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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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  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • The IRC commits to leverage organizational and coalition leadership to advocate for humanitarian actors to prioritize GBV prevention and response as lifesaving from the onset of emergencies.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • The IRC commits to support the roll-out and implementation of the IASC GBV Guidelines through trainings and capacity building to personnel across humanitarian response sectors.
    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • The IRC will continue to build technical capacity on essential standards of a survivor-centered approach to GBV case management and data collection.
    • Capacity
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • The IRC will continue to conduct and disseminate rigorous research on violence against women and girls (VAWG) in humanitarian contexts.
    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • The IRC will coordinate the Real Time Accountability Partnership (RTAP) at the global level and act as RTAP implementing partner, advancing work on a "€œframework for action" to reinforce accountability to GBV prioritization, integration, and coordination at strategic levels across the humanitarian program cycle (HPC).


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • The IRC will provide training, technical support, and small grants to 25 local organizations working across the Horn and East Africa, with the aim of advancing their internal GBV emergency preparedness and ability to engage in local and national preparedness and response efforts.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • 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

    International Rescue Committee (IRC) achieved the following progress related to these commitments:

    1. Co-hosted and/or spoke at eleven events with donors, UN agencies, and civil society organizations to advocate for greater attention to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in emergencies and published five advocacy briefs/reports. 

    2. Trained over 2,000 staff in 14 sectors/sub sectors in 13 countries in 2017 on the IASC GBV Guidelines (and over 3,500 staff in a total of 23 countries since 2016).

    3. Finalized Interagency GBV Case Management guidelines, in collaboration with International Medical Corps (IMC), UNHCR, UNFPA, and UNICEF, and disseminated them through webinars and meetings of the GBV Area of Responsibility (AoR) and GBV field-level sub-clusters. IRC also began developing guidance to deliver GBV case management services through remote and/or mobile service delivery approaches, based on pilot activities conducted in Iraq, Burundi, and Myanmar. 

    4. Completed three research studies, including a study of IRC’s adolescent girl programming in DRC, Ethiopia, and Pakistan, launched in October 2017 in Washington and London; and a GBV prevalence study in South Sudan.

     

    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?

    The IRC monitors progress through inter-agency Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) frameworks established via the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, the GBV Guidelines Reference Group, and the Real-Time Accountability Partnership (RTAP) Steering Committee. Through these efforts, IRC set commitments, benchmarks, and report annually to ensure we remain on track in meeting our 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.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Funding amounts
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Women and girls comprise 50%+ of those displaced by conflict and disaster, yet humanitarian aid is often not designed and delivered with an understanding of specific constraints women and girls face. Narrowing the gender gap in programs and policies requires systemic changes that are difficult to achieve with short-term funding.

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

    The IRC will develop guidance on how to address GBV risks faced by adolescent girls in emergencies through an evidence-based resource package launched in 2018. In addition, the IRC will develop guidance on how to set up quality safe spaces for women and girls in humanitarian emergencies in 2018. Lastly, the IRC will study the outcomes of cash transfer programming on women’s protection and empowerment within the acute phase of an emergency response.

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

    To improve accountability to affected populations, particularly women and girls, the humanitarian sector needs to prioritize GBV prevention and response as lifesaving, not optional from day one of an emergency. Donors, practitioners, and UN agencies must fund dedicated GBV programs and services, build the capacity of providers to deliver quality programs, and ensure best practice and minimum standards are implemented by everyone. This requires long-term funding, policy change, and leadership at the highest levels.

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

    Examples of innovation and best practice are available in the following resources: 

  • 3A
    Reduce and address displacement

    Individual Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Recognizing that the majority of the forced displaced now live in urban areas, the IRC subscribes to the commitments laid forward in the Global Urban Crisis Charter, which will be launched at the WHS. As a founding organization of the Global Alliance for Urban Crises, the IRC commits to manage urban displacement as a combined human rights, humanitarian and development challenge and by working with local municipal authorities to address urban displacement in ways that are aligned with development trajectories.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • The IRC commits to advocating for all durable solutions including the resettlement of refugees around the world as part of a "Global Compact on Responsibility-Sharing for Refugees."


