective approach and intensified dialogue and training among all stakeholders on how to safeguard humanitarian principles and improve adherence to IHL/IHRL in order to improve unhindered humanitarian access and protection of humanitarian and medical missions. This includes extensive training on IHL and IHRL to all weapon bearers, non-state and state armed forces alike.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    During the German G20-chairmanship in 2017, ministers of health of the respective Member States issued for the first time a collective statement which highlighted UN Security Council resolution 2286 and strongly condemned violence, attacks and threats directed against medical personnel and facilities.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian principles, IHL compliance and accountability

  • 2C
    Speak out on violations

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The advocacy for the “Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes” continued to be part of Germany’s ongoing efforts to promote accountability to the most serious crimes known to humanity. Furthermore Germany continued to participate in consultations organized by ICRC and Switzerland on strengthening compliance with international humanitarian law.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany takes an active role in various international fora as well as bilateral consultations to ensure that compliance and accountability is globally improved.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    If elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Germany will continue its advocacy with UN Security Council members to put the “Code of Conduct” on the agenda where appropriate.

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability

  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (8)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to contribute to prevention of gender-based violence through the provision of infrastructure which pays particular attention to providing safe spaces and safe transport for women and girls.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to increase access to protection and to justice for victims of sexual and gender-based violence across the full range of medical, legal and psychosocial and livelihood services, and to strengthening their abilities and economic self-reliance through education and training.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to promote implementation of the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Germany commits to support prevention of all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation in settings of humanitarian aid.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to support prevention of and response to all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Germany commits to supporting psychosocial care for women and girls in Northern Iraq who are victims of violence.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will continue to support UN agencies, especially WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF. Germany supports the EU development policies on forced displacement. It will also continue to implement the EU guidelines on the promotion of compliance with international humanitarian law. It will thus contribute to improved international cooperation.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    • In cases where German courts have jurisdiction, Germany commits to take specific measures to bring to account actors who impede humanitarian access to civilians.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Implement a coordinated global approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis contexts, including through the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    In 2017, Germany continued to strengthen action to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls as well as men and boys including harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.

    As a member of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence (FGM) in Emergencies, Germany supported ICRC’s Special Appeal “Addressing Sexual Violence 2017“ and doubled its support to 4 million EUR in order to protect vulnerable groups, including children and detainees, from sexual violence.

    Furthermore, German development cooperation supported “family dialogues” in Burkina Faso to raise awareness of gender-based violence against girls in 200 families. Germany funded mobile teams in Northern Iraq, which provided information, psychosocial support and legal advice to affected people. In Libya, Germany cooperated with UNICEF and AMICA to provide shelter, psychosocial support and counselling services to 500 Sexual and Gender Based Violence-survivors. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched a five-point-paper outlining how German development cooperation aims to prevent violence against women and girls and provide them with protection.

    IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability

    Humanitarian assistance should be able to reach all persons with humanitarian needs. This requires the possibility of access to all in need, which can be ensured only through full respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and humanitarian principles.

    Regarding the promotion of compliance with international humanitarian law and the promotion of criminal justice systems, Germany remained a staunch supporter of the fight against impunity and in particular the International Criminal Court in order to hold perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable for their actions. The advocacy for the “Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes” continued to be part of Germany’s ongoing efforts to promote accountability to the most serious crimes known to humanity. Furthermore Germany continued to participate in consultations organized by ICRC and Switzerland on strengthening compliance with international humanitarian law.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany takes an active role in various international fora as well as bilateral consultations to ensure that compliance and accountability is globally improved. In order to achieve gender equality, Germany is monitoring the implementation of its second UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 National Action Plan and will report on its implementation in 2020.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of gender, age and disability disaggregated data and vulnerability assessments poses a challenge in reaching the most vulnerable groups, tailoring humanitarian programming to affected populations and measuring impact. 

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    If elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Germany will continue its advocacy with UNSC members to put the “Code of Conduct” on the agenda where appropriate.

    In 2018, German development cooperation will continue to support trainings and other measures regarding the prevention of violence against women, FGM and child marriage, e.g. in Afghanistan, Kenya, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    In order to improve compliance and accountability, criminal justice systems must be strengthened at all levels. Also, efforts toward universality of the Rome Statute must stand at the forefront of action to be taken.

    Especially in disasters, conflicts and situations of displacement, a people-centered approach is needed, which ensures participation and consideration for the different capacities and needs of those affected, including the most vulnerable. Furthermore, UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions have to be applied.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Germany has actively facilitated the professional exchange between specialized protection actors and German humanitarian NGOs in order to build capacities and mainstream protection efforts.

    In Palestine, Germany supports family centers where so far around 2,200 children as well as 1,400 women affected by gender-based violence have received psychosocial support.

     

    Keywords

    Gender, IHL compliance and accountability, People-centred approach, Protection

  • 2E
    Uphold the rules: a global campaign to affirm the norms that safeguard humanity

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to engage constructively in the intergovernmental process as set out in Resolution 2 of the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 2015, "to find agreement on features and functions of a potential forum of States and ways to enhance the implementation of IHL using the potential of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and IHL regional forums".


    • Partnership
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Germany commits to promote universal adherence to relevant international instruments, e.g. to the Arms Trade Treaty; the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions; the Conventions on Cluster Munitions and Anti-Personal Mines; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In line with its commitment, Germany actively engaged in the intergovernmental process as set out in Resolution 2 of the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The Resolution aims at finding an agreement on features and functions of a potential forum of states and ways to enhance the implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL).

    Germany also participated actively in the formal meetings of the intergovernmental process held in April and December 2017 as well as the preparatory open-ended consultations and informal meetings. Additionally, the topic of how to improve the effectiveness of mechanisms of compliance with IHL has been addressed in a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings to prepare for the consultations in Geneva and to develop common positions with like-minded states.

    Regarding its commitment to promote adherence to relevant international instruments, Germany continued take an active role in the state party meetings of the relevant international conventions. Besides holding the presidency of the Cluster Munitions Convention from 2016 to 2017, Germany promoted the universalization of the cluster munition and antipersonnel landmine conventions by providing funding for the International Campaign to ban Landmines and the Cluster Munition Coalition.

    Germany also supported several initiatives and projects to strengthen human rights, including national human rights institutions in their capacity to promote the implementation of international human rights instruments. One of Germany’s regional development cooperation projects promoted, for instance, a conference on “National Human Rights Institutions as national mechanisms of prevention of torture (NMPT)” in September 2017 in Panama.  

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    All projects funded are measured through results-oriented project indicators and rigid evaluations, serving as an assessment of how progress is leading toward change. Moreover, new accessions to international instruments are considered as a relevant indicator.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Regarding the intergovernmental process, main challenges result from the complexity of the topic discussed and the need to find consensus between participating states.
    • In implementing human rights instruments on the national and local level, difficult project conditions, such as challenging access and lack of capacities, coordination and flexibility, pose a challenge.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will continue to actively participate in the consultation process in Geneva, including the preparatory meetings. Furthermore, Germany will continue to coordinate with partners and engage constructively with other participating states.

    Germany will also implement the Country Coalition Concept in the context of humanitarian mine action in order to further the universalization of the conventions against landmines and cluster munitions.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    All participating states of the intergovernmental process have to find a consensus on ways to enhance the implementation of IHL using the potential of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and IHL regional fora.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    In 2017, Germany-led negotiations on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems which also took into account new humanitarian challenges through technological advances in weapon systems.

    With the support of German Development Cooperation, best practices regarding the prevention of torture have been recompiled by the Federation of Iberoamerican National Human Rights Institutions.

     

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability

  • 3A
    Reduce and address displacement

    Individual Commitments (27)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In 2016, Germany will provide EUR 200 million for a "Partnership for Prospects" - an employment initiative that creates income opportunities for Syrian refugees and people from host communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey and IDPs in Iraq. The program has a medium-term perspective. The contribution is on top of BMZ's current activities of at least EUR 500 million in the region in 2016 alone in support of schools, skills and jobs.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • Germany will invest about EUR 3 billion in projects and programmes that tackle the root causes of migration and forced displacement and support refugees and IDPs, such as transitional development assistance. It commits to direct its assistance and financing towards national and local systems that address the needs of IDPs, refugees and host communities. It will support host governments to include refugee and IDP related engagements in their national development plans.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • Germany, via its Special Initiative "Tackling the root causes of forced displacement - reintegrating refugees", will in 2016 alone provide an amount of EUR 406 million to address forced displacement, putting particular emphasis on resilience and self-reliance of refugees and IDPs. Projects funded via this Special Initiative complement numerous bilateral cooperation funds that also benefit refugees and IDPs.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits to provide EUR 5 million to "WASH for millions" which improves the provision of sanitary facilities in schools and public spaces, particularly in the context of transition countries for refugees and countries with high numbers of IDPs.


    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany as an EU Member State will continue promoting collective global responses to the root causes of forced displacement, contributing to finding durable solutions, and helping to build the resilience of vulnerable communities.
    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to actively engage in the development of the Global Compact for responsibility-sharing for refugees and to promote it in appropriate fora.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to address the protection needs of people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change, in particular through the promotion and implementation of the Protection Agenda of the Nansen Initiative at different levels, and its active engagement within the new Platform on Disaster Displacement, launched at the WHS.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to creating perspectives and promoting development, especially in protracted crises and forced displacement situations. Since 50% of refugees are under the age of 18, it contributes amongst others with UNICEF to promote quality education for refugees, IDPs, and host communities in refugee camps and host communities in order to avoid the emergence of a lost generation. This includes primary and secondary education, university studies, and teacher's capacity development.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to promote solutions which foster self-reliance and resilience of IDPs and host communities, including through quality education, integration of IDPs into the local labour market and social systems. It will further develop and extend its cash based delivery program.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany continues to invest in infrastructure and in structures of communal administration. Germany further commits to invest in the capacities of IDPs, refugees and host communities to strengthen their self-reliance and resilience capacities. Furthermore, it will build capacities of the local and civil society, including local businesses in order to strengthen their role in the response.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Germany will commit to advocate for IDPs' full rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will continue to support UN agencies, especially WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF. Germany supports the EU development policies on forced displacement. It will also continue to implement the EU guidelines on the promotion of compliance with international humanitarian law. It will thus contribute to improved international cooperation.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will develop partnerships with international, national partner organizations, civil society and the private sector to encourage innovative and rights-based approaches to cope with the challenges of host countries and authorities.


