-
3AReduce and address displacement
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
Belgium took part in the process of the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR). The GCR addresses the gap in the international system for the protection of refugees (e.g. need for more predictable and equitable burden-and responsibility-sharing among States, together with other stakeholders). Belgium actively participated in the formal consultations on the GCR and supported the final text in the UN Third Committee and the UN General Assembly.
Belgium continues to support the approach of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) - including support to refugees/IDPs and host communities - by financing UNHCR interventions in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Nigeria, Yemen, Tanzania, Rwanda and Chad.
Belgium actively engages with the EU and MS in order to develop EU Nexus Action Plans in pilot countries, for example in the development of the EU Action Plan to forced displacement in the framework of the CRRF in Uganda.
B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
- 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)
- Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
- Multi-stakeholder coordination
Keywords
Displacement
-
3DEmpower and protect women and girls
Core Commitments (4)
- Commitment
- Core Responsibility
- Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
- Leave No One Behind
- Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
- Leave No One Behind
- Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
- Leave No One Behind
- Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
- Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
1. 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.
Empowerment of women and girls
Belgium's commitment to the empowerment of women and girls is best reflected by the importance it attaches to protection in extremely challenging contexts such as Yemen, CAR, South Sudan and DRC. A large part of Belgium's support for women and girls, largely channeled through ICRC, UNHCR and UNICEF, aims at ensuring they are protected from grave violations of their rights and their integrity and strengthening their resilience through economical empowerment.
Gender equality programming
Gender equality is an integrated criterion when selecting funding proposals. As a result, more than half of Belgium's earmarked funding foresees gender mainstreaming throughout the entire project cycle.
A good example is Oxfam’s program for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Burundi, DRC and Tanzania, which promotes gender equality by ensuring access and participation of women in mitigation and preparedness activities as well as by promoting women empowerment in program design and implementation and the participation of women in income generating activities and Gender in Emergencies trainings.
Belgium's Development Cooperation has had a gender focal point for many years, though he/she is mainly working with a development perspective. In 2018, the Department for Humanitarian Affairs has also designated a person to follow-up on gender issues, and mostly on Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV).
Sexual and reproductive health
Belgium would like to highlight two specific projects receiving Belgian support for addressing sexual and reproductive rights (SRH):
- NGO Médecins du Monde in Uganda pays specific attention to SRH. On the one hand, the project consolidates the Minimal Initial Service Package for SRH for refugees and host communities, ultimately working towards the delivery of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services. On the other hand, the projects provides access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through legal support services, human rights education, awareness campaigns focusing on legal-aid mechanisms and advocacy at legislative level.
- UNHCR's project in Nigeria pays special attention to sexual and gender-based violence. In its emergency response, UNHCR responds to SGBV by providing legal services to survivors of SGBV receiving legal advice and representation in court.
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
- Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?
As gender is a truly horizontal issue touching upon the entire project cycle - resulting in an enormous variety of gender-related activities - the defining, monitoring, measuring and reporting of key gender aspects is a challenge.
Keywords
Gender
-
4AReinforce, do not replace, national and local systems
Individual Commitments (3)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
-
Belgium already took some steps towards shifting from short-term, fragmented funding to predictable multiyear financing and to allow cash-based programs. The Royal Decree adopted in 2014 allows Belgium to allocate core-funds to international humanitarian organizations on a multi-year base as well as to finance humanitarian programs over 2 years.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Belgium commits to continue to encourage partnerships between international humanitarian organizations and local humanitarian actors in order to strengthen their capacities, international transparency and accountability procedures.
- Partnership
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
-
Recognizing the potentially transformative power of multi-sectoral humanitarian cash transfers Belgium commits to promote the private sector's active role in humanitarian action in order to bring innovative solutions and expertise to transformative partnerships with humanitarian actors that leads to enhanced cash programming in humanitarian contexts; and to continue to work on the implementation of the inaugural humanitarian impact bond in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross, build on this experience and to share acquired the know-how.
- Advocacy
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
Core Commitments (6)
- Commitment
- Core Responsibility
- Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
1. 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.
Building community resilience
The Belgian humanitarian legal framework allows it to support a large panel of activities, ranging from disaster risk reduction and early warning/early action to recovery and rehabilitation. Belgium have also included a Crisis Modifier mechanism in our funding with the National Red Cross.
Belgium has multiple contributions for long-term disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs of NGOs, including strong capacity building components for implementing local actors. 32% of our funding agreements incorporate multi-year institutional capacity strengthening support for local and national responders.
A clear result of our engagement for multi-year DRR programs, is for example the significant increase of sustainable capacity of national red cross societies and their local branches, acting as first responders whenever disaster strikes.