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • The IRC commits to advocating for and advancing thinking towards a "New Approach for Response to Protracted Forced Displacement" based on its experience in delivering evidence-based outcomes.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to further expanding its scale as a resettlement agency and honing its skills to ensure those resettled are able to integrate and live in dignity in their new countries.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • The IRC commits to improving the generation of data and relevant evidence around displacement solutions by making all of its programs either evidence-based or evidence-generating by 2020. The IRC will share this evidence in an effort to encourage the scaling of proven interventions to extend quality livelihood and educational opportunities as well as health and protection services to those impacted by forced displacement.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • The IRC commits to lending technical assistance to countries as they establish or strengthen their resettlement systems based on its decades of experience resettling refugees in the United States.
    • Operational
    • 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.

    Refugees

    During 2017, the European Resettlement and Integration Technical Assistance (EURITA) project conducted workshops on integration and resettlement in eleven European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. In each location, U.S. resettlement experts exchanged ideas with a diverse group of local stakeholders, evaluation surveys, and webinars on specific areas of interest. The EURITA team also returned to Portugal to conduct a training on interpretation and language access. 

    Other-3A

    IRC has made significant investments in generating evidence to inform internal practice and wider humanitarian policies. In 2017, IRC launched research agendas around four priorities: education in emergencies, reduction of family violence, cash in emergencies and reduction of under-five mortality. In 2017, we had 17 ongoing impact evaluations, including evaluations of teacher professional development and integration of social emotional learning into reading and math instruction in Lebanon, Niger and Sierra Leone. IRC is working with the World Bank to synthesize studies on the effectiveness of interventions to improve outcomes for forcibly displaced populations.

    Since 2006, the IRC has conducted 98 research studies across 28 countries. As of 2017, the results of our evidence generation and wider research have been shared in 94 peer-reviewed publications. To date, IRC has conducted 20 of the approximately 120 impact evaluations completed in conflict-affected contexts.

    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.
    • Other: IRC uses the evidence we generate in industry-wide practice groups (e.g. Cash Learning Project) and advocacy campaigns (e.g. Education Cannot Wait)
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    The Program Quality team established metrics that record our technical influence. IRC track the number and types of policy targets/institutions with whom we engage and whether our research-based recommendations have been taken up. The Global Alliance for Urban Crises Secretariat is monitoring progress against agreed objectives. 

    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
    • Information management/tools
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The slow pace of multi-stakeholder engagement has limited the ability to challenge ways of working in urban crises.The lack of cohesion among joint research agendas across organizations, low investment in systems, and tools to increase the translation of research cause duplication of effort, barriers to shared knowledge, and slow/low uptake of research by policymakers.

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

    The four Global Alliance for Urban Crises (the Alliance) working groups will each produce and disseminate a knowledge product drawing together analysis and best practice from across the multi-stakeholder platform. The Alliance will launch a new ‘competency framework’ for urban crises and support the development of a Humanitarian Practice Review from the Overseas Development Institute. IRC will broker relationships with actors such as UNICEF and ACF to participate in setting global research agendas around issues of education in emergencies, social protection and reduction of malnutrition.

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

    • Strengthen and expand the multi-stakeholder platform.
    • Link up and build on existing institutional and operational reform around urban crises.
    • Ensure urban crises are recognized in the Global Compacts for refugees and migrants and link these to Agenda 2030 and the Urban Charter.
    • Secure sustainable funding for the Global Alliance for Urban Crises Secretariat.
    • Collective progress requires shared global research agendas, collaboration in identifying research opportunities, dedicated funding (not necessarily linked to programming) and more systematic involvement of policymakers and practitioners. 

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

    IRC is part of the Stronger Cities Consortium of NGOs and 100 Resilient Cities (partnering with Amman and Kampala), pursuing best practices in urban crises. IRC supported a coalition of Mayors writing to the UNHCR High Commissioner to raise the profile of city municipalities in the Global Compact of Refugees. 

    Keywords

    Displacement, Urban

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • IRC commits that 80% of all IRC country level strategic plans will incorporate commitments to gender equality.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (3)

    • 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 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.

    In 2017, the International Rescue Committee put in place the necessary operational infrastructure to carry out gender equality programming commitments identified by 80% of IRC’s overseas country offices. These investments have included hiring 6 new experts who now support technical unit-led and country program-led actions for gender equality.

    Continuing in this commitment to gender equality and women and girls, the IRC set 2017-2018 Universal Expectations to guide country offices in their attention. The Universal Expectations provide five concrete goals for each country to achieve from March 2017-December 2018, which the Gender Equality Unit has already begun to integrate into organizational standards and procedures. 