    • Partnership
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany will engage in the sustainable reintegration of refugees and in a conflict sensitive reconstruction in the countries of origin through its projects and programs of its various instruments.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will intensify its work on the causes of internal displacement and support sustainable and durable solutions for displaced persons and refugees through its broad range of projects and programs.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will promote and encourage dialogue forum and mediation groups to promote and foster social coherence and peaceful co-existence in host countries and countries of origin.
    • Partnership
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will provide medium- and long-term, predictable technical and financial support over multiple years to host countries and host communities with large numbers of refugees and IDPs, in such ways that improve basic services and inclusive economic opportunities in line with the Berlin Declaration. Through linking relief and development efforts, this will provide a lasting benefit for those countries as well as the tools for refugees to re-build their own country once they are able to return.
    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will provide technical and financial support to Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey and communities with large numbers of refugees and IDPs to improve services and inclusive economic opportunities.
    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will support partner governments to implement refugee and IDP related initiatives as part of their national and local development plans.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will through its projects and programs strengthen refugee legal rights to a secure stay in host countries, including through adequate, safe and dignified living conditions.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will use early warning system and peace and conflict analysis approach to identify needs in countries of large forced displacement and take rapid action to contribute preventing situations from becoming protracted.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will use its various instruments and its preventive approach to contribute to a coherent international, regional and national policy and especially support the 3RP approach for the Syrian crisis. The instruments range from humanitarian assistance covering preparedness, emergency assistance, transitional humanitarian assistance as well as humanitarian mine action to BMZ'™s transitional aid to development cooperation, including its Special Initiatives, its Infrastructure Program and its recently launched Cash for Work Program for the Middle East.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany, in implementing the new Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office on Humanitarian Assistance to refugees and displaced persons, will further strengthen contributions to Humanitarian Appeals of the UN as well as the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement covering needs in countries of origin, host countries and transit countries.


    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • In order to enhance protection in situations of displacement, Germany commits to strengthen its internal capacities as well as that of its partners.


    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • In order to increase efficiency of humanitarian assistance in situations of displacement, Germany will increase and promote multi-year humanitarian financing, livelihood interventions as well as cash-based assistance.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • In supporting the new Platform on Disaster Displacement, Germany commits to help developing practices to prevent and address disaster displacement, working across the sectors of humanitarian action, human rights protection, migration management, refugee protection, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Recognising the importance of financing long-term refugee (and IDP) caseloads in protracted crises and of countries hosting these caseloads as a global public good, Germany commits to advocating/using its position on the Boards of the International Financial Institutions, and particularly the World Bank, to ensure that the forthcoming Multilateral Development Bank replenishments deliver a relevant, coherent and cost effective set of instruments to respond to the challenge of fragility, disasters, and crises.
    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new approach to addressing forced displacement that not only meets immediate humanitarian needs but reduces vulnerability and improves the resilience, self-reliance and protection of refugees and IDPs. Commit to implementing this new approach through coherent international, regional and national efforts that recognize both the humanitarian and development challenges of displacement. Commit to take the necessary political, policy, legal and financial steps required to address these challenges for the specific context.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to promote and support safe, dignified and durable solutions for internally displaced persons and refugees. Commit to do so in a coherent and measurable manner through international, regional and national programs and by taking the necessary policy, legal and financial steps required for the specific contexts and in order to work towards a target of 50 percent reduction in internal displacement by 2030.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Acknowledge the global public good provided by countries and communities which are hosting large numbers of refugees. Commit to providing communities with large numbers of displaced population or receiving large numbers of returnees with the necessary political, policy and financial, support to address the humanitarian and socio-economic impact. To this end, commit to strengthen multilateral financing instruments. Commit to foster host communities' self-reliance and resilience, as part of the comprehensive and integrated approach outlined in core commitment 1.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to collectively work towards a Global Compact on responsibility-sharing for refugees to safeguard the rights of refugees, while also effectively and predictably supporting States affected by such movements.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to actively work to uphold the institution of asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. Commit to support further accession to and strengthened implementation of national, regional and international laws and policy frameworks that ensure and improve the protection of refugees and IDPs, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol or the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala convention) or the Guiding Principles on internal displacement.
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    IDPs (due to conflict, violence, and disaster)

    Most of Germany’s 1.75 billion EUR humanitarian funding was allocated to displacement-related situations making it e.g. the second largest donor in the Syria context. With 3.5 billion EUR in 2017, Germany also strengthened its development-oriented approaches towards supporting refugees, IDPs and their host communities and to mitigate the root causes of forced displacement by increasing its specialized funding instruments, such as the Special Initiative “Tackling the root causes of forced displacement – reintegrating refugees”. Projects focused on livelihoods, self-reliance, resilience, education and cash-based transfers for IDPs, refugees and host communities.

    Refugees

    Germany once again scaled up contributions to address displacement, becoming UNHCR’s second largest donor in 2017 (over 426 million EUR), while remaining the second largest bilateral donor to WFP (797 million EUR) and one of the largest donors to UNICEF (354 million EUR).

    Moreover, Germany supported the roll-out of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), i.a. through dedicated funding of the CRRF Task Team and outreach activities in pilot countries. On policy level, Germany contributed to the thematic discussions for the development of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Germany’s proposal for a “Global Refugee Response Platform” was welcomed as a concrete proposal to facilitate a more equitable international responsibility-sharing. As co-host of the US Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, Germany participated actively in the follow-up to the Summit together with other co-hosts, i.a. by organizing an expert-level meeting on access to employment for refugees together with UNDP, and implemented its own pledges to the full extent.

     

    Cross-border, disaster and climate related displacement

    Germany held the 2017 chairmanship of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), focusing on the protection needs of people displaced across borders in the context of disasters. Germany actively contributed to the integration of disaster displacement in policy processes (i.a. Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment and COP23). In supporting the PDD, Germany enabled stakeholders (e.g. UNHCR, IOM, NRC) to work across sectors of humanitarian assistance, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany is cooperating with its humanitarian and development partners regarding the implementation of specific projects to reduce and address displacement challenges; all projects report on spending and impact against pre-approved indicators. On the policy level, Germany remains actively engaged in the 2018 formal consultations on the Global Compact on Refugees.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Funding amounts
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Insecurity in fragile contexts renders the work of implementing partners difficult, in some cases forcing them - particularly development partners - to evacuate and/or to rely heavily on local staff. Disaster displacement remains a challenge, even with increased humanitarian funding, as needs, including for enhanced protection, continue to exceed resources.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will continue to advocate for better responsibility-sharing in the consultations on the GCR, and will remain engaged in the implementation of the “Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework” at the international and country-level, including through financial contributions. After handing over the PDD chairmanship to Bangladesh, Germany will remain active in the PDD steering group, continuing to support the implementation of the PDD work plan, and its funding for humanitarian prevention and support related to disaster displacement.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    The GCR offers a unique chance for collective progress to address forced displacement, recognizing that humanitarian, development and peace efforts are complementary and reinforce each other to address root causes and meet the needs of refugees and host communities. Greater linkages and synergies between humanitarian and development actors can be achieved through joint analysis and joined-up planning, where possible. All actors also need to promote coherence and enhanced cooperation across other relevant global policy dialogues.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    • Germany supported the development and implementation of a guide to effective practices for members of the Regional Conference on Migration (Central America) for the protection of disaster displaced persons.
    • In Jordan, Germany funded projects for improved psychosocial support as well as access to remittances and financial services through digital solutions.

     

    Keywords

    Displacement

  • 3B
    Address the vulnerabilities of migrants and provide more regular and lawful opportunities for migration

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to engage actively in the drafting of the compact on orderly, safe and legal migration which the UN Secretary-General has proposed and to promote it in all appropriate fora.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will use its upcoming presidency in the Global Forum on Migration and Development to foster the development of legal instruments for safe and orderly migration.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany has been active during all phases of the process leading up to the adoption of a global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration (GCM). Intervening at all thematic consultations, Germany shared its priorities towards the GCM ahead of the scheduled meetings to provide partners with a basis for discussion. Overall eight position papers were submitted by Germany.

    Germany has also actively sought to exchange with other stakeholders, such as civil society and multi-stakeholders and encouraged members of parliament to participate in the process. Germany has actively promoted the GCM in the EU and strives for a common EU negotiation position in order to achieve the best possible outcome.

    Under the Co-Chairmanship of Germany and Morocco, the activities of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) were focused on the process leading to the GCM in 2018. The submission of GFMD’s Thematic Recollection 2007-2017 was the contribution of GFMD Member States to the GCM. In addition, under the co-chairmanship, GFMD Member States submitted a thematic input to the 2017 High-Level-Political-Forum, highlighting the migration-related SDGs.

