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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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  • 1C
    Remain engaged and invest in stability

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to address root causes of conflict and work to reduce fragility by investing in the development of inclusive, peaceful societies.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • A Global Undertaking on Health in Crisis Settings
    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
    • Human resources/capacity

  • 1D
    Develop solutions with and for people

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Norwegian Church Aid will use its influence with constituencies, civil society and government leaders to promote stability and long-term community reconciliation, strengthen social cohesion and address grievances.
    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    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.

    Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is a member of the ACT Alliance, and is working with the alliance on joint actions to meet WHS commitments.

    A specific action taken by NCA is supporting peace and reconciliation with religious leaders in Burundi. The process started in 2017 and was continued in 2018 with revision and validation of the action plan on peace for Burundi that brings together Catholics, Protestants and Muslims. The Interconfessional Council of Burundi (CICB) was trained by NCA to strengthen its capacities to take the lead in and prepare for implementation of the action plan on peace.

    NCA Burundi has played a key role to resolve the crisis between the government on the one hand and the NGO coordination platform and other institutions and donors such as EU on the other hand. Faith-based organizations (FBOs), including NCA, met with Burundian religious organizations which in turn played a role as intermediates with the government, especially the Finance Ministry, to correct the contentious disposition and enable several I/NGOs, including NCA, to re-register and continue its activities in the country.

    The report of Core Humanitarian Standard 3 evaluation conducted in Burundi under WASH MFA multi-year agreement was delivered in April 2018. Key findings include that NCA and implementing partners work closely with affected communities and their leaders, through consultations and implementation, making use of and strengthening the existing local, provincial and national structures for WASH related emergency response. This humanitarian-development approach enhances local ownership, relevance and sustainability of the implementation.

    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
    • Funding amounts
    • Other: Heavy religious structures and hierarchies; lack of will to cooperate between faiths.
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Heavy religious structures and hierarchies slow down processes, while the lack of will to cooperate with other faiths hinders interfaith cooperation for peace. In addition, lack of funding is hindering strengthening/building local capacities.

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

    Priority should be given to areas where I/NGOs have partner organisations or their own presence through long-term development programmes to strategically link long-term development, disaster risk reduction and emergency response. It is also critical to continue building local capacities in in-country trainings.

    Keywords

    Local action, Religious engagement

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

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Norwegian Church Aid will reinforce and highlight through its work the integral role of faith-based responders in rapid and unimpeded access to communities in need by exhibiting full respect for the humanitarian principles. It will do this by engaging local and national partner organisations in information sharing, awareness raising and capacity building on the practical application of the guiding principles and ensuring complete and contextualized integration of the humanitarian principles into all Norwegian Church Aid's humanitarian responses.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to ensure all populations in need receive rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to promote and enhance efforts to respect and protect medical personnel, transports and facilities, as well as humanitarian relief personnel and assets against attacks, threats or other violent acts.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard 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.

    NCA is a member of Charter for Change (C4C) and hosted a Norwegian C4C stakeholders’ meeting in December 2018. NCA wants to carry out more evidence on the role of local actors. As a follow-up to NCA and ACT Alliance’s participation in the “Localizing Response to Humanitarian Need: the role of religious and faith-based organizations (FBOs)” conference in 2017, NCA Ethiopia initiated in 2018 a platform that aimed to explore the understanding of localization in humanitarian response in the context of faith actors and to bring forth the humanitarian emergency response efforts of FBOs to key stakeholders from the Government, UN agencies and other humanitarian actors. Until June 2018, NCA was co-chair of the advocacy working group that was created at the issue of 2017 localization conference.

    NCA created a Humanitarian Community of Practice (CoP). While no local partner is participating to the CoP yet, local partners participated in various humanitarian trainings in Oslo in 2018 (MHPSS training) and at country level (midwife training, humanitarian principles training in Nigeria).

    In 2018, NCA revised its operations manual chapter 4 on planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting; chapter 5 on partnerships; and chapter 9 on humanitarian emergency. The operations manual is NCA's handbook containing mandatory requirements and templates regulating NCA international programmes, including humanitarian programmes. In addition, the humanitarian division specifically revised humanitarian proposal and report templates.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Charter for Faith-based Humanitarian Action
    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
    • Funding amounts
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    International trainings are very costly, hindering capacity development for NCA national partners.

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

    Continuously build local responders' capacities, privileging less costly trainings at national level rather than costly international trainings, and increase recognition for faith based actors as first responders.

    Keywords

    Religious engagement

  • 2C
    Speak out on violations

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • In an expression of global solidarity with poor and marginalized people, Norwegian Church Aid will amplify the voices that promote human rights and international humanitarian law and speak out against social and structural injustice, such as gender inequality and discriminative practices.




