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Self Report 2019

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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    IRC achieved the following progress related to these commitments:

    1. Co-hosted and/or spoke at six events with donors, UN agencies, and civil society organizations to advocate for greater attention to GBV in emergencies.

    2. Co-led the NGO Working Group of the Call to Action (CtA) on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies and successfully advocated for the adoption of the GBV Accountability Framework, developed by the Real-Time Accountability Partnership, which the IRC has led, by the CtA.

    3. Published "Girl Shine," a program model and resource package to empower adolescent girls in humanitarian settings, disseminating it through multiple webinars and currently implementing in 25 countries.

    4. Published the Mobile and Remote GBV Service Delivery Guidelines and disseminated learnings through multiple webinars and distribution to NGOs.

    5. Held 3 regional GBV Emergency Preparedness and Response Training of Trainers (ToT) courses in East Africa, Middle East and South East Asia in April, July and September 2018 through Building Local, Thinking Global, reaching 59 technical trainers.

    6. Published "A New Framework for Addressing Intersections of Violence Against Women and Girls with State-building and Peace-building" and associated policy and research briefs through leadership of the What Works consortium, funded by DFID.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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?

    Though women and girls make up 50%+ of displaced peoples, humanitarian aid is often not designed or delivered with women and girls or with their specific needs in mind. The shifts required to eliminate the gender gap in programs and policies requires holistic, systemic changes, supported by long-term funding.

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

    Systemic change will not happen overnight, but taking a feminist approach to humanitarian aid, which prioritizes both the inputs and needs of women and girls; increasing funding and ease of tracking funding for both GBV and gender equality; increasing the number of women in leadership roles; implementing the GBV Accountability Framework; and putting more emphasis on accountability directly to women and girls themselves are a few places to start.  

    Keywords

    Gender

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Refugees

    IRC continues to champion the first principle of the Urban Crises Charter that INGOs prioritize local municipal leadership in determining responses to urban crisis. In 2018, IRC continued partnerships with municipalities in cities including Amman and Athens and created new partnerships with municipalities in Kampala and Maiduguri. IRC has opened communication with over 20 host municipalities worldwide and has sought to enter into programmatic relationships with these municipalities wherever feasible. In Amman, IRC and the Greater Amman Municipality opened a community center in East Amman to jointly deliver services to East Amman residents, which include refugees. In addition to fieldwork, IRC advocated for collective action in line with the Urban Crises Charter through the publication of the Urban Refuge report, which was presented at the UNHCR Strategic Dialogue and at IRC-hosted events in NY and Geneva.

    Additionally, IRC, in collaboration with partners, advocated for the Global Compact on Refugees to expand solutions for refugees and include strong commitments to creating the conditions for safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable solutions. IRC has also undertaken research with DRC to look at lessons learned and the operational challenges and opportunities for (re)integration of refugees, namely to urban areas in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria.

    Other

    IRC provided in-person and web-based training to resettlement and integration practitioners from 14 countries (Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Uruguay) to support emerging resettlement programs. The EURITA.org website was launched to provide access to resources and materials on Case Management Strategies, Economic Empowerment, Information Sharing, Interpretation and Language Access and Community Engagement. IRC also continued its engagement with EU policymakers and donors and received funding to provide resettlement and integration technical assistance to EU member states through 2020.  

    Additionally, IRC partnered with multilaterals, INGOs, and academics from Harvard, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Columbia to design and implement research studies.  IRC conducted 35 of the roughly 150 high quality impact evaluations conducted with refugees or in conflict- affected contexts.  IRC also completed 16 studies, including 8 impact evaluations in 18 countries in Health, Safety, Education, and Power outcome areas in 2018.  Considerable evidence generation has also occurred around reducing malnutrition and family violence, as well as improving literacy, numeracy, and social emotional learning.  IRC also completed a rapid evidence review commissioned by the World Bank on interventions targeting forcibly displaced populations. As of 2018, IRC's studies have been shared through 65 peer-reviewed publications.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • A Global Undertaking on Health in Crisis Settings
    • Education Cannot Wait
    • Global Alliance for Urban Crises
    2. 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
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Research funding has been tied to smaller projects and there is a gap in learning, namely in existing data and analysis lacking adequate implementation. Humanitarian actors have been reluctant to move beyond sectoral and direct delivery funding and programming. Lastly, integration must occur at a local level and include civil society in planning and policymaking.

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

    Coordination between national governments and local stakeholders must be improved and there must be a focus on promoting locally-led, resilience-focused approaches to urban displacement.  There is also a necessity for continued advocacy with UNHCR and UN Member States to implement the Global Compact on Refugees and expand solutions for refugees in protracted crises.  Lastly, greater joint-up planning must occur around research topics at the nexus of crises and development, as well as funding to support research evidence in programming.