    These five goals include:

    1. Ensure a safe and supportive environment for staff to report cases of sexual harassment, by communicating to staff what is sexual harassment and how to report in at least two methods of communications.
    2. Improve gender balance of staff in target areas (including country leadership and non-traditional roles, like WASH programming).
    3. Ensure female and male staff feel as safe as possible, by incorporating gender-specific security risks and mitigation strategies in country security plans.
    4. Lead organizational change on gender equality in the field, by nominating two Gender Equality Champions who are responsible for advocating for Gender Equality in their offices.
    5. Deliver gender-sensitive programs in prioritized program outcome areas (i.e. health, education, etc.) by ensuring that gender analysis informs program design.

    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?

    For example, IRC’s Human Resources department established plans for implementing new ways of recruiting, mentoring, promoting and retaining female staff across IRC. They also established an organization-wide system of tracking sex-disaggregated HR data, to be able to draw comparisons across departments and offices, and set targets for hiring female 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
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    • Human resources/capacity
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    As field conditions are often remote and insecure, the IRC cannot always prevent harm to female staff. In 2017-2018, the organization will update its Code of Conduct with an emphasis on sexual harassment, including the development of a day-long Anti-Sexual Harassment training, which will be rolled out in 2018.

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

    The IRC plans to implement new operating standards in 2018, which integrate considerations for gender-specific security risks, specifically focused on unique risks for females and LGBTQ staff. In addition, in 2018, all IRC country programs will be required to identify Gender Equality Champions. These champions are considered an integral part of an organization-wide culture change, as they are meant to organize discussions and activities focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment in their country offices.

     

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

    The humanitarian community must take collective action against Sexual Harassment and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. This includes system-wide reporting mechanisms and serious follow-up and condemnation of harmful acts, as well as ensuring that women are more represented in humanitarian organizations, particularly at a leadership level. This involves mentorship and training of female staff, and special attention on cultural change within the masculine humanitarian system to be more inclusive and safe for women.

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

    IRC’s new Anti-Sexual Harassment Training explains the many forms sexual harassment can take, looking at the experience and impact sexual harassment has on the survivor, rather than the intended meaning of the perpetrator. The training also includes discussion of bystander interventions and the collective responsibility of ensuring safe workplaces.

    Keywords

    Gender, PSEA

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

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Recognizing education for displaced children remains one of the most critical, yet least funded areas of responding to forced protracted displacement, the IRC commits to expanding quality education opportunities for children and helping shape the activities of the emerging Education Cannot Wait Platform. This includes sharing its existing and growing evidence base on the approaches that deliver quality education outcomes to children affected by crisis and lending technical support to the Platform Secretariat.
    • 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.

    During the 2016-2017 academic year, International Rescue Committee (IRC) reached 1.1 million children affected by conflict and crisis globally with safe, quality educational opportunities. IRC conducted rigorous research alongside our programs in Lebanon, Niger and Pakistan to generate actionable evidence on what works to ensure children are not only in school, but learning--how, where, from whom, under what conditions and at what cost. Findings from Lebanon were shared at a UN General Assembly side-event that convened nearly 100 participants. IRC CEO/President David Miliband spoke on the importance of research and evidence on our education programs, and Jennifer Sklar, who chairs the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Steering Group, provided technical support to INEE Director Dean Brooks in advance of ECW meetings. 

    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?

    IRC's commitment aligns with its organizational strategy against which IRC continuously assess progress. IRC countries have strategic action plans that define education outcomes; these are reviewed regularly. The IRC's universal expectations for all country programs include designing evidence-based generating programs. IRC track and report on all thought leadership activities. 

    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?

    Education in emergencies receives short-term and inadequate funding that is insufficient to a) reach the massive number of children in need with meaningful quality opportunities and b) conduct rigorous research to generate the evidence the field needs to understand what works, how, for whom and at what cost. 

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

    IRC is committed to changing the education in emergencies field to one that centers on evidence. IRC have a research and measurement agenda being implemented in the most challenging contexts. IRC are developing measures to advance the field towards the use of information to course-correct programs and influence policy. 

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

    Education in crises needs more financing. Reaching the most children with the greatest impact also requires policy, organization and financing reforms. Development donors must invest in conflict contexts; humanitarian donors must invest in education; and all must provide multi-year financing. Governments should include refugees in their education sector plans and address barriers to their attendance, safety and learning. These shifts require massive coordination across governments, the UN, donors and civil society--and clear leadership. 