People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)
Within the framework of our 20 million EUR call for innovative projects in 2018, Belgium has funded several projects aiming at strengthening community feedback:
- 1.170.364 EUR for a project from Belgian Red Cross for the development of an 'open source' mobile tool for early warning and early response in Senegalese health care.The 'open source' Community-based surveillance (CBS) has been successfully tested and used for generating healthcare related data in 25 communities. Through real-time, user generated needs assessments and feedback, community-based surveillance (CBS) has been strengthened.
- 1.420.000 EUR for a project from Caritas International Belgium in order to strengthen local humanitarian coordination and community engagement in Kasaï, DRC. The project has realized the development of a digital platform, fed by real-time generated data by local community users and is used by UNICEF, OCHA and Caritas family.
Cash-based programming
Within our support to the Grand Bargain project of VOICE, a workshop was organized to foster the added-value of NGOs for large scale cash-transfer programs.
Belgium funded WFP with 1M euro for 'Block chain technology for cash transfers' (beneficiary identification, registration and cash delivery), reducing transaction costs and scaling up the number of beneficiaries.
In 2018 Belgium has hosted a series of trainings organized by NRC & Cash Cap, part of a project funding from Belgium to NRC. A full week training has build in-depth capacity and understanding on cash-based transfers within (Belgian) humanitarian NGOs. Also, humanitarian officers in the MFA have been trained on cash transfers. They are now able to assess the quality of the cash interventions in funding proposals.
A clear example of where Belgium has increased the routine use of cash is in the Central-African Republic (CAR). We have funded NGO Plan International Belgium with 1.343.000 EUR to implement child protection programs (reintegration and family reunion). This was a very first, as child protection programs had never before been implemented through cash transfers in CAR.
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.
- Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
- Institutional/Internal constraints
- Strengthening national/local systems
B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?
As direct funding of national and local actors is not allowed by the Belgian legal framework, it relies on our partners to channel our funding to local actors. That is also one of the reasons why Belgium is a strong supporter for Country-based Pooled Funds, as they allocate 25% of their funding to local actors.
Keywords
Cash, Community resilience, Local action, People-centred approach, Strengthening local systems
-
4BAnticipate, do not wait, for crises
Individual Commitments (2)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
-
Belgium commits to engage in the Connecting Business Initiative carried out by OCHA, UNDP and UNISDR in the further development of a global portal connecting the international and local private sector to governments, local authorities and implementing organizations that would ensure a coordinated approach from emergency preparedness to response and recovery. Belgium commits to provide EUR 270,000 in funding to support these actions, particularly in the Sahel and the Great Lakes region where there is great potential for this initiative.
- Financial Contribution (EUR 270,000)
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
-
Belgium will assess, as part of an integrated planning cycle, the preparedness activities undertaken in its partner countries which are prone to crisis. In order to ensure a coherent, comprehensive and appropriate approach, this assessment should be done co-jointly with the national, sub-national and local authorities, organizations and communities taking into account the specific needs of women and girls and the role they can play. Belgium will identify financing opportunities within a portfolio approach to address possible shortcomings. The portfolio approach will aim to reduce the barriers between humanitarian and development finance in order to mobilize a balanced mix of humanitarian and development finance. Belgium will identify these opportunities within a 3 to 5 year framework by starting in a pilot country and gradually replicating the support for preparedness to other partner countries incorporating lessons learnt and best practices.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
Core Commitments (3)
- Commitment
- Core Responsibility
- Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Commit to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks through the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as other relevant strategies and programs of action, including the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Commit to improve the understanding, anticipation and preparedness for disaster and climate-related risks by investing in data, analysis and early warning, and developing evidence-based decision-making processes that result in early action.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
1. 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.
Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management (including resilience)
Belgium has multiple contributions for long-term disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs of NGOs. These DRR programs are implemented over the course of 2 years, allowing partners to build sustainable interventions and to address capacity building issues. 32% of our funding agreements incorporate multi-year institutional capacity strengthening support for local and national responders.
Belgium holds a flexible position towards program adaptation during implementation, as it agrees with the principle of a 'crisis modifier'. A crisis modifier provides flexibility regarding the re-allocation of budget according to changing circumstances. The program “Capacity building for DRR using Multi-Purpose Cash in Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda” of Belgian Red Cross, activated a crisis modifier (amount 6.500 EUR) in order to respond to a ferry accident on Lake Victoria (Tanzania).
