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

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • CAFOD commits to the Charter4Change and will fully implement its 8 commitments to change the way it works with, relate to and funds national and local actors in humanitarian action by May 2018. The 8 commitments relate to increasing direct funding to southern-based NGOs for humanitarian action; reaffirming the Principles of Partnership; increasing transparency around resource transfers to southern-based national and local NGOs; stopping undermining local capacity; emphasizing the importance of national actors; addressing subcontracting; ensuring robust organisational support and capacity strengthening; communicating to the media and the public about partners.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Partners: 23 Charter4Change (www.charter4change.org) signatories: CAFOD, Christian Aid; Danish Church Aid; CARE; Caritas Denmark; Caritas Norway; Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan); Cordaid; Diakonia; Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe; Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe; ICCO; Islamic Relief Worldwide; Johanniter International Assistance/Johanniter-Auslandshife; Kerk in Actie; Kindernothilfe e.V.; Norwegian Church Aid; Oxfam; Rescue Global; SCIAF; Terram Pacis; Trocaire; WarChild UK.

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • CAFOD commits to the Charter for Inclusion.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • CAFOD commits to the Core Humanitarian Standard, (CHS) and will continue to promote and adhere to Sphere Minimum Standards and other companion and complementary technical standards for humanitarian response, and will continue to support partners to understand and implement projects in compliance with minimum standards.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    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.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    • CAFOD has a flagship capacity strengthening programme covering six countries with dedicated staff in four countries providing 1-2-1 accompaniment support to partners including mentoring, training, technical guidance and facilitating peer to peer support
    • CAFOD give partners an unearmarked grant to spend as they see fit for organisational strengthening. In six countries CAFOD support one regional, five NNGOs & 10 LNGOs to develop internal systems including staff abilities to prepare and respond to emergencies on the basis of partner self-assessments that identify action plans to improve organisational capacity for humanitarian response. Work is funded by EU Aid Volunteers & Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Caritas Denmark
    •  LNGOs in DRC were supported to establish three regional platforms in Bukavu, Goma & Kinshasa and committed resources to support them to develop a strategy for each platform in 2019.
    • CAFOD promoted N/LNGO role in coordination and leadership structures in Nigeria, Myanmar & Nepal to engage in ECHO funded Accelerating Localisation Through Partnership project.
    • CAFOD supported NEAR network ECHO funded project resulting in 14 LNGOs increasing participation and presence in local, regional & international humanitarian forums, and partners trained in emergency preparedness and advocacy in five countries

    Cash-based programming

    • CAFOD supported cash based programming with partners in Nigeria with ECHO and START funding to respond to the Borno crisis and flooding in Kogi state, supporting a national partner to utilise a digital platform.
    • CAFOD assessed its cash readiness using an internal survey in order to identify areas for future investment and to improve staff understanding of cash programming. In Latakia and Aleppo in Syria CAFOD supported voucher and cash programming with Caritas Syria. Planning was initiated for supporting a program in 2019 in Syria using a digital platform in Homs. 
    • Participation continued within the Caritas Working Group on Cash programming. A cash-based programming (CBP) position paper was developed and initiatives to reach out to other CI members around awareness of CBP continued.

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

    • CAFOD launched the Safe, accessible, dignified and inclusive (SADI) Programming Framework to increase the confidence and skills of programme staff to support safe, dignified and inclusive programming with partners. Staff training in SADI has started and will be complete by end of 2019.
    • SADI ensures people and communities have access to safe, dignified, inclusive, and responsive mechanisms to handle feedback and complaints. Our policy has been revised to put the safety, access, and dignity of people and communities at the heart of CAFOD's work.
    • A new complaints handling system was introduced enabling complaints to be easily logged, directed to the correct handler and tracked to resolution.
    • New Programme Quality Standards (PQS) were developed that align with CHS and CI Management Standards to ensure our programmes and projects are sensitive to the vulnerabilities and capacities of different groups. Our programmes and projects empower people and communities, strengthen local capacities and avoid potentially negative impact.
    • CAFOD as a member of the Caritas confederation continues participation in CI Accountability and Protection Mainstreaming Working Groups, contributing to development of accountability tools & CI protection framework for CI member organisations.

     

     

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Grand Bargain
    • NEAR - Network for Empowered Aid Response
    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 amounts
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Annual funding cycles tied to a specific response are not conducive to long-term organizational capacity building.
    • Stringent, non-flexible donor requirements, that sometimes expect unrealistic results in short time-frames limit our ability to support capacity development of partners.
    • No core costs for NNGOs.

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

    • International actors need to find effective ways to directly support Southern NGO initiatives such as the NEAR network.
    • Global advocacy by INGO's to increase awareness of stringent non-flexible donor requirements which are unsuited to advancing the localisation agenda via initiatives such as Charter4Change and the Grand Bargain.

    Keywords

    Cash, Local action, People-centred approach, Strengthening local systems

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    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

    • CAFOD’s humanitarian capacity strengthening programme supports N/LNGOs to attract and manage institutional funding effectively and to absorb larger quantities of funding. Where there are no immediate opportunities to access direct funding CAFOD supports partners to apply for institutional funding through CAFOD such as the START fund in order to strengthen their capacity to apply and manage funds within a short timeframe.
    • CAFOD has provided accompaniment support to partners throughout the project design, implementation and reporting cycle which enabled them to learn by doing. These partners are now in a much stronger position to access direct funding when the opportunity arises.
    • As a result of ongoing capacity strengthening support to Caritas Myanmar (funded by Caritas Denmark and the Danish MFA) they have passed rigorous compliance checks to access DFID HARP funds.
    • CAFOD have advocated for OCHA managed Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPF's) to increase their direct funding to national actors

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

    • CAFOD has advocated for N/LNGOs to access direct funding through its in-country relationships with donors and global advocacy work eg connecting Caritas Jordan to DFID in Amman
    • CAFOD is leading the process of establishing a START hub in DRC which will improve N&LNGO access to direct funding.
    • CAFOD supported the NEAR network ECHO funded project conducting extensive research into learning on pooled funding. The project consulted with key stakeholders to design 2 local pooled fund mechanisms in Somalia and Nepal.
    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Grand Bargain
    • NEAR - Network for Empowered Aid Response
    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 amounts
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Lack of funding to LNGOs core costs needed to retain staff reduces their ability to grow.
    • Annual funding cycles tied to specific responses is not conducive to long-term organizational capacity building.
    • Stringent donor requirements limit our ability to support the capacity development of partners & access to direct funding.

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

    • Longer-term, flexible investment in N/LNGOs and locally led capacity strengthening initiatives.
    • Proportionate compliance requirements for N/LNGOs.
    • Flexibility to adequately cover N/LNGO management and admin support costs.
    • INGOs to practice more equitable partnerships and be willing to promote role of local actors as well as their own organisational interests.

    Keywords

    Local action, Strengthening local systems