    Keywords

    Education

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

    Individual Commitments (8)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In order to expand the scale and reach of its response to emergencies, the IRC commits to growing its partnership model by establishing relationships with three partner organizations in each of the countries on its "€œEmergency Watchlist." The IRC will work closely with local partner organizations to build emergency response strategies and to strengthen their capacity to respond by providing training and technical support.


    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Over the next five years, the IRC is committed to delivering 25% of its humanitarian assistance through cash, up from 6% in fiscal year 2015, and to have active cash transfer programs in 75% of its country offices.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Recognizing access to livelihoods is a key barrier in the ability of people impacted by emergencies to protect and provide for themselves, the IRC commits to identifying replicable processes for how jobs can be created quickly, efficiently and at scale in displacement contexts through its One Million Jobs Challenge. This will include conducting research, convening thought leaders and innovators and piloting cutting edge policy and practice strategies in a handful of relevant countries.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Recognizing the transformative power of humanitarian cash transfers IRC commits to 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.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • The IRC commits to delivering programming which is responsive to the perspectives of those people affected by forced displacement who it intends to serve - its clients. It will systematically and deliberately solicit its clients' views, and use them to inform decision making about what assistance to provide, to whom, when, where and how. The IRC will identify the most effective and efficient ways of capturing the perspectives of its clients, generating practical, evidence-based guidance for IRC and other humanitarian organizations. It will explore the incentives and behaviour patterns which influence the use of client feedback, and will seek to shift those through investments and strategies designed to promote a culture of responsiveness within the IRC. It will share this learning to help enrich the wider humanitarian system's understanding of client responsiveness and Accountability to Affected Populations, modelling new approaches to transparency and performance management in support of a transfer of power to its clients.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to significantly increasing the amount of funding available to support cash programming, including multi-purpose cash transfers.
    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC will share innovation and learning on cash-based programming by, for example, publishing studies on the cost efficiency of unconditional cash transfers versus non-food item programs; a framework for estimating Digital Financial Services scale-up needs in order to support more efficient humanitarian response; a Return on Investment analysis for the expansion of digital financial services; the IRC Cash Preparedness Planning Toolkit and lessons learned from its use in Ethiopia and other countries.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC, as a member of the Cash Learning Partnership, commits to working with states, humanitarian agencies and the private sector to reach consensus on the approaches required to scale-up humanitarian cash transfers and to answer the call to action laid out in the Agenda for Cash.
    • Partnership
    • 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 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.

    Cash-based programming

    International Rescue Committee (IRC) presented research finding on e-payment preparedness and the humanitarian business case at the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) High Level Meeting on the Financial Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced Persons in 2017. The findings were included in the GPFI policy paper on this issue. Our recent findings and forthcoming research was also included in a briefing on Cash Relief for Women and Girls.

    IRC produced the report on liquidity management for bulk payments using mobile money systems in Pakistan, and implemented a best practices pilot for the use of market information in humanitarian programs. IRC also completed a project on the evaluation of the use of cash transfers for displaced adolescent girls in North Kivu, DRC. Following the development of a new costing software in 2016, the IRC piloted this new tool for a Cash for Work program in Lebanon and 1 cash for protection program in Pakistan.

    IRC have seen a 170% increase in the value of cash distributed from 2015 to 2017. Some of this increase due to more accurate reporting of cash programming, which came about as part of a major push by finance staff to use specifically financial coding systems to track expenditures on cash. IRC estimate that about 60% of this increase is due to an increase in cash programs. IRC have also promoted the IRC "Cash First" policy across country programs to support more consideration fo cash during the development of program proposals. 

    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?

    IRC maintain a tracker of our opportunities to develop and promote thought leadership from the IRC which includes these products for cash programming. 

    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
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    One of the challenges to completing research on cash programs is aligning research timeframes with ongoing programs and identifying cash programs that have the appropriate scale and context to enable a robust study to be completed. 

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

    • Co-leading the Grand Bargain cash workstream workplan priority on 'Measuring Value for Money, efficiency, effectiveness and outcomes' in 2018 beginning with a workshop in April.
    • IRC will implement cash research projects on the use of cash for health outcomes and integrating protection into cash programs.
    • IRC supported a Iraq Cash Consortium to conduct rigorous, comparable analyses of their cost-transfer ratios. This is still in process, but we expect to share the results. 