In 2018, Belgium agreed with the IFRC that our contribution can in the future be used by the new window for early action/forecast-based financing of the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) (as was already the case for the early action of FAO's Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation (SFERA). DREF and SFERA now enjoy greater flexibility using Belgium's contributions aiming to translate evidence-based warnings into anticipatory actions to reduce the risk and impact of increasing humanitarian needs.
B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
- Global Partnership for Preparedness
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.
- Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
- Institutional/Internal constraints
-
4CDeliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides
Individual Commitments (9)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
-
As a member of the International Network on Conflict and Fragility, Belgium commits to implement the Stockholm Declaration commitments to "provide smarter, more effective, and more targeted development support in fragile and conflict affected situations, not least in protracted humanitarian crises" and to "work more closely with development and humanitarian actors and promote increased incorporation of conflict-sensitive and longer-term development approaches and financing into humanitarian operations in protracted crisis situations to achieve collective outcomes, by: (i) Investing in capacity building of local organisations and actors, in particular facilitating their involvement in the planning and implementation of humanitarian programmes, and by using on the job training. As part of this, focusing on strengthening government data collection systems and statistical capacity. (ii) Actively sharing data between humanitarian and development organisations, using that data and knowledge - including knowledge about refugees, internally displaced people and host communities, and the obstacles to return - to inform shared risk and context analyses, using these analyses to develop risk-informed programming, and to monitor the achievement of collective and sustainable outcomes. (iii) Providing the right financial incentives - including more multi-annual funding allocations - for different actors to work more coherently over multiple years; ensuring that each actor's individual efforts work towards common, context-specific, goals and collective SDG outcomes: overcoming the factors that have led these states and societies to be exposed to fragility and shocks. (iv) Stepping up financial and political investments in the reduction of fragile situations and in the prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, including through arms control. (v) Securing the participation and involvement of crisis affected people and communities in the planning and implementation of humanitarian and development initiatives, and heeding their voices. Ensuring the voices of grass roots organisations, including women's groups, are heard at national level, and strengthening the listening skills of field personnel. (vi) Supporting financial and physical infrastructure to create the enabling environment for viable local economies, including maritime economies. (vii) Empowering field personnel to plan, make decisions, and adapt programming to suit the needs of rapidly evolving environments. (viii) Creating an environment that encourages learning from mistakes as well as the active sharing of information between different actors.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
-
Belgium commits to continue to participate in discussions aimed at encouraging local organizations to explore ways to structure themselves that will ensure better coordination and the easing of future initiatives in terms of direct funding.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
-
Belgium commits to continue to respect and operationalize the principles and concepts of the Oslo Guidelines (guidelines on the use of military and civil defense assets to support humanitarian activities in complex emergencies) with a special focus on common humanitarian civil-military standards for coordinating foreign military assets in humanitarian assistance.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Belgium commits to join the reflection on a digital platform accessible to every humanitarian actor that gathers information on consolidated needs assessments, implemented and coordinated activities and levels of funding.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Belgium commits to reflect on and invest in digital solutions for information collection, management, analysis and dissemination as well as in the provision of humanitarian assistance in order to meet the needs for a more efficient aid provision and for a better access to beneficiaries.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
-
Belgium emphasizes the need for innovative solutions within the humanitarian setting. Belgium therefore commits to earmark part of its budget for digital solutions.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Belgium recognizes the added value of big data and digitalization as transformative powers and pivotal instruments in enabling insights for decision making and in amplifying the possibilities to better coordinate humanitarian and development efforts. Belgium therefore commits to continue streamlining the issue of digitalization in all its humanitarian and development policies.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Belgium will support OCHA and its work on the reform of the humanitarian system and simultaneously engage in a dialogue with humanitarian UN agencies to ensure their support to this process.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
- Belgium will use its positions on the boards of international organizations, agencies and financial institutions to ensure a comprehensive approach to the management of man-made and natural hazards.
- Advocacy
- 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
Complementary to its humanitarian funding, Belgium has developed a budget line for Transitional Development, in order to address the humanitarian-development nexus. In terms of funding for transitional development, a budget of 9 million EUR has been allocated to various projects in Burundi, the DRC and the Lake Chad Basin in 2018.
Belgium has also made a new contribution of 3 million EUR to the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, aiming to bridge the humanitarian-development divide.
Belgium has been actively involved in the redaction of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) recommendation on Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus and in the development of the EU Action Plan to forced displacement in the framework of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Uganda.
Investing in disaster risk reduction
Belgium's legal framework allows it to support a large panel of activities, ranging from disaster risk reduction and early warning/early action to recovery and rehabilitation.