    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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Gender equality programming

    In 2018, the IRC continued to update its operational infrastructure to carry out gender equality programming commitments. Investments include creating and hiring for the position of Deputy Director position to the 11 person Gender Equality Unit (GEU), and continuing the practice of having regional and technical experts to support programmes across IRC's offices. Additionally, the following was achieved in 2018:

    1. All IRC leaders made commitments to the CEO towards preventing sexual exploitation and abuse.

    2. Over 1800 IRC staff were trained on Gender Equality; another 1,000 staff were trained on prevention of sexual harassment.

    3. 222 staff have become official Gender Equality Champions.

    4. 11 "Women at Work" female staff only groups have been formed in international programming.

    5. Gender Equality is a cross-cutting expectation for 2019 country planning across all country teams.

    6. IRC's gender equality policy and anti-harassment policy were core components of mandatory review/training on IRC core values and expectations of staff.

    7. The IRC has begun, and will soon finalize, a "Gender Equality Scorecard" to analyze its own progress towards gender equality in policy, programming and operations.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    • The Connecting Business Initiative
    2. 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?

    Patriarchal norms in the humanitarian system mean that the hiring and promotion of female staff and taking into account the needs of women and girls for programming is not automatic for all, which also can put IRC staff, particularly in remote locations, at risk. 

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

    The humanitarian community must make gender equality a collective goal against which we are measured rigorously. This includes system-wide reporting and serious follow-up on sexual exploitation and abuse; ensuring women are more represented in humanitarian organizations, particularly at the leadership level; and giving special attention to cultural change within the masculine humanitarian system to be more inclusive and safe for women.

    Keywords

    Gender

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    During the 2017-2018 academic year, the IRC reached over 1.5 million children affected by conflict and crisis globally with safe, quality educational opportunities. The IRC continued to conduct 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—as well as how, where, for whom, under what conditions, and at what cost. Findings from Niger were shared at the GPE replenishment conference in Dakar. The IRC also conducted a randomized controlled trial alongside programs in Nigeria to build the evidence on what works--as well as under what conditions and at what cost-- to improve the learning and transition outcomes of out-of-school children. Furthermore, we began implementation of our early childhood development (ECD) program with Sesame Workshop in the Syria response region, which will be the largest ECD intervention in a humanitarian context in history.

    To further shape the direction and priorities of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the IRC:

    - Provided input in two rounds of the strategy for the Acceleration Facility

    - Met with ECW Director Yasmin Sharif and Gordon Brown to share thoughts on ECW's direction during UNGA 2018

    - Met with Graham Lang and Christian Stoff, two senior education advisors, to share research findings and work that the IRC is undertaking alongside NYU to develop and pilot valid, reliable measures of children's holistic learning and development outcomes in crisis contexts

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Education Cannot Wait
    2. 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
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Education in crisis contexts experiences insufficient, short-term, fragmented funding that poses a barrier to scaling quality programs that achieve outcomes, and conducting research to generate and share evidence that informs policy, funding and program decisions to reach the most children with the greatest impact.  

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

    In 2019, IRC will continue to conduct rigorous research alongside programs globally and share evidence so that it is used to inform impactful policies and programs. IRC will also roll out a toolkit comprised of tested, user-friendly, valid, reliable measures of children's learning and holistic development for use in crisis contexts, as well as coaching and training materials to ensure the measures are easy to use.

    Keywords

    Displacement, 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

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

    The IRC has worked to identify replicable processes for how jobs can be created efficiently in displacement contexts through the 1 Million Jobs Challenge. IRC is designing and testing specific job matching algorithms in Jordan; conducting research and piloting interventions addressing barriers to labor market integration for women in Kenya, Niger and Germany; and partnering with the private sector to test solutions through the founding of the Business Refugee Action Network (BRAN).

    The IRC has also furthered its progress towards its strategic commitment to Client-Responsive Programming.  IRC identified a set of Good and Great Standards that explicitly define milestones for how our country teams should systematically collect and use client feedback to inform programing decisions.  IRC finalized and tested a complete set of resources (tools and guidance) to support our country programs in implementing effective feedback practices. Twenty-nine of our country teams selected Client Responsiveness as a strategic priority for their continued investment.  IRC further developed our understanding of how incentives influence country team behavior around the use of feedback through dedicated research projects, through which we have developed resources to support and encourage country teams to overcome existing barriers to consulting and collaborating with clients.

    Cash-based programming

    The IRC progressed its commitment to cash programming through a comprehensive strategy for delivery of cash across sectors which includes evidence reviews, target setting, internal capacity building, and development of sector-specific training and program models. The proportion of IRC assistance delivered as cash increased 8.32 percentage points, from 17.68% in FY17 to 26% in FY18.