    The overarching theme of 2017’s GFMD activities was “Towards a Global Social Contract on Migration and Development”. It reflected different governance levels, addressing local, national, international as well as cooperative strategies. The Tenth Summit Meeting at the German Federal Foreign Office gathered around 650 participants of 140 states, international organizations, civil society and private sector and emphasized the global significance of the multi-stakeholder nature of the GFMD in the debates on international migration governance.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany measures its progress in the GCM negotiations and in the framework of the 2030 Agenda and will assess the outcome. A successful outcome would balance interests of countries of origin, transit and destination. The GFMD will continue discussing the GCM negotiations to contribute to the desired outcome.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    In order to increase legitimacy of the GCM, civil society and the private sector should be involved in the entire negotiation process and the subsequent implementation. No new structures should be established for the purpose of implementation, but rather existing structures (such as IOM and GFMD) should be drawn on.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will continue engaging in the GCM negotiations and seek national civil society consultations. Germany will continue highlighting the importance of the compact in all relevant fora, including EU, GFMD and inter-governmental consultations (IGC). Germany is engaged in the preparations towards the GFMD Summit in December 2018, including the debate on GFMD’s possible role in the GCM. The GFMD co-chairmanship will prepare a thematic input on migration-related SDGs in focus of this year’s High-Level Political Forum.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    The good working atmosphere created during phases I and II of the GCM needs to be maintained throughout the negotiation phase. Red lines should not be set too early so that the retained flexibility may enable compromises. Considering the current global discussions and thematic debates, the priorities are to focus on the linkages between the GFMD, GCM and the 2030 Agenda as was accentuated in GFMD’s “Thematic Recollection 2007 – 2017”.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Germany will continue to seek partnerships bilaterally that encompass all aspects of the GCM and support the EU in continuing to set standards in regional migration partnerships. The German-Moroccan GFMD co-chairmanship puts Northern and Southern partners on an equal footing in leading the discussions on addressing common migration concerns.

    Keywords

    Migrants

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (19)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to supporting UNFPA's programme to mitigate the vulnerability of female Syrian refugees and Lebanese women in Lebanon with EUR 500,000.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind

    • At the Elmau G7 Summit in 2015, the G7 leaders committed to increasing the number of women and girls technically and vocationally educated and trained in developing countries by one third (compared to "business as usual") by 2030. Germany has started to conduct a baseline (year 2015) for the number of girls/women addressed by TVET projects in developing countries which is expected to be completed by mid-2016. Germany is currently promoting TVET projects in 87 countries, some of which explicitly target women and girls.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits (1) to improve knowledge and acceptance of modern family planning methods; (2) to expand access to modern family planning methods and services; and (3) to increase the number of births attended by health professionals.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits that funding, including pooled funds, is allocated only to actions that explicitly include a gender analysis with sex and age disaggregated data by 2018.
    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to comply with existing gender equality norms enshrined in applicable international legal frameworks governing conflicts, including the Geneva Conventions, its Additional Protocols, customary international law as well as international human rights and refugee law.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to continue its cooperation with UN Women in South Sudan and Mali to increase the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict management. In South Sudan Germany commits to support women's participation in implementing the peace agreement and commits to provide vocational training and microcredits to at least 6,000 women and girls in Mali and South Sudan.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to ensure that in expanding the use of technology in communication with affected people, women and girls are included and adequately trained.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to ensuring that its humanitarian programs reflect the different needs and capacities of women, girls, men and boys with disabilities, by end of 2020.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to establish gender- and context-sensitive standards for treating Syrian/Iraqi refugees who are traumatized by violence.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to follow through on its National Action Plan (2013-2016) on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 and will thus continue to promote the principles underlying the "Women, Peace and Security" Agenda with regards to gender equality and the empowerment of women.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to further strengthen considerations of gender aspects in its humanitarian programs in line with existing good practices, including through disaggregated data and targeted programs; and to ensure adequate representation of women and girls in capacity building efforts for local humanitarian response.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to improve health care for pregnant women and mothers and their children in Northern Iraq with a particular focus on psychological, social and medical care for vulnerable women and girls.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to promote and enhance implementation of the UN Gender Guidelines for Mine Action Programmes.
    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to support prevention of all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation in settings of humanitarian aid.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to support women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life, and to ensure access to education, skills training and (information and communication) technology without any discrimination on the basis of gender.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany commits to supporting psychosocial care for women and girls in Northern Iraq who are victims of violence.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    • Germany commits to supporting target-group-oriented and age-appropriate offerings for girls (girls-only spaces), the purpose of which is sharing among girls, enhancing self-awareness and acquiring knowledge.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany supports improved access to and quality of healthcare for pregnant women and mothers and their children in armed conflicts.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • The promotion of vocational training, sutainable livelihoods, and job creation is an important focus of Germany to offer perspectives for young people, and especially women.


    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany has scaled up efforts to ensure that gender aspects and the specific needs of women and girls are addressed and integrated across its foreign and development policies and programming, e.g. in proposal templates. Germany has prioritized initiatives, which support women’s empowerment and participation. Focus areas of German funding also included protection, including from sexual and gender-based violence, and the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

    Germany has for example doubled its humanitarian funding for the ICRC Special Appeal "Strengthening the Response to Sexual Violence“ from 1 million EUR in 2015 to 2 million EUR in 2016 and 2017 and initiated a new regional development project on the prevention of violence against women and girls in Southern Africa, with a focus on intimate partner violence.

    Germany’s new National Action Plan (2017 - 2020) on the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 (NAP) includes commitments to improve protection from Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) as well as on equal participation of women in crisis prevention and peacebuilding processes. For example, Germany supports the UN Women program “Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Contexts in the MENA region”.

    As a signatory of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies, Germany has also used its role in supervisory and advisory boards of humanitarian organizations to advocate for greater empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian assistance. In the context of mine action, for example, Germany has required all recipients of German funding to apply the UN Gender Guidelines for Mine Action Programs.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany is working closely with partner organizations to ensure that gender considerations are fully taken into account in policy processes and project implementation.

    Progress is also assessed through the second NAP on the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 as well as Germany’s Development Policy Gender Action Plan.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of gender disaggregated data remains a challenge in measuring impact. While Germany seeks to encourage humanitarian partner organizations to provide disaggregated data and additional information on inclusion aspects, it is at the same time important to minimize the additional reporting burden placed on implementing partners.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In order to strengthen gender mainstreaming in humanitarian assistance, Germany is currently developing a gender-age-disability marker which i.a. aims at encouraging partner organizations to disaggregate data.

    Germany will also continue to implement NAP II 1325, with a focus on protecting Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) survivors in conflicts. Improving the employment situation of female refugees and IDPs will be another priority goal, e.g. by integrating women-led households into cash-for-work measures in Iraq.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    • In accordance with humanitarian principles and human rights standards, it is imperative to take into consideration the specific needs and capacities of all persons affected by disasters and conflicts.
    • More concerted action is needed to develop common standards for data disaggregation, programming and reporting that address the issue of multiple vulnerabilities.
    • In order to improve assistance to SGBV survivors, it would be useful to increase funding for sexual and reproductive health initiatives, which take into account both health and protection issues.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The establishment of smart training business hubs and ICT skills training programs in Iraq enabled young people, and especially female participants, to gain employment in digital careers. As part of this development project safe transport routes, childcare services and specific training programs were provided to ensure participation of young women.

    Keywords

    Disability, Displacement, Gender

  • 3E
    Eliminate gaps in education for children, adolescents and young people

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to creating perspectives and promoting development, especially in protracted crises and forced displacement situations. Since 50% of refugees are under the age of 18, it contributes amongst others with UNICEF to promote quality education for refugees, IDPs, and host communities in refugee camps and host communities in order to avoid the emergence of a lost generation. This includes primary and secondary education, university studies, and teacher's capacity development.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will work in close cooperation with UNICEF to strengthen enforcement mechanisms to provide safe and accessible learning environments.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany remains committed to advance education for children, adolescents and young people and has funded humanitarian and development projects that ensure the protection of children, promote education and contribute to establishing safe learning environments. Through its Transitional Development Assistance and the Special Initiative “Tackling the root causes of forced displacement – reintegrating refugees”, Germany supported access to education for displaced people and host communities. In collaboration with UNHCR, Germany ensured access to higher education for a record high of about 6,701 refugees in 50 countries through the DAFI scholarship programme.

    Germany disbursed 354 million EUR to UNICEF to implement projects many of which focus on access to and quality of basic services (e.g. 30 million EUR to the “Reaching all Children with Education“ program in Lebanon or financial support to education projects for refugee and migrants in Greece). Germany contributed 10 million EUR to the “No-Lost-Generation”-initiative in Syria, which supported 100,000 vulnerable children and adolescents. Altogether, Germany disbursed over 160 million EUR in 2017 to UNICEF for its work in the context of the Syria crisis (Syria and neighboring countries).

    Next to its multilateral engagement, bilateral development programs and projects with NGO partners are implemented with the objective to provide educational opportunities and training programs to refugees and host communities in particular in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.  

    In 2017, Germany announced its contribution of 16 million EUR to the “Education Cannot Wait (ECW)” fund, which was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit to transform the delivery of education in emergencies.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    All projects funded by Germany are measured through results-oriented project indicators and rigid evaluations, serving as an assessment of how progress is leading toward change.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    In crisis contexts, funding available for education is often well below the actual needs which severely hampers the achievement of this transformation. Moreover, fragility as well as recurring and protracted crises are undermining achieved development results.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will further deepen its relationship with UNICEF and continue to commit predictable, multi-year funding. Furthermore, Germany will continue its successful partnership with NGOs active in the field of education and will seek to expand its partnership with the Education Cannot Wait fund to advance the provision of quality education in contexts of emergencies and situations of forced displacement.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Efforts to address education for children, adolescents and young people require coordination of humanitarian and development actors according to mandates and areas of expertise. Overall, more dedicated funding for education, including in protracted crises and forced displacement situations, needs to be made available.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    In Jordan, Germany supports Syrian refugees’ access to higher education by making use of the great potential of digitalization. In cooperation with the German social start-up “Kiron”, Germany supported a blended-learning summer school as well as an online supported mentoring program to 60 students.

    Keywords

    Displacement, Education

  • 3F
    Enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany supports the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will continue to promote young people as mobilisers, peacebuilders, mediators, and leaders for relevant topics. This includes crisis prevention and preparedness, response, reintegration and recovery.
    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Germany will continue to recognizing young people'€™s potential and support opportunities to mobilize young people from all backgrounds to shape their communities. Germany continues to take into account the needs, vulnerabilities and capacities of specific population groups. Germany will work towards the rights of children and young people to participate in decision making processes and that their voices are taken into account.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • The promotion of vocational training, sutainable livelihoods, and job creation is an important focus of Germany to offer perspectives for young people, and especially women.


