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

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • ICVA commits to strengthen support to - €”and advocacy for - principled humanitarian action. Acknowledging that humanitarian principles are under severe threat, ICVA will advocate for the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, with a focus on humanitarian partnerships, coordination, financing and forced displacement.


    • Advocacy
    • 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, ICVA's advocacy for humanitarian principles and the principles of partnership was infused into a wide range of activities.

    To improve understanding of the humanitarian system, ICVA published and widely disseminated a series of briefing papers on major policy processes including the Grand Bargain, the Refugee Compact and the New Way of Working. ICVA also, together with PHAP, organised the "Demystifying Humanitarian Financing" and "Demystifying Humanitarian Coordination" Learning Streams. 

    To promote better protection, assistance and durable solutions, ICVA facilitated the delivery of 16 statements on behalf of NGOs at the 3 UNHCR Standing Committee meetings, coordinating the drafting process, inviting NGOs to contribute, managed multiple rounds of reviews and finally encouraged NGOs to lead the delivery of the statement at the meetings. At the ICVA-HCR co-organised HCR Annual Consultations with NGOs, over 500 NGO representatives attended and ICVA collected perspectives on the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) roll-out. 

    To facilitate NGO engagement into the processes leading up to a Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), ICVA supported NGOs to draft and deliver 3 statements on responsibility-sharing for refugees, supported NGO engagement in the roll-out of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). ICVA also coordinated NGO key messages that provided specific recommendations for the Programme of Action, which will form an integral part of the GCR.

    To strengthen inclusive coordination mechanisms, ICVA facilitated the NGO contributions to the performance appraisals of 29 Humanitarian Coordinators, and was involved in the review of the terms of reference of HCTs and an independent study entitled “The Role of the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator (DHC)” to review past and current DHC positions and their added value to humanitarian response. ICVA also organised NGO briefings to Member States. 

    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?

    ICVA is tracking its progress and the impact of these activities in line with ICVA's 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and Work Plan. In March 2018, ICVA commissioned and independent review, identifying the impact of its work and progress in relation to the Strategic 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.
    • Other: Limited NGO/civil society organization space
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Limited or no space for NGO voices to influence policy and action in reform processes; systemic weaknesses in holding states accountable for their actions (impunity).

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

    ICVA will continue to promote principled humanitarian action across focus areas of humanitarian financing, coordination, partnerships and forced displacement. In the coming year, ICVA will find meaningful ways to involve and strengthen the contribution of the national NGOs from the Global South by engaging them in the relevant working groups around policy processes. 

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

    Involve, engage and make accessible to NGOs, policy discussions that take place at headquarters/Principal levels. The more diverse the views and sharing of best practice/lessons learned, the more we will be able to improve the way we work in an effective and principled manner. 

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

    • ICVA rotates its seat at the IASC among its members, in order to expose and bring in collective and diverse view points to the table. 
    • ICVA promotes and supports NGOs, especially national NGOs to take the stage at various UNHCR fora (Excom, UNHCR NGO Consultations etc.) to give statements.

     

    Keywords

    Displacement, Humanitarian principles, Protection

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

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Acknowledging an evolving humanitarian landscape, ICVA commits to maintain strong partnerships with established humanitarian actors and promote stronger engagement with emerging humanitarian actors and regional organizations.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • ICVA commits to advocate for governments, donors, the UN, NGOs and all humanitarian actors to fulfill their responsibilities to be accountable to those affected by crises, and to better institutionalize strong partnerships based on the Principles of Partnership.
    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • ICVA commits to provide support to NGO fora, through practical guidance on governance mechanisms, advocacy strategies and initiatives, and promote their engagement within the humanitarian system.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Recognizing insufficient opportunities for NGO engagement in humanitarian governance, ICVA commits to increase the understanding of, and sustained engagement by NGOs in humanitarian policy and decision-making processes, with a strong focus on national NGOs, NGOs from the global South and NGO fora.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    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 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

    • ICVA’s first regional webinar, focused on the role of ASEAN’s Humanitarian Assistance Coordinating (AHA) Centre.
    • NGOs are present at IGAD and African Union meetings and panels and we are building relationships with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States in the Middle East and North Africa region.
    • ICVA is an observer to the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Partnership Group and the Strategic Partners Dialogue for Disaster Management and engages with the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre (AHA Centre).
    • ICVA's Regional Working Groups provide regionally focused information, and opportunities to engage with regional actors as well.
    • ICVA visited NGO fora in Gaziantep (Turkey), Jordan, Lebanon, CAR, South Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh to understand better their challenges, provide customised support to strengthen their collective capacity, and to understand their key role in the humanitarian coordination architecture.
    • ICVA membership consists of 18% nation NGOs and 14% consortiums.
    • On the Grand Bargain localization and other work streams - see the attached report. 