Belgium has multiple contributions for long-term disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs of NGOs. These DRR programs are implemented over the course of 2 years, allowing partners to build sustainable interventions and to address capacity building issues. 32% of Belgium's funding agreements incorporate multi-year institutional capacity strengthening support for local and national responders.
Looking at the past three years (2016 - 2018), the total amount of specific DRR funding has been around 10 million EUR per year, channeled through Belgian NGOs implementing long-term DRR programs in the Great Lakes Region and in the Sahel.
A clear result of our engagement for multi-year DRR programs, is the significant increase of sustainable capacity of national red cross societies and their local branches, for example those supported by the Flemish Red Cross in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania.
B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
- Global Partnership for Preparedness
- 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.
- Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
- Multi-stakeholder coordination
- Strengthening national/local systems
Keywords
Disaster Risk Reduction, Displacement, Humanitarian-development nexus
-
5AInvest in local capacities
Individual Commitments (3)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
- Belgium commits to continue to examine the opportunity to finance flexible funds dedicated to and managed by local actors.
- Financial
- Invest in Humanity
-
Belgium commits to continue to participate in discussions aimed at encouraging local organizations to explore ways to structure themselves that will ensure better coordination and the easing of future initiatives in terms of direct funding.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Belgium commits to engage with country-based pooled fund advisory committees to ensure that they timely and swiftly respond to sudden onset small and medium scale emergencies.
- Partnership
- 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.
Direct funding to national/local actors
Belgium's legal framework does not allow direct funding of national and local actors. For that reason, Belgium is dependent on its partners and financing mechanisms (such as CBPF) to work with local actors.
Country-based pooled funds
Belgium continues to increase its funding to Country-based Pooled Funds, as these are well placed to shorten the delivery chain to local actors and to build their capacity. In 2018, Belgium channeled 38.9 million EUR through eleven Country-based Pooled Funds (within a multi-year funding framework), making Belgium the number 5 donor for CBPF in 2018.
Belgium's continued support to CBPFs enables national and local actors to increasingly access international humanitarian action.Two out of eleven CBPF receiving Belgian funding (Yemen HF and Nigeria HF), have in 2018 developed designated funding windows for national and local NGOs. This has strengthened funding lines directly accessible to these organizations.
Capacity building of national/local actors
Belgium has multiple contributions for long-term disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs of NGOs. These DRR programs are implemented over the course of two years, allowing partners to build sustainable interventions and to address capacity building issues. 32% of Belgium's funding agreements incorporate multi-year institutional capacity strengthening support for local and national responders.
A clear result of our engagement for multi-year DRR programs, is the significant increase of sustainable capacity of national red cross societies and their local branches, for example those supported by the Flemish Red Cross in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania.
B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
- Global Partnership for Preparedness
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)
- Preparedness
- Strengthening national/local systems
Keywords
Country-based pooled funds, Local action
-
5DFinance outcomes, not fragmentation: shift from funding to financing
Individual Commitments (3)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
-
Belgium already took some steps towards shifting from short-term, fragmented funding to predictable multiyear financing and to allow cash-based programs. The Royal Decree adopted in 2014 allows Belgium to allocate core-funds to international humanitarian organizations on a multi-year base as well as to finance humanitarian programs over 2 years.
- Financial
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Belgium commits to continue to provide special support to flexible funds such as country-based pooled funds, instruments that allow a context-based approach and a local response wherever it is possible by directly financing local actors and reinforcing their capacities.
- Financial
- Invest in Humanity
-
Belgium will assess, as part of an integrated planning cycle, the preparedness activities undertaken in its partner countries which are prone to crisis. In order to ensure a coherent, comprehensive and appropriate approach, this assessment should be done co-jointly with the national, sub-national and local authorities, organizations and communities taking into account the specific needs of women and girls and the role they can play. Belgium will identify financing opportunities within a portfolio approach to address possible shortcomings. The portfolio approach will aim to reduce the barriers between humanitarian and development finance in order to mobilize a balanced mix of humanitarian and development finance. Belgium will identify these opportunities within a 3 to 5 year framework by starting in a pilot country and gradually replicating the support for preparedness to other partner countries incorporating lessons learnt and best practices.
- Operational
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
Core Commitments (3)
- Commitment
- Core Responsibility
- Commit to enable coherent financing that avoids fragmentation by supporting collective outcomes over multiple years, supporting those with demonstrated comparative advantage to deliver in context.
- Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
- Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
- Invest in Humanity
- Commit to broaden and adapt the global instruments and approaches to meet urgent needs, reduce risk and vulnerability and increase resilience, without adverse impact on humanitarian principles and overall action (as also proposed in Round Table on "Changing Lives").