    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    As a signatory of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action, Germany has funded several humanitarian projects that build on the strengths and capacities of children and young people to ensure their participation as well as protection in humanitarian assistance. This includes e.g. a project by Plan International which provided essential assistance in the area of protection and secure livelihood for children, young people, young mothers and their children in the Lake Chad Basin.

    Germany has also supported youth empowerment in the context of its crisis prevention and stabilization engagement, e.g. with a project that seeks to empower marginalized youth in Tunisia through civil society platforms.

    In 2017, Germany also published the Action Plan "Agents for Change – Children’s and Youth Rights in German Development Cooperation", which aims to expand Germany’s engagement in the fulfillment of protection, provision and participation rights of young people around the world.

    As part of its Special Initiative “Tackling root causes of displacement, (re-)integrating refugees” Germany launched a number of new development projects aimed at children and youth participation. For example, a new project in Iraq focused on youth empowerment through information and communication technology, while a project in Central America on the prevention of youth violence and reintegration provided employment perspectives, participation and protection measures to affected migrant youth. In Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon and the South Caucasus, development projects also focused on youth employment for refugees, IDPs and host communities.  

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany is working with partner organizations to ensure that capacities and needs of young people are fully taken into account. All projects are measured through results-oriented indicators and rigid evaluations.

    Additionally, an interactive platform was created, allowing organizations taking part in the “Special Initiative” to share progress and good practices.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Difficult conditions, such as challenging access, insufficient coordination and flexibility, or the lack of awareness and capacities on a rights-based and child- or youth-centered approach are sometimes hindering a truly inclusive, integrated and empowering approach when working with children and youth.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany is developing a gender-age-disability marker which seeks to encourage partner organizations to disaggregate data and give greater consideration to the capacities and needs of young people in humanitarian assistance.

    In accordance with the Action Plan for development cooperation, Germany will place a stronger focus on vocational training, specifically for youth in the context of displacement.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Collective action needs to be taken to strengthen the capacities of young people and to address the needs and priorities of adolescents and youth by identifying potential for meaningful participation in the project cycle. Therefore, all actors need to champion a rights-based, participatory and integrated approach in their coordination and implementation efforts.

    Additionally, more needs to be done to facilitate peer-to-peer support networks and exchange between humanitarian and development actors.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    In December 2017, the German Ministry for Development Cooperation hosted a lessons-learnt workshop on “Children’s and youth rights in the context of forced displacement”. The workshop reflected on experiences, progress and challenges faced in implementing projects and identified recommendations for future action.

    Keywords

    People-centred approach, Youth

  • 3G
    Address other groups or minorities in crisis settings

    Individual Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to ensuring that its humanitarian programs reflect the different needs and capacities of women, girls, men and boys with disabilities, by end of 2020.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany endorses the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and commits towards its implementation.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will conduct a review of its regional and country strategies with the aim of addressing gaps in terms of inclusion of persons with disabilities.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will develop a guideline on inclusion of persons with disabilities in implementation of the strategy of the Federal Foreign Office for humanitarian assistance abroad.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will develop and implement advocacy and awareness raising programmes to enhance the understanding of the needs of persons with disabilities to all humanitarian actors willing to strengthen their response towards persons with disabilities.
    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Germany will increase participation of persons with disabilities in decision making and planning processes of humanitarian projects including in relevant assessment and coordination mechanisms.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In order to improve awareness and inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian assistance, Germany continued its support for a two-year capacity building project by Handicap International Germany and Christoffel Blindenmission. As part of the project, several workshops for humanitarian NGOs and staff of the German Federal Foreign Office were organized. Additionally, a university cooperation was initiated in order to include disability mainstreaming in the curriculum of a Master’s Programme on humanitarian assistance.

    Germany also funded a project by Handicap International in Yemen, where trainings were held in cooperation with other NGOs to further strengthen and mainstream inclusion in programming. In Jordan, Germany funded a project by HelpAge which aimed at strengthening inclusion and mainstreaming of Age and Disability in humanitarian programming through capacity building, advocacy and livelihood activities. Through its e-learning-program, the project also has a regional impact for humanitarian actors in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

    In 2017, Germany also joined the “Global Action on Disability” (GLAD) network. One of the priority themes of the network is disability-inclusive humanitarian action.

    In addition, Germany launched a number of inclusive development projects as part of the Special Initiative “Tackling root causes of displacement, (re-)integrating refugees”. For example, a new project in Iraq promotes employment opportunities also for persons with disabilities in selected host communities (10 % of the target group). Additionally, in Lebanon a project promotes the inclusion of refugee children from Syria in up to 20 schools in accordance with the “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    All projects are measured through results-oriented indicators and evaluations, serving as an assessment of how progress is leading toward change. Furthermore, the projects of the Special Initiative are presented on an interactive platform on which implementing organizations update on progress, transformations and good practices.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Besides the lack of awareness, field conditions, such as limited access to persons with disabilities, continue to be a challenge.

    While Germany seeks to encourage humanitarian partner organizations to provide disaggregated data and additional information on inclusion aspects, it is at the same time important to minimize the additional reporting burden placed on implementing partners.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany is currently developing a gender-age-disability marker which is supposed to encourage humanitarian partner organizations to disaggregate data and to give greater consideration to persons with disabilities but also multiple vulnerabilities at all stages of the program cycle.

    Additionally, Germany will launch its first "Strategy for the inclusion of persons with disabilities” in German Development Cooperation. The strategy will also put a focus on the needs and rights of persons with disabilities in fragile contexts.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    More concerted action is needed to develop common standards for data disaggregation, inclusive programming and reporting that address the issue of multiple vulnerabilities in accordance with the “Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action” and the “UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (UN-CRPD). Germany and its implementing organizations as well as its humanitarian partners need to continue efforts to anchor disability mainstreaming systematically.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Germany co-founded the “Global Action on Disability” (GLAD). This network of like-minded partners focuses on sharing expertise and coordinating actions with regards to disability-inclusive programming and advocacy in international development and humanitarian assistance. A working group on humanitarian assistance developed recommendations on disability-inclusive standards and policies.

    Keywords

    Disability, Displacement

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (19)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to continue the support to strengthening national health systems in partner countries for preparedness and response in health crisis and to support early detection, control and response through a multidisciplinary rapid deployment team of experts.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to contribute in cooperation with its partners to the improvement of co-ordinated systematic collection of feedback from affected people on the quality and utility of humanitarian programmes.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to ensure that in expanding the use of technology in communication with affected people, women and girls are included and adequately trained.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to ensuring that women access equally cash assistance programmes, sustainable and dignified livelihoods, vocational and skills training opportunities throughout the humanitarian programme cycle, by 2020.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to further invest in strengthening its own and its partners' expertise and capacities around innovative cash-transfer programming to scale-up cash-transfer programming around good practices in contexts permitting the use of these programs.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to further share and promote the lessons learnt of the German Resilience Learning Initiative.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to further strengthen the application of resilience-based programming principles to respond more effectively to situations of crisis and promote preventive actions.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to increase efforts in building community resilience as a core foundation of national risk management efforts, the key elements of which could include: raising awareness of critical risks and how all community members may be affected; collaboration between local government, businesses and neighborhoods in tackling their most important risks; ensuring women's participation; reinforcing local infrastructure; and improving communities'€™ and community-based organizations' capacity to provide a coordinated first response.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to invest in the capacity of frontline responders and commits to investing in the ability of frontline responding actors to play a leading role in crisis anticipation, response and recovery by 1) creating incentives for international actors to work in strategic partnerships with local and national civil society organizations that build long-term organizational and responsive capacity; 2) providing frontline responders with fair and realistic levels of overhead costs in funding awards; 3) supporting the development of national and regional networks of frontline responders and other related capacity-strengthening initiatives including national and regional research and training centres.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to promote people-centred humanitarian action in implementing its new monitoring and evaluation concept, to make best practices and lessons learned available and to conduct a workshop with humanitarian partners on best practices and lessons learned.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to promote the increased application of cash - based delivery in transitional development assistance wherever possible and to further increase the capacity of its implementing partners to deliver such assistance effectively.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to stronger integrate local actors in the delivery process and to capitalize on the opportunities for self-recovery presented by existing resources and services.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to support its humanitarian partners (UN organizations, NGOs and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) in their capacity building activities for climate resilience of mandated local actors.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to the participation of civil society, including local women's groups, and the private sector in the design, implementation and monitoring of disaster risk management policies and programs.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany continues to invest in infrastructure and in structures of communal administration. Germany further commits to invest in the capacities of IDPs, refugees and host communities to strengthen their self-reliance and resilience capacities. Furthermore, it will build capacities of the local and civil society, including local businesses in order to strengthen their role in the response.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Germany endorses the Statement of the Social Protection Interagency Cooperation Board to the WHS "How linking social protection and humanitarian action can bridge the development-humanitarian divide". Germany supports global learning on shock responsive social protection and explores possibilities to foster pilot projects in this regard. It endeavors to move short-term cash-programs into longer-term social protection systems.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • In order to increase efficiency of humanitarian assistance in situations of displacement, Germany will increase and promote multi-year humanitarian financing, livelihood interventions as well as cash-based assistance.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Recognizing the importance of humanitarian assistance to be accountable to crises and disaster affected people, Germany commits to ensure that crises and disaster affected people, especially women and girls, participate in the design of humanitarian projects and programmes, and that adequate and well-coordinated feedback mechanisms are established to adapt assistance programs if required.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Recognizing the potentially transformative power of humanitarian cash transfers Germany commits to (1) ensuring that cash is equally considered alongside other response modalities throughout a humanitarian response and that where feasible, cash is used as the preferred and default modality; (2) significantly increasing the amount of funding available to support cash programming, including multi-purpose cash transfers; (3) building internal capacity to carry out cash programming; (4) systematically carrying out joint cash feasibility assessments as part of preparedness.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    German humanitarian stakeholders identified priorities to further strengthen capacity building activities for local actors. One concrete outcome was an increase in German funding to Country-based Pooled Funds from 62 million EUR in 2016 to 179 million EUR in 2017, as local actors have good access to these funds.