    People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)

    ICVA participated in the San Pedro Sula Regional Conference in Honduras, which resulted in the launch of a regional application of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Central America and the adoption of the San Pedro Sula Declaration by six states (Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama). As a follow-up to the San Pedro Sula Regional Conference, ICVA organised a workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica, in collaboration with Asylum Access, the UNHCR Bureau for the Americas, and the UNHCR Partnership Section to prepare. ICVA’s role was to facilitate discussions around the whole-of-society approach in the regional CRRF application.

    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?

    ICVA is tracking its progress and impact of these activities in line with ICVA's 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and Work Plan and the Grand Bargain workstreams. In March 2018, ICVA commissioned and independent review, identifying the impact of its work and progress in relation to the strategic 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.
    • Buy-in
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Other: The system has not yet determined how to collective manage, share and mitigate risk, a key barrier to meaningful localization.
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Many stakeholders are struggling to stay abreast of and meaningfully contribute towards the plethora of localization-focused initiatives emerging from the WHS and Grand Bargain. While ICVA has been building momentum and has been increasingly involved in the region, the capacity and time to undertake a myriad of activities and foster relationships is limited.

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

    ICVA will be preparing two briefing papers – one on localization and one on the regional actors and will also conduct a Learning Stream on Regional Actors. 

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

    • More harmonization across the Grand Bargain workstreams
    • Putting people and communities at the centre in the localization discussion instead of organisations/actors.

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

    • ICVA's strengthened regional presence enables engagement and participation of policy and localization discussions.
    • NGO fora working in Syria were enabled to meet through ICVA's organisation and facilitation of a meeting in Geneva. 
    • ICVA actively provides and creates the space for NGOs, especially national NGOs to be part of consultation processes, meetings, policy discussions and learning streams.

    Keywords

    Displacement, Local action, People-centred approach

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ICVA reaffirms its commitment to help humanitarian NGOs better understand, influence, and access humanitarian financing. To this end, ICVA will gather, synthesize and disseminate information to NGOs related to developments in humanitarian financing. ICVA will convene webinars, teleconferences, face-to-face meetings and develop educational tools to help NGOs better understand what is happening in the field of humanitarian financing.
    • Capacity
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: All ICVA Members

    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.

    Other-5A

    • ICVA in reached over 15,500 livestream and downloads of the learning streams and translated all of its learning products in French, and will expand to Arabic so that these are more accessible.
    • In 11 contexts, NGO fora are supported to facilitate NGO collective action at field level for the benefit of affected populations.
    • 14 NGO fora were supported to raise their perspectives at global and regional levels, on country related issues and key policy debates.
    • 6 NGO fora have developed or reviewed their Terms of Reference and/or strategic plans.
    • 60% - 3 out of the 5 field visits conducted so far.
    • 26 country specific issues coming from NGO fora are raised at the IASC level.
    • 13 NGO fora participate in the annual Humanitarian Coordinators' appraisal done through the IASC Emergency Directors Group.
    • 9 NGO fora are engaged in ICVA work - 1 policy input and 8 attending events.
    • ICVA NGO fora project looks at building strength and capacities. 
    • ICVA facilitated a meeting of NGOs and OCHA in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

    Country-based pooled funds

    With relation to the commitment on the better use of pooled funds, ICVA’s Humanitarian Financing Working Group provides feedback to the CERF secretariat on underfunded emergency allocations and the OCHA-NGO platform on country-based pooled funds. ICVA supports the national NGO representative serving in the Pooled Fund Working Group, including coordinating an application and selection process and covering flight/ accommodation to attend meetings.

    Direct funding to national/local actors

    • ICVA supported the production of an IASC Humanitarian Financing Task Team (HFTT) analysis of “Donor Conditions and their Implications for Humanitarian Response,” which included a chapter on earmarking. As co-chair of the HFTT, ICVA has participated and supported the “IASC+” working group (or Localization Marker Working Group) to develop a localization marker as per the Grand Bargain.
    • ICVA is promoting greater investment in capacity through its partnership with UNHCR to systematically invest in national NGO partners’ capacity.
    • ICVA supports the national NGO representative serving in the Pooled Fund Working Group, including coordinating the application and selection process and by covering flights/ accommodation to attend meetings.
    • ICVA is a member of the Regional Advisory Group for the ‘Humanitarian Horizons’ Research project, funded by the The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), that looks at localization in Asia-Pacific.
    • ICVA has organized a number of workshops discussing on localization.  It co-organized with Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) a multi-stakeholder dialogue on "Localization in Action in Asia" (Bangkok, December 2017) with over 100 NGO participants, 70% of which were national NGOs.