    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard 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.

    Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) initiated the process of developing its new global program framework 2020-2029. Gender-based violence will be one of NCA key three global programmes. Advocacy work will be uplifted, each global framework being organized around three key areas of work including humanitarian, development and advocacy.

    As a core member of the GBV Area of Responsibility (AoR), and as a member of the GBV AoR Policy and Advocacy Reference Group (PARG), NCA contributed to the revision of the PARG briefing paper on the Rohingya crisis which was initially developed and published in 2017, and to the writing of an advocacy paper on Nigeria and sexual violence.

    NCA played a key role in the organization of Created Equal event at the opening of ACT Alliance General Assembly. The event was attended by UN Women Executive Director and marked the soft launch of ACT Gender Justice global campaign. NCA participated – both as co-organizers and participants – in various events to celebrate the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. To do so, NCA sponsored the participation of two GBV survivors from DRC and from the Yezidi community, and other relevant key figures such as Panzi Foundation representatives.

    Supporting youth to speak out: since support to the establishment of an African youth-led advocacy network (REJADH) in 2016, NCA has been supporting the network that advocates on ratification and implementation of Maputo Protocol and promotes women’s rights. The network organized activities targeting religious leaders and decision makers in Burundi, DRC, Mali, South Sudan and Somalia.

    Bringing youth and faith actors to policy platforms: through its regional GBV program, NCA supported youth and faith actors to access policy platforms and influence policy processes. In 2018, NCA supported the participation of its partner AACC to the African Union Gender Pre-Summit and the participation of faith actors and youths from the REJADH network to the ICGLR Gender Ministers meeting to validate the ICGLR regional action plan on U1325. 

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

    The lack of advocacy capacities (in terms of training and human resources at country level) can hinder NCA's ability to speak out. In addition, the resistance of FBOs to buy-in gender as the major campaign of ACT Alliance can limit the Alliance's capacity to advocate against gender injustices.

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

    There is a need to build a common understanding around the concepts of gender justice and gender-based violence and to fully recognize women's rights as human rights. We must also thrive to build local and national actors' capacities on advocacy and to open up policy platforms to give them the opportunity to influence processes that impact their lives and society.

    Keywords

    Gender, Religious engagement, Youth

  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to adopt the IASC statement on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse at the individual agency level.
    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • 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

    In 2018 NCA has joined the Call to Action against Gender-Based Violence and took 17 individual commitments.

    Protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA)

    IASC statement on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) has been incorporated into Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) Code of Conduct and NCA Complaint Mechanism policy. The complaints response mechanism (CRM) policy indicates that NCA country offices should collaborate with the UN/NGO PSEA working group and follow the nationally developed victim assistance strategy and the GBV referral mechanism. The policy also includes a chapter on referral if complaints are outside of NCA’s scope of work and includes prohibition of retaliation against whistle-blowers. One HO staff since 2018 is a certified trainer on investigations for PSEA for CHS Alliance.

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

    All organizations must make sure that organizational policies, such as CRM policies, are known, understood and diligently implemented at country and field level.

    Keywords

    Gender, PSEA

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

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Norwegian Church Aid will continue to demonstrate, learn from, identify and share best practice in local-national-international partnerships, in line with the Principles of Partnership, that is inherent in its vision and working practices and that of the ACT Alliance.


    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Norwegian Church Aid will increase the proportion of its humanitarian investment that goes to cash transfer programming. Before providing in-kind inputs, it will ask ourselves whether cash would work in this context. It will share learning across the organisation and with our ACT Alliance partner organisations on best practice in cash approaches, and increase capacity-building on cash for local and national members.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to make sustained funding conditional on the systematic collection of feedback from affected people on the quality and utility of humanitarian programmes.
    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to establishing a common approach to providing information to affected people and collecting, aggregating and analysing feedback from communities to influence decision-making processes at strategic and operational levels.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to adopt the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard, with clear benchmarks for achieving these through the CHS Alliance self-assessment tool.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    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.

    Cash-based programming

    Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) Somalia piloted cash-transfer programming in 2018 with vouchers under the WASH programme to access hygiene kits and cash for work. To do so, NCA Somalia uses RED ROSE, a web platform and mobile app. It had been done in other programmes in previous years.

    NCA Ethiopia has supported cash-based programming in a project implemented in consortium with DanChurchAid (DCA). While DCA was in charge of implementation, NCA provided support on technical aspects such as the registration of beneficiaries, assessment of the needs and deciding on top-up amount.