    Strengthening national and local preparedness for response capacities was a focus within the disaster risk reduction portfolio of Germany’s humanitarian assistance. Community-based disaster risk management continues to be a focus of bilateral development projects with a strong gender component. Germany supported the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction, private sector engagement within the Global Initiative for Disaster Risk Management, and the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction (GFDRR) Inclusive Community Resilience initiative with 1,7 million EUR.

     

    Cash-based programming

    Germany actively advocated for an increased use of cash and has funded cash programming at scale, e.g. through “Partnership for Prospects” which provides 426 million EUR for Cash-for-Work in Syria and Iraq crisis contexts. Germany supported innovative technologies such as Blockchain that were rolled out in field operations. Within the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream, Germany and Norway lead donor coordination; a joint donor mission on cash took place in February 2018 to help advance shared commitments. Germany has increased its own and partners’ capacities to deliver cash assistance effectively; including funding for the new Cash Learning Partnership regional office in the Middle East. Germany has intensified dialogue with implementing partners as well as introduced a checklist to improve the quality of cash in Transitional Development Assistance projects. Germany is actively promoting enhanced linkages between cash transfers and social protection wherever possible.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Projects are measured through results-oriented indicators and rigid evaluations, serving as an assessment of how progress is leading towards change. A specific project database for Transitional Development Assistance projects is currently under development. Germany also ensures a regular exchange with relevant stakeholders to assess progress on implementation.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding amounts
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Insufficient funding for disaster risk management, limited human resources and internal constraints remain a challenge.  
    • While cash as modality has been widely accepted by humanitarian actors, it remains essential to support innovative approaches that can further increase the effectiveness of assistance provided and yield efficiency gains.  

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • In 2018, Germany will complete a baseline on its funding for local actors. Germany will oblige German INGOs to pass on a share of the funding received for indirect costs to their local implementing partners.
    • To further enhance capacities of implementing partners of German NGOs, Germany will support regional risk reduction and preparedness workshops.
    • Regarding cash assistance, Germany will apply the above mentioned new cash checklist, help to develop common measurement standards and complete a baseline.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Besides further investments in capacity building, evidence gaps need to be addressed with regard to cash as a modality in sectors, which are not traditionally linked to cash assistance. In addition, harmonization and coordination of donor engagement is essential to achieve the best result for people affected by crisis, including where possible through joint analysis and joint up planning and programming.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    With the German Red Cross, Germany supported the first regional risk reduction workshop for local NGOs and National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies in Asia.

    Within its bilateral development assistance, Germany supported a shock-sensitive social protection system in Malawi, which also ensures that development progress is protected from frequent shocks.

     

    Keywords

    Cash, Community resilience, Country-based pooled funds, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to strengthen anticipatory humanitarian assistance and to continue with its special action plan for climate change adaption in the humanitarian field in coordiantion with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the World Food Programme. Within this action plan Germany commits to further support the development of an innovative forecast-based financing (Fbf) mechanism that releases funding for preparedness measures in high risk countires based on scientific extreme weather forecast information and specific risk thresholds.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    Partners: ICRC, WFP

    Individual Commitments (17)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to agree on risk reduction and preparedness actions that should be undertaken, within defined timelines, once the trigger of a heightened risk of an El Niño or La Niña event and/or other seasonal extreme weather event is confirmed.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to continue to support the device and conduct of pilot projects aimed at developing innovative humanitarian instruments as enshrined in the Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office for Humanitarian Assistance Abroad, including in the area of climate change adaption and through its support of the WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to develop and commit to predictable thresholds for triggering international response to natural disasters when national capacities are overwhelmed.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to invest in national early warning capacity in a disciplined manner that leverages global and regional support structures, is cost effective, reaches the last mile, and engages the private sector.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to operationalize, adhere to and respect the principles and concepts of the Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets to Support United Nations Humanitarian Activities in Complex Emergencies (MCDA Guidelines) and the Guidelines on the Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defense Assets in Disaster Relief (Oslo Guidelines).


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to review its existing peace and conflict and risk assessment and early warning methodology in order to incorporate a multi-risk and conflict-sensitive approach at the nexus of conflict, fragility and disasters.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to share relevant data on humanitarian contexts, especially on recurrent crises, to improve risk informed development with a view to shrink the need, and to take forward its humanitarian preparedness initiative for humanitarian response preparedness.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to strengthen efforts in regard to promoting and actively supporting business continuity and private sector engagement and ownership in its DRR/DRM and Climate Change Adaptation development programming. This is already an integral part of its Global Initiative Disaster Risk Management (GDIRM).
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to strengthen the linkages and synergies between its humanitarian assistance, civilian stabilization, conflict prevention, transitional development assistance and long-term development cooperation as well as climate change adaptation programmes according to the concept of linking relief, rehabilitation and development. This will include introducing a new way of working including joint analysis, planning and programming with a multi-year perspective. Furthermore, Germany commits to increase the complementarity of existing budget lines and to facilitate multi-stakeholder financing. Germany commits to strengthen cooperation between different implementing organizations and to pilot multi-stakeholder programmes that include multi- and bilateral organizations as well as NGOs and the private sector.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to support initiatives to build understanding between humanitarian actors and private sector to allow for constructive cooperation. Germany initiated and continues to support a national campaign to facilitate private sector engagement in humanitarian action.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to support its humanitarian partners (UN organizations, NGOs and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) in their capacity building activities for climate resilience of mandated local actors.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to support the creation of national prepardness strategies and/or partnerships to strengthen national and local emergency management systems for natural disasters, which include: (a) inclusive contingency plans for response and recovery that set out clear lines of responsibility, triggers for SOPs for early action, and forecast-based financing; and include, when regional and global support is required, in what form and how it will be coordinated; (b) identification of populations at risk of displacement, and evacuation corridors and sites; (c) long-term investment in national and local prepardness, response and recovery capacities capable of responding to natural hazards, including civil protection, social protection, basic services, agriculture and other systems.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to take a more systematic and integrated approach to risk management through measures that better integrate planning in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, response and recovery, and through closer collaboration between different sectors and partners, so that investments in each are complementary, and based on a common analysis of risk and costs.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to the participation of civil society, including local women's groups, and the private sector in the design, implementation and monitoring of disaster risk management policies and programs.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits, through its Global Initiative for Disaster Risk Management, to increase its regional and global cooperation structures in and around settings of conflict and fragility, especially in the area of DRR/DRM.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany re-commits to the principles and concepts of the Oslo Guidelines, and endorses (the development of) common humanitarian civil-military standards for deploying, receiving, integrating and coordinating foreign military assets in natural disasters.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany will commit to achieve the Sendai Framework target to increase people's access to multi-hazard early warning systems, and disaster risk information and assessments by 2030, including through initiatives, such as the Climate Risk Early Warning Systems Initiative and through the Global Initiative for Disaster Risk Management.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks through the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as other relevant strategies and programs of action, including the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to improve the understanding, anticipation and preparedness for disaster and climate-related risks by investing in data, analysis and early warning, and developing evidence-based decision-making processes that result in early action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In 2017, Germany expanded both its political and financial support for anticipatory humanitarian assistance. Germany supported two new pilot projects in Madagascar and the Philippines for the operationalization and implementation of the Forecast-based Financing (FbF) approach, as well as the inclusion of the FbF mechanism into the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund. FbF releases humanitarian funding for pre-defined preparedness measures in high risk countries based on scientific extreme weather thresholds and forecast information to reduce the anticipated risks. Between 2014 and 2017, Germany invested more than 11 million EUR to develop the FbF approach.

    Germany supported UNISDR with 2.8 million EUR in convening the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, its engagement to ensure better coherence between the implementation of the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs and in setting up the Sendai Monitor in Bonn. In the second half of the year, Germany chaired the UNISDR Donor Support Group.

    Germany continued to support the WFP innovation accelerator. Furthermore WFP’s preparedness division was strengthened institutionally and specific preparedness projects were funded with a regional focus on Asia.

    Germany supported projects strengthening local capacities for disaster risk reduction, resilience and preparedness with 47.2 million EUR. Including, 1.7 million EUR to the GFDRRs Inclusive Community Resilience initiative and 750,000 EUR to the Global Network of Civil Organisations for Disaster Risk Reduction (GNDR).

    Germany progressed in designing a qualitative data analysis system to improve early warning and risk assessment capacities and a new format for qualitative inter-agency early warning reports has been developed.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    • All projects are measured through results-oriented indicators and rigid evaluations, serving as an assessment of how progress is leading towards change.
    • A specific project database for Transitional Development Assistance is currently under development.
    • Germany also engages with UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs and other donors to follow-up on shared commitments.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    In light of current humanitarian crises, investments into anticipation funds are difficult to promote and remain underfunded. Dedicated funding for innovation is lacking, too. Although it is crucial to involve all relevant stakeholders, coordinating collective progress can be challenging. Institutional barriers still impede the quick establishment of new working processes.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will expand its engagement in anticipatory humanitarian assistance, including preparedness, risk reduction, Forecast-based Financing and Early Warning Early Action approaches. Germany will increase outreach to other donors regarding anticipatory humanitarian assistance. For 2018, 36 million EUR are earmarked for anticipatory humanitarian assistance. Germany will also continue its engagement in disaster risk management and its support to UNISDR and the GFDRR Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Dedicated funding for innovation needs to be made available. Innovative multi-hazard early warning/early action approaches, including Forecast-based Financing, need to be strengthened to operationalize an anticipatory humanitarian system, as well as reducing disaster risk in development cooperation and support this paradigm shift. Preparedness and risk reduction measures need to be further supported and improved to address rising humanitarian needs. Furthermore, cooperation and synergies between humanitarian assistance and development cooperation have to be further enhanced.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    • Germany launched innovative Forecast-based Financing pilots to anticipate risks and implement humanitarian early actions based on risk thresholds.
    • Germany also supported, for example, data sharing with the Hydro-meteorological Service to improve Flood risk management and climate change adaptation in the Western Balkans.  