     

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

    Through its Less Paper More Aid initiative, ICVA supported work on making funding for national and local actors more accessible, including by supporting an OCHA commissioned study on making partner capacity assessments more inter-operable at the country level, and through promoting UN harmonization of approaches towards NGOs.

    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?

    ICVA is tracking its progress and impact of these activities in line with ICVA's 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and Work Plan and the Grand Bargain workstreams. In March 2018, ICVA commissioned and independent review, identifying the impact of its work and progress in relation to the strategic 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
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The NGO partners ICVA surveyed in 2014 are most keenly interested in two-way capacity exchanges to strengthen their own internal management capacities: e.g. in human resource management, fundraising, strategic planning, etc.  This kind of support is currently not available at the “systems” level. 

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

    ICVA will continue to support capacity strengthening in our work with UNHCR to finalize and roll-out the UNHCR guidance note on capacity strengthening.  ICVA will also continue its learning stream and attempt to make visible for its members a variety of capacity strengthening opportunities on its website.

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

    Without clear data on the breakdown of funding from donor to intermediary (UN or international NGOs) to national NGOs and local partners, it is difficult to assess the actual investment to local capacities. This includes funding that goes to governments and non financial investments to strengthen capacities in terms of human resources, management, training, leadership, etc. Collective action to improve the investment in terms of issues related to counter-terrorism laws, NGO/civil society space needs to be taken up by Member States, donors, UN and NGOs alike.

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

    ICVA conducted a mission to Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar to support NGO and NGO fora engagement to facilitate conversations with national and international NGOs on how to best work together and engage with government and UN-led coordination mechanisms. ICVA facilitated meeting between the ERC & NGOs which resulted in the establishment of the  InterSector Coordination Group (ISCG). 

    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds, Local action, People-centred approach

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

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ICVA commits to actively advocate to improve frontline responder access to funds; promote financial transparency; and increase multi-year funding, leveraging its current role as co-chair of the IASC Humanitarian Financing Task Team.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • 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.

    ICVA  and OCHA's CERF Secretariat - as co-chairs of the IASC Humanitarian Financing Task Team (HFTT) - worked towards:

    • Localization (developing the Grand Bargain localization marker, engaging local actors, improving approaches to partner capacity assessments)
    • Donor conditions (mapping relevant activities and advancing a pilot to simplify and harmonize reporting)
    • Longer-term approach (multi-year funding and addressing the humanitarian-development nexus)

    ICVA's Humanitarian Financing Working provides feedback to the CERF Secretariat on underfunded emergency allocations and the OCHA-NGO platform for country-based pooled funds. It supports the application and selection process by covering NGO costs. Over 20 NGO representatives, 4 World Bank and 3 UNHCR participants attended a conference organised by ICVA for NGOs to better understand the role of the World Bank. 

    ICVA has continued to engage with the leadership on the transparency work stream throughout the year:

    • A regular monthly call is held between Development Initiatives and ICVA to discuss how to better integrate transparency with humanitarian financing issues, including a transparency workshop on the margins of the ICVA annual conference in March 2017.
    • ICVA and OCHA/CERF co-chaired the January 2017 HFTT retreat, which included a special working session on transparency. Since then ICVA has circulated to its members draft HFTT “key messages” document on IATI and Financial Tracking Service (FTS).
    • Transparency was a key discussion point at the December 2017 meeting of the ICVA Donor Conditions Task Force. That workshop brought together Development Initiatives along with actors such as Bond UK and Humentum, resulting in a tentative plan to offer increased support to NGOs reporting in the IATI standard.
    • ICVA supported dialogue between OCHA's FTS and Development Initiatives to develop a plan for piloting the use of the IATI standard by OCHA FTS to collect data on humanitarian financing.

    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?

    ICVA is tracking its progress and impact of these activities in line with ICVA's 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and Work Plan and the Grand Bargain workstreams. In March 2018, ICVA commissioned an independent review, identifying the impact of its work and progress in relation to the strategic 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.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The implementation of the Grand Bargain, which is focused on efficiencies and effectiveness, has not yet been matched by a similarly collaborative multi-stakeholder process to close the funding gap.