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

    In 2018, as a follow-up from 2017 Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) audit report recommendations, NCA put a lot of efforts into complaints mechanisms. Various trainings to increase country offices knowledge on CHS and complaint mechanisms took place in Kenya/Somalia and in Amman/Iraq with partners from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. As a result, 7 country offices have developed complaint mechanisms in 2018, bringing the total of country offices with complaint mechanisms to 10 out of 15. An NCA staff from Amman office participated in the CHS accountability training of trainer training in Bangkok. NCA Complaint Mechanism Policy was revised in 2018, making it compulsory for all partners working with NCA to develop their own complaint response mechanism (CRM). It also includes the United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin as an integrated attachment and recommends that the policy should be accompanied by the country’s/UN’s Victims Assistance Strategy and the locally developed GBV SOP & Referral System.

    In addition, an evaluation on CHS 5 was conducted in Pakistan. While NCA Pakistan has established a CRM, the evaluation looked at relevance and adequacy of the mechanism. The report makes recommendations to improve efficiency and relevance of the CMR.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    Strengthening civil society and local leadership is at the core of NCA partnership strategy. The partnership system enables NCA to develop accompanied partnerships with local partners that need to be strengthened and build capacities.

    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.
    • Other: In regards to cash-based programming, targeting the right beneficiaries considering that cash transfer is unconditional can be a challenge
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of preparation in cash-based programming - including training on the technology and targeting of the right beneficiaries - can hinder the process and impact negatively beneficiaries

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

    Regarding cash-based programming, it is important to start early in order to be well-prepared to use the required technology and to target the right beneficiaries. In addition, digital platforms should be preferred because they are more efficient and cost effective.

    Keywords

    Cash, Local action, People-centred approach, Quality and accountability standards, Strengthening local systems

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • By May 2018, Norwegian Church Aid will actively contribute to revise and reform the ACT Alliance humanitarian response mechanisms in line with the direction set out in the UN Secretary General's Agenda for Humanity, aiming to strengthen local capacities by reforming the ACT Rapid Response Fund so that it is targeted exclusively for national and local members and that it incentivizes greater investment in emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction and resilience.
    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity
    • By May 2018, Norwegian Church Aid will significantly increase the proportion of its humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national partners for humanitarian response and emergency preparedness. It will seek to transparently report on this amount.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to supporting initiatives that provide easier and better access to resources for local and national partner organisations, particularly where they are first and frontline responders.
    • Financial
    • 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

    In 2018 more than 17% of NCA humanitarian funds were going to national and local partners. In Bangladesh all humanitarian work is implemented with local actors. In both Bangladesh and Niger NCA local partners have received money from UNICEF directly with the assistance of NCA. In Nigeria, NCA accompany partners to access humanitarian funds. In 2018, ACT Alliance developed the ACT Alliance Rapid Response Fund policy as part of implementation of the ACT Rapid Response Fund, targeted exclusively for national and local ACT members, incentivizing greater investment in emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction and resilience.

    Capacity building of national/local actors

    ACT Alliance Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan tool was revised, digitalized and rolled out with the ACT Ethiopia forum. The tool is also available offline to enable access to individuals even in remote areas.

    The Bangladesh programme is a great example of NCA building capacities and supporting partners in WASH and GBV thematic areas; for example specialized NCA staff are working together with partners and local staff in health clinics to strengthen their capacities.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Charter for Faith-based Humanitarian Action
    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
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Despite the will to transfer competencies and responsibilities to local partners, our experience in Bangladesh has shown that national actors are not always fitted to respond to humanitarian crisis because they often work on development and are not equipped for humanitarian response.

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

    Local actors' capacities need to be built and strengthened, and formula/accompanied partnerships should be favoured for the first phase of response to the crisis. INGOs must also work in collaboration with the government to ensure transfer of competencies.

    Keywords

    Local action, Strengthening local systems

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

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to streamline and harmonize reporting requirements for partners, in line with the expected outcomes of the Grand Bargain. This specifically includes a commitment to not ask more from local and national organisations than what donors ask of us.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Norwegian Church Aid commits to adopt the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard, with clear benchmarks for achieving these through the CHS Alliance self-assessment tool.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need 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.

    In 2018, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) increased its diversification of funds for humanitarian work, having contracts with UNICEF in seven countries and with UNHCR in five countries. Two applications were submitted to BPRM and six to ECHO. South Sudan received OFDA money, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Rohnigya crisis) received ECHO and DRC OCHA pooled funds. 10 fundraising advisors have been trained on ECHO funding as NCA continues building its capacities for ECHO GBViE and WASH funding.

    Administration, procurement and financial assessment was realized by NCA finance department to assess country offices’ capacities, findings and actions taken will help with diversification of funds.

    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?

    Each donor has its own requirements, hence targeting new donors requires staff that are familiar with and/or trained on specific requirements. Lack of capacities can hinder the development of successful proposals that adhere to all donor's requirements.