     

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (20)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits through its human rights concept to ensure that its development agencies will adhere to human rights-based principles and standards. Through its inclusive approach, Germany includes vulnerable groups, such as persons with disabilities, traumatized children and women as well as ethnic minorities.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to continue its support to the European Medical Corps.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to continue supporting humanitarian assistance in contexts where other actors cannot reach people or are not allowed to engage, including in protracted crises.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to continue the support for the strengthening of the global architecture for preparedness and response in health crises under the leadership of WHO.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to continue to support the device and conduct of pilot projects aimed at developing innovative humanitarian instruments as enshrined in the Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office for Humanitarian Assistance Abroad, including in the area of climate change adaption and through its support of the WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to develop a sectoral strategy aimed at improving German's contribution in response to health crises and integrating health in the overall humanitarian response.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to explore ways to increase financing options to ensure humanitarian needs are met and at the same time reducing peoples risk and vulnerability by initiating sustainable development.
    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to further strengthen emergency response capacities of national and local humanitarian organizations in the WASH sector with a view to make this expertise available for international humanitarian WASH response mechanisms and to facilitate a South-South learning process around best practices in the WASH sector.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to intensify its quality management efforts in the area of research and development to promote innovative solutions that address people'™s humanitarian needs and reduce risk and vulnerability, including through its five-year support to the WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich. Innovation is critical to increasing efficiency of humanitarian assistance and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially the one of ending hunger by the year 2030.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to invest even more in coherence and to finance a shared vision of outcomes by joint analysis and multi-year plans of its humanitarian assistance and transitional development assistance.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to investing in a capacity building and deployment mechanism so that requesting countries can more effectively receive pre-verified and quality assured capacities, such as emergency medical teams.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Germany commits to providing training on trauma-sensitive development cooperation and humanitarian aid to employees working in the field.
    • Training
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to strengthen the linkages and synergies between its humanitarian assistance, civilian stabilization, conflict prevention, transitional development assistance and long-term development cooperation as well as climate change adaptation programmes according to the concept of linking relief, rehabilitation and development. This will include introducing a new way of working including joint analysis, planning and programming with a multi-year perspective. Furthermore, Germany commits to increase the complementarity of existing budget lines and to facilitate multi-stakeholder financing. Germany commits to strengthen cooperation between different implementing organizations and to pilot multi-stakeholder programmes that include multi- and bilateral organizations as well as NGOs and the private sector.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to support humanitarian partners in developing innovative instruments for financing humanitarian assistance, including the establishment of a forecast-based financing fund.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to support UN OCHA in its guidance and training on the application of the MCDA Guidelines.


    • Training
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany commits to the implementation of the collective outcomes of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in crisis situations, especially also of the Sustainable Development Goal 16. For the implementation in these crisis contexts, Germany recommends the use of existing dialogue platforms with fragile states such as the IDPs.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany promotes private sector contributions to humanitarian action where appropriate, as source of innovation, through technical capacities and expertise, and as partners in advocacy to provide solutions to humanitarian issues while championing humanitarian principles.


    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Germany will develop partnerships with international, national partner organizations, civil society and the private sector to encourage innovative and rights-based approaches to cope with the challenges of host countries and authorities.


    • Partnership
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • In order to enhance protection in situations of displacement, Germany commits to strengthen its internal capacities as well as that of its partners.


    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Recognising that the Inter-Agency Standing Committee is the established, primary and unique mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance, involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners, Germany commits to support the work of the IASC, including its Task Teams, and remains actively engaged in the IASC Group of Emergency Directors and Donors to ensure a coherent, principled and needs based humanitarian response to humanitarian situations.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    In 2017, Germany published national guidelines on “Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace”, which strengthen inter-ministerial approaches in crisis contexts, including improved coherence and complementarity between crisis prevention and engagement, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, transitional development assistance and development cooperation.

    Germany also continued its active participation in discussions at all levels and in multiple fora on how to operationalize the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, e.g. as part of the International Network of Conflict and Violence (INCAF). Furthermore, Germany supported relevant research like the World Bank-UN joint Flagship study “Pathways for Peace”, which has delivered best practices and policy recommendations on prevention and peace-building.

    To improve humanitarian civil-military coordination and the application of the MCDA/Oslo-Guidelines, Germany funded a UN-OCHA course for representatives of UN agencies, government authorities and NGOs working in the Middle East.

     

    Other-4C

    To strengthen the response in health crises, Germany supported the WHO Emergency Reform and provided 8.65 million EUR to the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies. Additionally, Germany contributed to the formation of a WHO Health Emergencies Workforce, continued its support to the European Medical Corps and funded the deployment of a medical mobile lab to Uganda.

    Germany also supported the launch of the World Bank Group Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility with 75 million EUR over 5 years. Germany continued its funding for a multi-year project implemented by the German WASH network, which aims at strengthening WASH capacities of local humanitarian actors.

    Germany contributed 2 million EUR to the WFP Innovation Accelerator, which has developed a total of 26 innovative projects addressing hunger and malnutrition.

    To ensure human rights-based standards, Germany mainstreamed a human rights- and child rights-based approach in its development cooperation and promoted 11 specific human rights projects and participates in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) work stream on inclusive governance related to SDG 16.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    • By applying processes/indicators developed to measure WHS commitments specifically.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    All projects are measured through results-oriented project indicators and rigid evaluations, serving as assessment of how progress is leading toward change. A specific project database for Transitional Development Assistance projects is currently under development.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Operationalising the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus while respecting the humanitarian principles remains a challenge. Lack of awareness and capacities to a rights-based approach impede an inclusive, integrated approach in multi-sectoral development projects. Dedicated funding for innovation is still limited; the number of innovative projects that receive funding for development and/or scale-up continues to be restricted.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany will take action to operationalise the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus with its own pilot initiative in Somalia, which seeks to deepen cooperation and coordination through joint analysis and joint up planning and programming between the relevant instruments at the German national level.

    In 2018, the WFP Innovation Accelerator will support 20 projects and the Accelerator’s network within the German private sector will be expanded.

    Germany also supports this year’s annual meeting of the Global WASH Cluster, hosted by the German WASH network.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Based on the overarching joint commitment “to leave no-one behind”, which is also a core principle of the Agenda 2030, specific dialogue platforms are needed in the field to allow improved cooperation and coordination between humanitarian and development actors to facilitate joint analysis, and joined-up planning and programming.

    More dedicated funding for innovative projects needs to be made available. Coordination capacities of UNICEF (WASH) and WHO (health) as humanitarian cluster leads need to be strengthened.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The WFP Innovation Accelerator, jointly funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Ministry for Development Cooperation and the Free State of Bavaria, demonstrates how humanitarian assistance and development cooperation can successfully cooperate in supporting innovative approaches. Successful innovations included e.g. the use of blockchain technology for cash-based transfers.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus, Innovation

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In 2016, Germany will provide EUR 200 million for a "Partnership for Prospects" - an employment initiative that creates income opportunities for Syrian refugees and people from host communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey and IDPs in Iraq. The program has a medium-term perspective. The contribution is on top of BMZ's current activities of at least EUR 500 million in the region in 2016 alone in support of schools, skills and jobs.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits to invest in the capacity of frontline responders and commits to investing in the ability of frontline responding actors to play a leading role in crisis anticipation, response and recovery by 1) creating incentives for international actors to work in strategic partnerships with local and national civil society organizations that build long-term organizational and responsive capacity; 2) providing frontline responders with fair and realistic levels of overhead costs in funding awards; 3) supporting the development of national and regional networks of frontline responders and other related capacity-strengthening initiatives including national and regional research and training centres.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits to seek and support initiatives - including capacity-building initiatives -“ to allow improved access of local humanitarian organizations to country-based pooled funds.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Germany continues to invest in infrastructure and in structures of communal administration. Germany further commits to invest in the capacities of IDPs, refugees and host communities to strengthen their self-reliance and resilience capacities. Furthermore, it will build capacities of the local and civil society, including local businesses in order to strengthen their role in the response.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Direct funding to national/local actors

    The practice to direct humanitarian funding to national/local actors via its embassies worldwide is an integral part of German humanitarian assistance.

    Addressing blockages/challenges to direct investments at the national/local level

    Germany continued to support humanitarian partners in their capacity and resilience building activities for local partners. In a series of meetings, German humanitarian stakeholders (Government and NGOs) identified common priorities for the localization agenda.

    Country-based pooled funds

    In order to support localization in humanitarian assistance, Germany also significantly increased its contributions to Country Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs); 23% of all disbursements from Country Based Pooled Funds went directly to national and local actors. With 205 million USD, Germany more than tripled its contributions in 2017, becoming the second biggest donor for CBPFs.

    Other-5A

    Regarding its commitment to invest in the capacities of IDPs, refugees and host communities, Germany increased its development initiative “Partnership for Prospects”, providing now roughly 426 million EUR for a cash-for-work scheme for the crises around Syria and Iraq. In 2017, the program created more than 85.000 temporary jobs for refugees, internally displaced people as well as members of host communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. The program aims at easing people's immediate living situation by providing education for children, training for young people and temporary work for adults. It also improves living conditions in a sustainable way via infrastructure development and by encouraging the private sector and local governments to provide better services to their communities, including displaced populations.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    • By establishing a baseline for funding going directly or through one transaction layer to local and national actors.
    • The progress of the “Partnership for Prospects” (P4P) is displayed in monthly overviews presenting current numbers of beneficiaries and additional information on specific projects.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    To build capacity in local actors to address these challenges, ideally linking to existing structures and processes, sometimes takes a leap of faith if standards for compliance, accountability and a principled approach do not yet exist.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    As of 2018, Germany will oblige partner organizations to pass part of indirect costs on to their implementing partners. Germany will also complete a baseline on its funding for local actors.