    IRC researched the impact of cash transfers in Raqqa Governorate, Syria, on women’s experiences of violence and well-being. The IRC also led a toolkit adaptation research project that took the findings of formative research and looked at ways to improve the safety of cash programming.

    IRC also developed a report on Seven Steps to Scaling Cash Relief: Driving Outcomes and Efficiency to reflect IRC's experience of steps taken towards our 25% target. IRC co-chair the cash work stream subgroup on cost efficiency and effectiveness.

    Lastly, the IRC participates in the Collaborative Cash Delivery Platform with 15 peer organizations for improving efficiency and effectiveness of cash delivery.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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?

    With regards to data and analysis, IRC need a deeper evidence base for the benefit of Client Responsiveness for the effectiveness of its programming.  Regarding institutional and internal constraints, it must be acknowledged that Client Responsiveness competes with other organizational priorities. Lastly, from a funding perspective, country teams need dedicated focal points for Client Responsiveness.

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

    There is a necessity for implementing organizations and research organizations, with the support of donor funding, to generate evidence around the connection between people-centered approaches/client Responsiveness and aid effectiveness.  Additionally, implementing organizations must adhere to quality standards around AAP.  Lastly, donors must provide dedicated funding for Client Responsiveness staff and capacity strengthening for other staff.

    Keywords

    Cash, Local action, People-centred approach

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Preparedness

    Relevant data is not yet available at this time. IRC will provide this information as soon as possible.

    2. 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.
    • Human resources/capacity
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Relevant data is not yet available at this time. IRC will provide this information as soon as possible.

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

    Relevant data is not yet available at this time. IRC will provide this information as soon as possible.

    Keywords

    Preparedness

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

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

    IRC ensured that all programming aligned to clearly defined outcomes and that program choices where based on evidence and theories of change. Country programs reviewed and updated their Strategic Action Plans that outline the outcomes country teams and their partners will work towards to address the needs of the populations in their operating contexts. IRC also revised its core indicators, identifying priority indicators for standardization across the organization to provide programs with comprehensive guidance to select, collect, analyze and use meaningful indicators on performance and outcomes. 

    IRC also launched the Evidence-Based Decision Making project to improve effectiveness and program quality by using evidence and cost data to inform whether and how IRC implement specific interventions.Our publicly accessible electronic platform, iOEF, continued to be used externally, attracting approximately 5,745 new users across 132 countries.

    Lastly, IRC published and promoted at global and local levels case studies on the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework roll out in Ethiopia and Uganda.  These case studies analyzed and offered recommendations for better coordination and collaboration between humanitarian and development actors and called for the creation of collective outcomes.

    Financing Collective outcomes

    IRC published and promoted several products on development financing to refugee crises and financing towards collective outcomes. These included: an article for PRI on a "solidarity package" for Bangladesh; two policy briefs, Tackling the Realities of Forced Displacement and 5 Ways to Improve the World Bank's IDA18 Refugee Sub-window (all with the Center for Global Development); and two case studies on World Bank financing of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework roll out in Uganda and Ethiopia. Some of our findings were released at a public event in spring 2018, with leadership from the World Bank, IRC, CGD, and Jordan.

    Other

    IRC advocated for the inclusion of collective outcomes, targets and indicators in the Global Compact for Refugees, and also wrote the report "Will It Make a Difference?  Towards A Global Compact on Refugees that Actually Works."  IRC has also been working with UNHCR, the World Bank and other partners to develop a set of indicators.

    Additionally, IRC, with the Overseas Development Institute, released a report on progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for crisis-affected populations entitled "SDG Progress: Fragility, Crisis, and Leaving No One Behind." The report calls for using the SDGs as a framework for collective outcomes for refugees. 

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    • New Way of Working
    2. 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
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    There are too few contexts with adequate joined-up humanitarian-development planning and analysis to learn lessons from. NGOs and refugees need to be consulted regularly.

    Additionally, it is difficult to measure and assess performance and gaps that need to be filled and there has been insufficient use across stakeholders of investment in data and analysis.

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

    There is a necessity for continued discussion on shared outcomes and joint planning, as well as continued investment in multi-stakeholder collaboration around research and use of evidence and cost to inform decision-making

    We must develop a set of collective outcomes, targets, and indicators through the Global Compact on Refugees Implementation process.  Development donors must standardize how they include refugees and NGOs in decision-making and must work with humanitarians beyond UN agencies.  UN agencies must pass on multiyear funding to implementing partners.