    Keywords

    Cash, Displacement, Gender, Local action

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

    Individual Commitments (10)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Recognizing the rising severity and number of humanitarian emergencies, the IRC commits to dedicate resources to respond concurrently to four emergencies and support survival at scale within 72 hours of breaking crises by 2020.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • The IRC commits to a new approach to addressing humanitarian need and reducing vulnerability by orienting all of its efforts toward delivering on key outcome areas critical to the lives of those affected by disaster and conflict: Economic Wellbeing, Safety, Health, Education and Power. IRC will use its new Outcomes and Evidence Framework (OEF) - which includes evidence-based theories of change and core indicators - as a tool aimed at ensuring real progress towards reducing vulnerability and improving the resilience, self-reliance and protection of refugees, IDPs and host communities.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to advocating for and advancing thinking toward enhanced collaboration between a wider set of actors in response to humanitarian crises over more appropriate timeframes based on its experience in delivering evidence-based outcomes.
    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • The IRC commits to advocating for and advancing thinking towards a "New Approach for Response to Protracted Forced Displacement" based on its experience in delivering evidence-based outcomes.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to making all of its programs evidence-based or evidence-generating by 2020. This means that programs are based on theories of change informed by the best available evidence and that all programs monitor outcomes. Where programs do not have strong evidence, it is investing time and resources in creating the most meaningful, actionable and useful evidence for staff and others in the humanitarian community upon which to base program decisions. This means focusing attention on generating high-quality evidence across various contexts that: addresses pertinent and pressing challenges to achieving our outcomes; contributes to and is based on an existing body of knowledge; fills critical gaps in our current understanding; and serves relevant decision-making by humanitarian practitioners and policymakers. IRC's use of this evidence will promote the implementation of high-impact and cost-effective programs, and enable it to influence the adoption and scale of such interventions by peer practitioners to achieve significant and sustained improvements in the lives of crisis-affected populations.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to making its new Outcomes and Evidence Framework a public resource for use by other organizations and to inform similar efforts among major donors and institutions.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC commits to simultaneously conducting needs assessments that lead to accountable programs for early recovery and tailoring programs with communities to ensure a connection from relief to recovery.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • The IRC has committed to focus its programming and define its program success on the basis of measurable improvements in people's lives in five outcome areas: Health, Economic Wellbeing, Safety, Education and Power. Further, the increasingly protracted nature of displacement and sheer number of people affected by conflict requires humanitarian and development institutions to align efforts around clear, measurable and jointly shared goals. This is needed to increase the impact of collective actions, determine sustainable solutions and better respond to the needs of conflict-affected and displaced people no matter where they live.


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

    • The IRC will help strengthen existing Solutions Alliance national groups, establish new ones where appropriate and engage at country level to foster greater collaboration among all stakeholders, namely governments, UN agencies, donors and civil society.


    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • The IRC will leverage its role as member of the Executive Board of the Solutions Alliance to develop guidance on how specifically UN agencies, governments, bilateral donors and NGOs can work together to establish joint outcomes, planning, budgeting, implementation and collective learning.
    • 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

    International Rescue Committee published and promoted two reports: Refugee Compacts (with the Center for Global Development) and Towards a New Global Compact on Refugees: Early Lessons from East Africa, which identified challenges and progress towards bridging the humanitarian-development divide, and offered recommendations for best practices. Refugee Compacts was launched at an event featuring leadership from IRC, Center for Global Development (CGD), World Bank, and Jordan. Early Lessons was launched at a UNGA side event (co-hosted with Save the Children).

    IRC spoke at a Global Compact on Refugees consultation about how to identify and fill data/evidence gaps to improve joint analysis and planning towards shared outcomes.

    IRC partnered with the Ugandan government and UN agencies on a Solidarity Summit event on the role of humanitarian and development actors and civil society at the humanitarian-development nexus to support refugees and host communities.

    IRC’s CEO/President spoke at UN OCHA’s Global Humanitarian Policy Forum (GHPF) on the importance of developing shared outcomes for refugees.

    Other-4C

    IRC continued to roll out the Outcomes and Evidence Framework across its country programs. All IRC country programs, including new operations in Europe, have developed strategic action plans (SAPs), providing contextually informed decisions on the five IRC outcomes (Health, Safety, Economic Wellbeing, Education and Power) that country programs will focus on through 2020. IRC updated the evidence base in the Interactive Outcome and Evidence Framework (iOEF), which remains freely accessible. Since its launch (2016), the iOEF has been used by 10,000+ users from across 144 countries. IRC technical units have used the evidence to develop program guidance across outcomes. IRC teams at headquarters and in the field have used iOEF theories of change to guide their work. In the last quarter of 2017 alone, 75% of projects were designed using the theories of change and 72% of projects were designed based on best available evidence.