- Invest in Humanity
1. 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.
The proportion of Belgium's flexible, unearmarked funding has further increased. In 2018, Belgium raised its core funding from 20 to 30 million EUR and has kept a stable funding level for flexible funds (60 million EUR). This brings the proportion of flexible, unearmarked funding to a record high of 53%, compared to 49.7% in 2017 – largely exceeding the Grand Bargain target of 30%. For the first time ever, less than half of Belgium's funding (47%) was heavily earmarked. Belgium has taken the next step towards the ambitious target it has set: reaching 60% of flexible, unearmarked funding by 2020.
Since the adoption of a modern humanitarian funding instrument in 2014, 3 out of 4 financial instruments of Belgian humanitarian aid (core funding, flexible funds and programs) engage resources on a multi-year basis. 71.8% of Belgium's 2018 funding was allocated within a multi-year engagement, leaving only 28.2% as short term (1 year) funding.
Belgium has kept committed to the CERF (with a contribution of 12.5M EUR in 2018) to help ensure its expansion to $1 billion. In December 2018, Belgium announced its annual contribution to CERF will in 2019 grow from 12.5 to 17 million EU per year, no less than a 36% increase.
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)
- Information management/tools
B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?
Compared to earmarked funding, resources allocated to the core budgets of international organizations and to flexible humanitarian funds, enjoy less donor visibility. It is therefore necessary that recipient organizations keep strengthening reporting and information sharing for these flexible contributions.
3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?
Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPF) should be able to attract a more diversified and enlarged donor base, to reach their target of funding 15% of Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs). There should also be more visibility for donors of unearmarked funds. In order to make flexible funding attractive to donors, reporting and transparency standards must be of high quality. Timely and reliable information of how the resources are used is essential.
Keywords
Country-based pooled funds
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5EDiversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency
Individual Commitments (4)
- Commitment
- Commitment Type
- Core Responsibility
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Belgium commits to continue its contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help ensure its expansion to $1 billion annually by 2018.
- Financial
- Invest in Humanity
- Belgium endorses the commitments taken under the Grand Bargain.
- Financial
- Invest in Humanity
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In line with the initiative "Publish What You Fund", Belgium commits to making its humanitarian aid transparent by publishing all humanitarian aid data to the IATI Standard, by the end of 2017, increasing its frequency of publication during sudden onset emergencies.
- Financial
- Invest in Humanity
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ODA should increasingly be used as "seed money" to attract the untapped potential of alternative sources, including private ones. Hence, Belgium has prioritized the private sector in its development cooperation, while strictly abiding to the principle of untied aid.
- 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.
As a humanitarian donor, Belgium has worked to foster a culture of innovation for the last few years, and particularly in 2018. This engagement - financial and strategic - for humanitarian innovation was designed to help progress towards achieving the commitments made at the WHS and within the Grand Bargain. Through the launch of a 20 million EUR project appeal, Belgium has provided support to 12 high-potential projects developing technologies and approaches in order to scale-up efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian action.
Belgium also calls for enhanced partnerships with researchers and the private sector. Belgium started the preparations of a Humanitarian Hackathon (held in January 2019), bringing humanitarian actors and the private sector to brainstorm on key obstacles within the system. Together with ICRC, Belgium continued pushing for Humanitarian Impact Bonds as an innovative way to bring much needed additional resources and actors to humanitarian action.
Together with NRC, Belgium hosted a series of trainings on cash-based transfers, fostering knowledge on cash-based transfers within humanitarian NGOs. With the ICRC, Belgium organized seminars on the "Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Action". Belgium participated in four "Innovation lunches” organized by Médecins du Monde and Humanity and Inclusion and participated in a panel on digital solutions at the Aidex conference in Brussels.
A specific paragraph on the value Belgium attaches to the implementation of the Grand Bargain by its stakeholders was added to the funding agreements for multi-year (2018-2020) core contributions. The agreements specifically mention that “the effective translation of these commitments into concrete action will be taken into account when Belgium will decide on its new financing cycle for core contributions (2021-2023)”.
Belgium's internal database Prisma publishes timely, transparent, harmonized and open quality data. All data on Belgium's funding is fully compliant with IATI's international transparency standards.
B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
- Grand Bargain
- New Way of Working
- The Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation
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.
- Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
- Buy-in
B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?
Bringing the Grand Bargain and system reform to the field level is challenging. Belgium therefore supported and collaborated with VOICE, aiming at fostering NGOs and frontline responder engagement, thereby contributing to an inclusive and more contextualized implementation of the Grand Bargain.
Keywords
Innovation, Transparency / IATI