    Keywords

    Displacement, Humanitarian-development nexus

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • 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 (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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Capacity building of national/local actors

    The IRC invested heavily in continuing to build local capacities this year. Through Building Local, Thinking Global, a program supported by the US Government, the IRC held 3 regional GBV Emergency Preparedness and Response Training of Trainers (ToT) courses in East Africa, Middle East and South East Asia. This resulted in a cohort of 59 trainers on GBV Emergency Preparedness and Response, with many of them following-up through training of their own within and outside their organizations.

     In 2018, the IRC also launched the "Listen Up" project, also supported by the US Government, which aims to raise the voices of women and girls themselves and change organizational culture to help improve the humanitarian system's response to sexual exploitation and abuse.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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?

    Local capacity often exists in humanitarian contexts through already-formed women's organizations. These organizations often face tremendous obstacles in accessing humanitarian funding when the need arises, or being brought in to decision-making discussions by those coordinating humanitarian responses. 

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

    It is necessary to make the humanitarian system more accessible to women's organizations, while at the same time build the capacity of women's organizations to understand and engage with the system, including through being able to more readily access funding. Also, holding the system truly accountable for their commitments to "localization" is critical. 

    Keywords

    Gender

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

    Core Commitments (2)

    • 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
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Throughout 2018 the IRC was a strong advocate for flexible multi-year funding of refugee situations in three main global processes: 1) the agreement of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR); 2) the initiatives carried out by the Grand Bargain work stream on multi-year and unearmarked funding; and 3) the role played by the World Bank in financing the roll-out of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in a number of pilot countries.

    IRC was also a leading civil society voice in calling for collective outcomes for refugees and populations affected by crisis. IRC lobbied key governments and UN agencies to ensure these outcomes are the result of a shared understanding of better results for refugees and their host communities.

    In support of IRC's advocacy on multi-year funding, IRC produced briefing papers, press releases and joint statements in coordination with other NGOs, such as DRC, NRC, Oxfam and Save the Children. Second, IRC officially requested to become a member of the Grand Bargain clustered work stream on multi-year and unearmarked funding to the Co-Chairs, Canada and UNICEF. Third, IRC’s President David Miliband sent a letter and a briefer to the Grand Bargain’s Eminent Person, Kristalina Georgieva, to highlight how some UN agencies have yet to pass the multi-year funding they receive from their bilateral donors to their implementing partners.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    • New Way of Working
    2. 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?

    Institutional constraints, particularly within some UN agencies, little coordination in breaking silos between humanitarian and development funding, and risk aversion are among the main reasons why funding for humanitarian crises remains largely unpredictable, even in protracted refugee situations. Short-term funding is bound to produce short-term outcomes.

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

    First, there needs to be a shared vision of collective outcomes for people affected by humanitarian crises, particularly in implementing the Global Compact on Refugees. Second, the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019 must champion multi-year pledges as the standard way of funding refugee situations. Third, the Grand Bargain work stream must advance faster reform by looking into the use of multi-year funding on the ground and securing high-level buy-in.

    Keywords

    Displacement

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    IRC has made significant strides in the take up of cost efficiency analysis internally and externally. Cost evidence is now integrated in IRC's program design processes and technical guidance generated for interventions. The Systematic Cost Analysis Tool (SCAN), which was designed by the IRC to enable analysis of the total (direct and indirect) resource cost of interventions, is currently in use by 12 IRC country programs. To facilitate more consistent and comparable cost efficiency measurement across the sector, SCAN is being adapted for use by other agencies. Five INGOs (Save the Children, NRC, DRC, Mercy Corps, Oxfam) have piloted SCAN as a tool for cost efficiency analysis. Further, Save the Children and Mercy Corps joined IRC in a consortium to build a redesigned tool for industry-wide adoption. In 2018, the tool was showcased at two global conferences (CE2HA and Food Evidence in Nutrition Summit). IRC also contributed to an increasing volume of publicly available guidance materials by authoring a cost capture guidance note in partnership with the World Bank (publication forthcoming). Through IRC's involvement in the Grand Bargain cash work stream, additional guidance on how to ensure consistency of cost efficiency data across agencies will be made available. 

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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?

    Discrepancies in how finance data is captured by different agencies limits quality and consistency of cost efficiency data. Donor reporting requirements on cost efficiency remain inconsistent, and how donors use this data remains opaque; the threat of cost efficiency overshadowing cost effectiveness remains.

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

    Donor agencies should align on consistent Value-for-Money (VfM) reporting requirements. Requirements need to be considerate of the significant time it takes to execute analysis, and ensure data generated for reporting also facilitates learning for the agency. Donors should provide clarity to grantees on how VfM performance is assessed, clarifying how they ensure program effectiveness is not compromised if setting cost efficiency benchmarks.