    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.
    • Other: Donor Reports
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Monitoring implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) using a case study methodology, and tracking language in drafts of the Global Compact on Refugees. The Program Quality team has established metrics that record IRC's technical influence, for instance, the number and types of policy targets/institutions with whom IRC engage and whether IRC's research-based recommendations have been taken up.

    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.
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    There remain few examples of where there is a joint outcome-setting, analysis and/or planning between humanitarian and development actors, with governments and other key stakeholders. It is challenging to drive change without enough experiences that test hypotheses and catalogue lessons. 

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

    • Track rollout of the CRRF and World Bank financing, including via country case studies that will identify constraints and opportunities for better joined-up responses to protracted refugee crises.
    • Advocate with UNHCR, the World Bank and other donors for multiyear financing to align with long-term nature of crises.
    • Provide feedback on drafts of the Global Compact on Refugees, with a focus on the need for multi-stakeholder approaches and a set of collective outcomes.

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

    Greater collective leadership to turn rhetoric into action. There has been significant discussion at leadership levels across the UN system, the World Bank, and NGOs to work better together. Specific guidance, such as through the Global Compact on Refugees, should outline how to shift from business as usual to a model that demonstrates a better way of working together to achieve collective outcomes. More funding to generate evidence particularly around interventions targeting forcibly displaced populations. 

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

    • IRC and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) are piloting a multi-year approach to programming aligned with IRC Strategic Action Plan outcomes, using our Analysis Driven Agile Programming Techniques (ADAPT).
    • In partnership with Sesame Street, IRC earned US$100 million prize to bring early childhood education to refugee children in the Middle East.

    Keywords

    Displacement, Education, Humanitarian-development nexus

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

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • The IRC will further refine its pioneering costing process in humanitarian interventions and make it publicly available for donors and other organizations to use. Specifically the IRC will: use cost analyses systematically in the IRC's decision-making on new programs; update finance and budget-tracking systems to allow easier cost analysis for future proposals and programs, and publish about its systems so other organizations can learn from its experience; publish the results of its cost analyses reports for public use; raise awareness and use of cost analysis with other actors in the humanitarian sector, including donors and implementers, by promoting a common methodology, a process for incorporating cost analysis into the project management life-cycle, and a standard for what cost data should be reported publicly.


    • 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.

    International Rescue Committee (IRC) rolled out a cost analysis system as mandatory practice in two country offices, and for a subset of projects in an other five country offices. IRC incorporated lessons from past analysis on which approaches and interventions achieve greatest reach and impact per dollar spent, aligned with IRC's Outcomes & Evidence Framework. IRC published examples where cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness have informed our program design, and drafted two pieces documenting the technical details of our methodological process (publication forthcoming). To meet our promotional commitments, a common methodology, and consistent reporting across the sector, IRC participated in conferences. IRC developed a version of its software which can be configured for other NGOs to use, and created a License Agreement to clarify data security and informational rights as other organisations pilot this software. 

    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.
    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
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The fact that value-for-money analysis relies on cross-functional work from Finance, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and IT means that creating dialogue and action towards commitments takes a significant amount of time. Moreover, donors' preference for lowest-cost programs means the value of rigorous cost analysis is sometimes not realized, undermining incentives for quality data. 

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

    IRC will roll out its approach to measuring value-for-money and to using this evidence in program decisions in two additional country programs, and continue to provide support to projects in 30 country offices. IRC will partner with other NGOs to pilot this approach within their own agencies, and synthesize lessons from these engagements with the goal of a jointly governed sector-wide solution for rigorous and consistent cost analysis. 

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

    There has been minimal engagement from donors to shape their reporting systems to encourage or reward rigorous, comparable cost analysis. Donor agencies should align their value for money reporting requirements--individually and with donors--so reporting data can be used for learning. They should also develop guidelines for the benchmarks used to judge value for money, and ensure these are consistent with the costing methodology being applied. 

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

    Developed within the Cash work stream of the Grand Bargain, the Value-for-Money sub-work stream is promising. It can allow for greater harmonization of methodology and metrics at the sector level, and help harness reporting data to learn what approaches offer greatest value for money in what contexts, and why. 

Attachments

  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 3A | Displacement, Urban
  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 4C | Displacement, Humanitarian-development nexus