    In 2018, local economic development, employment and private sector mobilization will also be new focus areas in the partnership between the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) and the sector project “Forced Displacement”, commissioned by the German Ministry for Development.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Developing countries shoulder the biggest burden when it comes to hosting displaced population. In order to safeguard their development progress, they need tailored, needs-oriented support that is locally owned.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    German INGOs and the German Government identified common priorities and key points to which they aspire. The paper is going to be available in English.

    With German support, a learning network of over 80 municipalities from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey was set up to facilitate exchange between host communities.

     

    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds, Displacement, Local action

  • 5B
    Invest according to risk

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany commits to strengthen anticipatory humanitarian assistance and to continue with its special action plan for climate change adaption in the humanitarian field in coordiantion with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the World Food Programme. Within this action plan Germany commits to further support the development of an innovative forecast-based financing (Fbf) mechanism that releases funding for preparedness measures in high risk countires based on scientific extreme weather forecast information and specific risk thresholds.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    Partners: ICRC, WFP

    Individual Commitments (12)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany has committed EUR 15 million towards the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). EUR 5 million are designated towards GFDRR'™s Inclusive Community Resilience program. Germany wants to promote a more field-focused approach that aims to impact resilience on the community-level at any time.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to further explore additional innovative insurance solutions that can help shrink the humanitarian finance gap. This includes (a) an insurance fund that will allow additional actors such as NGOs, cities, and microfinance networks to get insurance coverage and (b) explore innovative ways to scale up insurance under the African Risk Capacity (ARC).
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to help develop or scale up risk financing, and new instruments, such as contingent financing and insurance-based products for lower income countries, as well as schemes that reach and benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people, such as micro-insurance.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to increasingly allocate funds for humanitarian assistance based on stronger forecasting analysis and to develop and implement a strategy to ensure a targeted and adequate humanitarian preparedness and response to available climate change forecasts.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to provide support to the affected state, working with governments of at-risk and crisis-affected states to play a leading role prioritizing and financing crisis response by supporting governments to make adequate financial preparedness against risk (disaster risk financing and use of insurance); supporting the development of risk-sensitive social protection schemes, which can serve as conduits for international financial support to government-led response; ensuring governments have access to adequate international financial support (grants and where appropriate concessional finance) to meet post-disaster response and recovery needs and needs of countries hosting refugees; replicating good practice regarding bilateral funding (government to government); providing greater visibility of international financing investments through improved transparency and data analysis to enable better targeting of resources.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to re-prioritize funding allocated towards DRR/DRM measures within its development cooperation.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to support the establishment of a forecast-based financing fund which releases funding automatically for early preparedness actions based on risk information and thresholds. Herewith, Germany is contributing to close the funding gap between long-term disaster risk reduction and short term disaster relief and is supporting the WHS objective in addressing the humanitarian financing challenges.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to support the OECD DAC in rapidly completing the work to have arrangements in place to track official finance flows to disaster risk reduction and preparedness, with a view to setting a target for increased investment at the next Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, while noting the UN Secretary General's porposal in the Agenda for Humanity that the "percentage of ODA allocated for disaster risk reduction and prepardness be doubled to at least 1 per cent by 2020."
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits to work closely with and support UNSG'™s "A2R" Initiative (Anticipate, Absorb, and Reshape) to scale up risk insurance coverage against climate-induced hazards for poor and vulnerable people.


    • Policy
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Germany, together with its G7 partners, is committing to further expanding climate risk coverage for poor and vulnerable people. Germany has initiatiated "InsuResilience", the G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance. The aim of the initiative is to increase the number of poor and vulnerable people in low- and medium-income countries who have access to direct or indirect insurance coverage against climate-related hazards, by 400 million by 2020. Initial measures of this commitment will allow up to 180 million additional people to benefit from climate risk insurance coverage until the end of 2016. Germany committed an initial contribution of EUR 150 million which allows for the expansion of already established indirect risk insurance facilities such as the African Risk Capacity (ARC), the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • In line with the Secretary-General's Climate Resilience Initiative: Anticipate, Abserb and Reshape, Germany commits to scale up insurance coverage for countries against natural disasters and scale up appropriate and cost effective risk pooling and risk transfer tools.


    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Recognising that there is a range of tools that be used to finance reduction of risks and anticipatory approaches to responding to crises Germany commits to: 1) expanding the use of tools and approaches that strengthen systemic shifts toward better risk management and financial planning and preparation, including national contingency reserves, shock-responsive social protection mechanisms, insurance and catastrophe bonds; 2) working with private sector, academia and the scientific community to help forecast the anticipated scale and frequency of crises in order to inform the design of ex-ante financial planning measures; 3) exploring financial opportunities through further piloting social impact bonds, scaling up of insurance, among other solutions; 4) putting in place adequate emergency reserve funds and funds for risk-reduction activities and investments to reduce the drivers of fragility and conflict; 5) creating incentives for more coherent approaches built on common understanding of the need to manage risk, both as a moral imperative and as an expedient investment to protect development investments and assure sustainable development outcomes.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks through the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as other relevant strategies and programs of action, including the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to invest in risk management, preparedness and crisis prevention capacity to build the resilience of vulnerable and affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany continued investing in risk reduction and preparedness measures, focusing on improving early warning and early action (EWEA) approaches, as well as capacity building of all relevant stakeholders in high risk countries.

    In order to promote an anticipatory humanitarian system, Germany further developed the innovative risk financing approach Forecast-based Financing (FbF). In 2017, two additional FbF pilot projects were implemented in addition to the existing 8 projects. In total, Germany invested approximately 3 million EUR in these pilot projects and in the facilitation of an FbF anticipation window within the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF).

    Germany spent 32.2 million EUR on humanitarian assistance activities related to disaster risk reduction and 15 million EUR on disaster risk management within its Transitional Development Assistance.

    Additionally, at COP23 Germany expanded the “InsuResilience Initiative on climate risk insurance” to an “InsuResilience Global Partnership on Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Solutions”, which has 44 members. Thereby, Germany supported the UN Climate Resilience Initiative A2R with 200,000 EUR and the multi-donor Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) with 5 million EUR. In order to facilitate the implementation of comprehensive risk management strategies, 150,000 EUR in funding were provided to the UNFCCC Fiji clearing house for risk transfer, which serves as a repository for information on insurance and risk transfer. In addition, 100,000 EUR was granted in support of automatic flood detection in India, using satellite technology implemented by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Moreover, Germany supported the introduction of a new DRR purpose code and policy marker.
     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    • Other: InsuResilience is developing its own monitoring framework.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany is a member of the donor advisory group of the Forecast-based Financing Window within the IFRC to assess the progress of this innovative funding instrument. Moreover, Germany is establishing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system for the InsuResilience Global Partnership, including key indicators focusing on output and outcome.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Outreach to other donors is ongoing to promote investments into innovative humanitarian financing instruments, such as the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) Forecast-based Financing Window.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In 2018, Germany will allocate 4.1 million EUR for Forecast-Based Financing, and continue to promote EWEA approaches. Additionally, the InsuResilience Global Partnership governance structure will be established and partners will start implementing streamlined risk finance and insurance programmes.

    Moreover, Germany will contribute 10 million EUR to the WFP and START Network to support the African Risk Capacity Replica insurance policies. 36.8 million EUR will be allocated for risk reduction and preparedness projects in the context of humanitarian assistance.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Existing humanitarian resources need to be used more efficiently in the face of rising climate change risks. At the same time, preparedness and risk reduction measures need to be further improved, which requires close collaboration of all relevant partners. Moreover, forecasting information should more frequently be used to inform the allocation of humanitarian funds in order to promote the ongoing paradigm shift toward a more anticipatory humanitarian system and disaster risk reduction within development cooperation.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    • The RISK TALK-learning platform uses artificial intelligence and neural network technology to facilitate dialogue on risk transfer solutions between developing and industrialized countries.
    • WFP’s Building Blocks project uses blockchain technology for cash-based transfers in Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp.

     

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction

  • 5C
    Invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In 2016, Germany commits additional funding in the amount of EUR 3 million to UN DPA mediation to support the UN's conflict prevention capacities, in particular conflict analysis and the good offices function and will advocate for the use of regular budget funds for conflict prevention.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany is a consistent contributor to the UN Peace Building Fund (PBF) and contributed EUR 10 million in 2016. It commits to maintain its support to the PBF.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Approximately 40% of German development cooperation funds (country programmable aid) are currently spent in fragile states; Germany endeavors to further strengthen its engagement in fragile contexts in its effort to sustainably reduce root causes of conflicts and humanitarian needs. Germany is committed to implement all its development cooperation measures in a conflict-sensitive manner using the peace and conflict assessment methodology.


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits a yearly development assistance budget of approximately EUR 1.3 billion for measures directly and indirectly targeted at peacebuilding, conflict prevention and conflict in fragile partner countries by addressing structural root causes of conflict and fragility. A new strategic orientation on conflict prevention and management will provide the conceptual basis and strategic direction for the engagement of the German development cooperation. This includes strengthening the participation of women and youth in peacebuilding.


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits that most of the EUR 1.2 billion allocated by the German Parliament in 2016 for crisis prevention, stabilisation, and humanitarian assistance (a 66% increase in comparison to 2015) will be made available for fragile and/or acute conflict situations.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Germany commits to further support the possibility of crises affected Middle Income Countries to have access to low-interest loans in response to crises.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Recognising that, within a country context, humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, stabilization and climate finance should be more coherent, Germany commits to 1) increasing contributions to the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), which provides rapid financing to support sustaining peace over the long-term especially in protracted crisis countries, 2) ensuring that organisational structures and internal processes foster coherence between humanitarian, development peacubilding, stabilisation and climate finance, 3) strengthening the mechanisms for coordination at country level and globally to maximize policy coherence, 4) (donors) using positions on the boards of international organisations, agencies and financial institutions to ensure a comprehensive approach to the management of man-made and natural hazards.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In line with the Federal Government’s Guidelines on "Preventing Crisis, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace“, Germany continued to invest in stability and substantially expanded its funding for instruments relating to fragile contexts.