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

    ICVA plans to continue its role in implementing the Grand Bargain (including by becoming IATI compliant, supporting the 8+3 reporting pilot in Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia, supporting partner capacity assessment (PCA) inter-operability at the country level, and advancing a survey on UN harmonization). 

    ICVA also plans to support the launch of a learning lab on innovative financing to help partner consider ways to unlock new resources and take them to scale.

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

    The High Level Panel Report on Humanitarian Financing should be followed up, including its recommendations to establish a solidarity levy.

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

    2017 appeared to have improved understanding and acceptance of IATI in relation to humanitarian work. That being said, there is still significant work to be done to ensure NGOs have the proper capacity to effectively report using the IATI standard. Effort to link Brand Bargain workstreams was reflected in the commitment to complementarity paper.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus, Local action, Transparency / IATI

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

    Joint Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ICVA commits to actively engage in the implementation the Grand Bargain.
    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: All ICVA Members

    • ICVA commits to actively monitor the Grand Bargain, entailing a dual focus ofp articipating in monitoring the implementation of the changes proposed through the Grand Bargain process and, monitoring the impact of the Grand Bargain on NGOs and frontline responders.

    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: All ICVA Members

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ICVA commits to support harmonizing and simplifying reporting requirements. The #LessPaperMoreAid project, supported by ICVA members, has demonstrated the impact of donor and UN requirements on NGO staff in the field as it relates to reporting, audits and partner capacity assessments. The project produced a Framework for Change with practical suggestions for improvement, and has been a key input into the Grand Bargain discussions related to harmonized and simplified reporting - both narrative and financial. ICVA commits to continuing this initiative to facilitate more simplified, proportionate, and harmonized reporting requirements by the end of 2018.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • ICVA commits to support the reduction of management costs and harmonizing UN-NGO partnership agreements. The Grand Bargain commitment on reducing management costs includes an agreement to harmonize UN partnership agreements with NGOs. Utilising its expertise in facilitating strengthened NGO partnership agreements with UNHCR, UNICEF and OCHA Country- Based Pooled Funds, ICVA commits to providing a platform for NGO engagement to ensure this harmonization positively impacts frontline responders, grounded in trust and guided by the Principles of Partnership.
    • Financial
    • 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.

    On 31 January 2017 ICVA hosted the first-ever workshop bringing together UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, OCHA and NGOs so UN agencies could brief NGOs on their ideas to harmonize partner selection, due diligence, agreement templates, budgets, reporting and shared audits. They strategized a process to consult a broader range of NGO partners. ICVA and UNHCR co-presented this effort at the 23 March UNHCR-Japan-hosted workshop on reducing duplication and management costs.

    In December of 2017 it was agreed to move forward with a survey to assess the burden of partnership agreements on NGO partners of UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, and OCHA. ICVA completed the draft of the survey with input from UNHCR prior to the end of the year, and it will be distributed after final input from other partners in 2018.

    Germany and ICVA made a joint decision to implement the pilot based on the number of donor participants committed to the pilot at the time. ICVA’s role in the pilot is to work with participants at the HQ and field level to ensure proper orientation, assist with resolution of issues and support general implementation. As of the end of 2017, there were 7 governments, 7 UN agencies and 16 INGOs committed to participation in the pilot.

    The “8+3” reporting framework is set up such that projects including gender components in their design would also report on gender in the “measuring results” section of the template.

    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?

    ICVA is tracking its progress and impact of these activities in line with ICVA's 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and Work Plan and the Grand Bargain workstreams. In March 2018, ICVA commissioned an independent review, identifying the impact of its work and progress in relation to the strategic 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.
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The system has not yet determined how to collective manage, share and mitigate risk, and key barrier to meaningful localization.

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

    The results from the UN partnership agreement survey will be analyzed by ICVA and shared in mid 2018. Results will feed in to F2F engagement between UN agencies and NGOs on the topic of UN harmonization. The initial rounds of reporting using the harmonized template will be collected for analysis during the first quarter of 2018. Results of a mid-term review of the pilot along with other feedback will inform how the harmonized template can be improved for the second part of pilot.

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

    Multi-year planning and funding has been considered as a possible area for joint pilot work with harmonized reporting. Multi-year planning and funding has also been included in the group of donor conditions workstream and as part of the Commitment to Complementarity outlined under workstream 4 above.

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

    The level of turnover in staff, combined with internal participant communications can be complex, requires a continuous effort to keep participants informed of the pilot. Communications is an area that requires constant attention and improvement as perceptions can easily outweigh even the best technical solutions. The earmarking workstream is included in the donor conditions workstream.

    Keywords

    Gender, Local action

Attachments

  • ICVA Annual Report 2017