    Since 2015, Germany has more than doubled its budgets for crisis prevention, stabilization, peacebuilding and humanitarian assistance to a total of approx. 4.5 billion EUR. Thereby, Germany’s contribution to the UN Peace Building Fund was once again raised to 26.3 million USD in 2017.

    In addition, 67 % of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development´s (BMZ) partner countries were either fragile or affected by conflict and violence. The BMZ has identified “Safeguarding Development in Crises and Conflict” as a prioritized agenda for cooperation and has accordingly taken further steps to enhance its funding for the World Bank in the area of fragility, conflict and violence.

    Germany committed 1.6 billion EUR in contributions to the World Bank’s IDA 18 replenishment. In this regard, Germany supported several special financing windows, such as the IDA Crisis Response Window (162 million EUR), the IDA Window for Refugees and Host Communities (108 million EUR) as well as the IDA Fragility Conflict and Violence Risk Mitigation Regime (32.4 million EUR). Germany is also a member of the World Bank’s State and Peacebuilding Fund. Furthermore, the German Executive Director Office accompanies relevant processes. Germany also supports the institution through the secondment of staff.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Germany takes an active role in international initiatives/partnerships to ensure that results-based monitoring mechanisms are developed to assess impact on the ground. All bilateral projects funded by Germany continuously monitor results and impacts of its intervention and are required to report results and impacts regularly.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Overall co-ordination needs to be improved, starting with improved shared analysis. Insecurity leads to remote management of programmes and limits successful implementation.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In line with the Secretary-General’s agenda for sustaining peace, Germany will continue to focus on crisis prevention, strengthen the Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding Fund.

    In implementing the national guidelines on “Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace”, Germany will also ensure that organisational structures and internal processes foster coherence across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    • Prioritization of crisis prevention rather than crisis reaction needs to be made clearly visible in programming priorities and substantially increased funding for clearly marked crisis prevention programming.
    • Flexible financing instruments are needed in order to create the right incentives for investment in fragile contexts.

     

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Germany’s contribution to the UN Peace Building Fund was once again raised to 26.3 million USD in 2017. Germany also committed 1.6 billion EUR in contributions to the World Bank’s IDA 18 replenishment.

  • 5D
    Finance outcomes, not fragmentation: shift from funding to financing

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Germany will invest about EUR 3 billion in projects and programmes that tackle the root causes of migration and forced displacement and support refugees and IDPs, such as transitional development assistance. It commits to direct its assistance and financing towards national and local systems that address the needs of IDPs, refugees and host communities. It will support host governments to include refugee and IDP related engagements in their national development plans.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • Germany, via its Special Initiative "Tackling the root causes of forced displacement - reintegrating refugees", will in 2016 alone provide an amount of EUR 406 million to address forced displacement, putting particular emphasis on resilience and self-reliance of refugees and IDPs. Projects funded via this Special Initiative complement numerous bilateral cooperation funds that also benefit refugees and IDPs.


    • Financial Contribution ()
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to promote increased awareness of funding needs and gaps related to so-called forgotten crises as outlined in the new concept of the Federal Foreign Office on Forgotten Crises.
    • Advocacy
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Germany, in implementing the new Strategy of the Federal Foreign Office on Humanitarian Assistance to refugees and displaced persons, will further strengthen contributions to Humanitarian Appeals of the UN as well as the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement covering needs in countries of origin, host countries and transit countries.


    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind Invest in Humanity

    • In order to increase efficiency of humanitarian assistance in situations of displacement, Germany will increase and promote multi-year humanitarian financing, livelihood interventions as well as cash-based assistance.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to enable coherent financing that avoids fragmentation by supporting collective outcomes over multiple years, supporting those with demonstrated comparative advantage to deliver in context.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to broaden and adapt the global instruments and approaches to meet urgent needs, reduce risk and vulnerability and increase resilience, without adverse impact on humanitarian principles and overall action (as also proposed in Round Table on "Changing Lives").
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Germany has increased its financial support to multi-year and flexible funding in order to improve the timely and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance to people who need it most.

    Germany increased the amount of non-earmarked humanitarian funding (core contributions to UNHCR, UNRWA, UNOCHA, ICRC and CERF) from 77.1 million EUR in 2016 to 105.5 million EUR in 2017. Softly earmarked humanitarian funding (inter alia for the country-based pooled funds (CBPFs) was nearly tripled from 70.5 million EUR in 2016 to 195.6 million EUR in 2017. Germany also further increased its multi-year humanitarian funding from 337.2 million EUR in 2016 to 607.6 million EUR in 2017.

    In order to allow affected populations a life in dignity, Germany also supported the strengthening of local responders and the scale up of cash-based programming. Furthermore, forgotten humanitarian crises continued to be a focus area with a total funding of 380 million EUR in 2017 and a dedicated public awareness raising campaign called #nichtvergesser.

    In 2017, German development cooperation contributed approximately 3.5 billion EUR to mitigate root causes of migration and displacement and to support displaced persons and their host communities. Within this engagement the German Special Initiative “Tackling the root causes of forced displacement – (re-)integrating refugees” provided more than 641 million EUR to benefit both forcibly displaced populations and host communities and to tackle root causes of displacement. All instruments take into account the specifics of displacement situations which necessitate well-coordinated activities of both humanitarian and development actors.  

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    All projects are measured through results-oriented indicators and evaluations. Projects funded via the Special Initiative are additionally monitored via a dedicated platform on which implementing organizations enter updates, upload pictures and share success stories.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding amounts
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Budget rules and regulations limit possibilities to provide non-earmarked funding as well as transferability of funding between budget years.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Germany seeks to further expand its non-earmarked and multi-year contributions in the coming years. For 2018, a total of 480 million EUR for multi-year humanitarian funding was committed before the end of 2017. Efforts to increase public awareness of humanitarian crises will continue throughout 2018.

    German development cooperation will also continue to support resilience and self-reliance of refugees and IDPs. Programs directed towards national and local systems include e.g. a new employment program in Jordan.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Additional funding from traditional and new Government donors, as well as funding from private sources, must be mobilized to enable the CERF to reach its 1 billion USD goal.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    As part of the #nichtvergesser initiative, Germany i.a. collaborated with social media influencers, who traveled to Colombia for a project visit. They subsequently used their channels to raise awareness for the humanitarian situation in Colombia. This made a huge impact as it helped the campaign to reach a younger audience.

    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds, Displacement, Youth

  • 5E
    Diversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Germany commits to further support initiatives to simplify reporting requirements for local humanitarian organisations, including for pooled funds.
    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to increasing contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help ensure its expansion to $1 billion annually by 2018 and to significantly increasing contributions to country-based pooled funds to cover up to 15 per cent of humanitarian response plans and frontline responses.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to seek and support innovative financing solutions to expand the CERF and country based pooled funds.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to support the initiative of the UN Secretary-General to increase the fund ceiling of the Central Emergency Respond Fund (CERF) to US$ 1 Billion and to seek and support innovative ways to reach this target.
    • Advocacy
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Germany commits to: 1) endorsing the commitments under the Grand Bargain; 2) agreeing to reporting requirements that are simplified, proportionate, and coherent (harmonized to best practice); 3) building strong and transparent data systems to track all financial flows towards common outcomes in crisis contexts with a view to better reflecting the generosity of all financiers; 3) (UN) enhancing system-wide capability and architecture to enable the receipt of funding from non-traditional actors, platforms and instruments such as private sector, faith-based, diaspora remittances and crowd-funding sources.
    • Policy
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In line with its WHS and Grand Bargain commitments, Germany has significantly increased its contributions to the CERF and Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) in 2017.

    By further increasing its CERF contributions to a total of 75 million EUR, Germany became the second largest CERF donor in 2017. The same is true for the CBPFs, to which Germany contributed a total of 179 million EUR in 2017.

    As an active member of the Pooled Fund Working Group (PFWG), Germany helped shape the strategic direction of the CBPF mechanism, greatly enhancing its overall operational effectiveness and accountability. Furthermore, a representative from Germany continued to serve as a member of the CERF Advisory Group. Germany also played a central role at the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment pooled fund event in Geneva and has provided valuable staff support to OCHA’s Funding Coordination Section through the UN’s Junior Professional Officer Program. Moreover, Germany helped develop and introduce the new Common Performance Framework – a set of performance indicators to standardize reporting and performance measurement across all CBPFs.

    Germany remains committed to the Grand Bargain, becoming one of six members of the Grand Bargain Facilitation Group in September 2017. In addition, Germany, in partnership with ICVA, continued its active engagement as co-convener of the Grand Bargain reporting work stream. In June 2017, Germany and ICVA launched a 2-year pilot to harmonize and simplify reporting requirements. The common donor narrative reporting framework is introduced and piloted in Myanmar, Iraq and Somalia.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    • Germany uses its role in the OCHA Donor Support Group, the CERF Advisory Group, the PFWG and the Grand Bargain Facilitation Group to monitor overall progress.
    • As to the Grand Bargain reporting pilot, Germany collects reports and other qualitative data of participating partners to assess progress of the work stream.

     

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Budget regulations pose a cap on funding to the CERF.
    • The harmonization and simplification of reporting requires greater participation and respective buy-in from donors and humanitarian organisations alike.

     

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • In order to help OCHA and the CERF Secretariat achieve the 1 billion USD funding goal, Germany will support OCHA’s efforts to mobilize funding from philanthropic sources.
    • Germany will also continue to promote increased funding for CBPF; at the end of 2018, Germany will become co-chair of the Pooled Fund Working Group.

     

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Grand Bargain members, humanitarian organisations and donors alike, need to uphold the momentum of the process by continuously working towards concrete and tangible progress on the implementation of the commitments, in a spirit of partnership. Additional funding from traditional and new Government donors, as well as funding from private sources, must be mobilized to enable the CERF to reach its 1 billion USD goal.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The Common Donor Narrative Reporting Template, which is piloted by Germany and ICVA as part of the Grand Bargain process, is an innovative example for harmonized, proportionate, coherent and simplified reporting requirements.

    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds