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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
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as a member of the ACT Alliance, commits to substantially increase the proportion of its humanitarian investment that goes to cash transfer programming. It will share learning across the ACT Alliance network 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

    Partners: ACT Alliance

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to invest in systems and institutional learning for programs to absorb the increased use of Cash Transfer Programming while upholding quality. It will also build stronger capacity to promote Cash Transfer Programming not only at the operational level, but to include it in the strategic dialogue with local and national authorities, donors, partner networks and the humanitarian system as a whole.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    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 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

    In line with the "measuring cash" work stream of the Grand Bargain (GB), Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has started to revise its internal administrative systems to ensure accurate tracking of expenses in Cash and Voucher expenses. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has finalized its cash transfer programming (CTP) toolbox and has started to roll it out with its staff. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has successfully implemented 11 CTP Trainings and workshops, training 119 staff of DKH and partners, out of those 57% partner staff. The trainings have been undertaken by global and the regional cash advisors installed during the last reporting period. Trainings followed general Cash Learning Parternship (CaLP) trainings for program staff, but have been adapted to specifically target the challenges as identified by the involved partners, while maintaining the global standard.

    Based on this experiences, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe was chosen to be the Co-chair of the German-wide cash coordination group. During 2018. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe engagement in the working group was carried out through facilitation and hosting of working group meetings, contributing presentations, lessons learned, as well as coordinating work practices. Experience in using the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT), use of cash and vouchers in the education sector (example Somalia).

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • 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.
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Information management/tools
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    (1) Increasing donor tendency to ask for implementation of cash-transfer programming cash transfer programming coordinated and at scale poses considerable challenges especially to small partners i.e. aligning operational models and coordination costs.

    (2) Donors have a high risk aversion to cash transfer programming, in particular in countries with perceived risks to terror-financing.

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

    (1) Less risk aversion from donors and more openness and willingness to pilot cash transfer programming in challenging (fragile/security) contexts.

    (2) More funds are needed for partner preparedness, for example: contingency planning, service provider assessments, cash-based, etc.

    Keywords

    Cash, Local action

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as a member of the ACT Alliance, commits to participate in raising awareness for the importance of disaster risk reduction at grassroots level, including in hard-to-reach locations, by providing examples of good practices in order to better influence local leadership and educating community members.




    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as a member of the ACT Alliance, commits to increase the proportion of its humanitarian investment that goes to community emergency preparedness, risk reduction and resilience.
    • Financial
    • 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)

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continued to strengthen the emergency preparedness and response planning of its local partners. Seven partners in five countries have worked this year in setting up/improving their Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans and the Community Based Disaster Response Mechanism. Eighteen out of 100 new projects in 2018 have been disaster risk reduction (DRR) related.

    An important thematic focus has been the development of an institutional capacity support program to help partners to implement community DRR cash-grant mechanisms.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe remained an active member in the DRR Working Group in Germany, at the European level (VOICE DRR Group) and globally through the ACT Alliance. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe also renewed its membership in the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR). In all groups, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe is pushing for better DRR/preparedness and resilience approaches with local communities under the localization agenda. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe was also engaged in development of a minimum of four pilots using the Survivor and Community Led Response (SCLR) mechanism, building on the work of  Local2Global.

    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.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    (1) The ongoing debate on risk and damages is focusing a lot on economic loss in developing countries, and less on fragile states.

    (2) Coordination at local level between government and civil society remains a big challenge.

    (3) There is a lack of donor understanding about the community cash approach in DRR.

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

    (1) The humanitarian policy community should consider strongly the "community cash-grand guidelines" (CaLP), as currently under development, i.e. the guidelines need to be adopted as an internationally agreed standard.

    (2) More collaborative efforts to establish solid local community accountability mechanisms (downward/upward and horizontal).

    (3) Increased support for local and community-based disaster risk management and Survivor and Community Led Response approaches in fragile states

    Keywords

    Cash, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action, Preparedness

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

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to improve inter-organizational coordination with its sister organization, Brot fur die Welt, to facilitate the direct continuation of programs and relevant financing for its local partners to better link emergency relief with activities that aim to reduce risk and vulnerability and increase resilience in the mid- and long term perspective as a cornerstone of its joint Strategic Plan 2016-2020.
    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Partners: Brot für die Welt

    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

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has continued to work with its sister organization, Bread for the World, on identifying gaps and challenges to improve analysis and planning towards collective outcomes (geographic strategy development or joint policy development on food security, resilience, climate etc.).  Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has also continued to be engaged into the humanitarian-development and peace nexus discussions in Germany, mainly in relation to better government funding mechanisms, but also advocating to ensure coherent, principled and rights-based approaches.

    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)
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    (1) Lack of government coherence and lack of appropriate funding mechanism (project based/different responsibility between ministries in Germany) make joint approaches difficult to fund.

    (2) Field application difficult, as lack of clarity on leadership and need of humanitarian space in conflict settings.  

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

    Continue to discuss nexus approaches in practical application in the field needs to be better connected to the policy debate. Involvement of civil society, as much as focus on principled, rights-based and community based approaches is key for real success. 

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Joint Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to support its local partners, who are planning and implementing the projects and programs, in setting up measures and activities through a push to include relevant indicators and analysis, as reflected in its Strategic Plan for 2016-2020. It is committed to remain vocal in its advocacy towards donors, so that they contribute with relevant funding schemes.
    • Advocacy
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: Brot für die Welt

    • In line with its strategic plan for 2016-2020, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to provide more funding directly to local actors, and to pair relevant efforts with a focus on building their organizational capacity and preparedness; and to strongly advocate with donors in Germany and Europe to increase the funds available to local actors for this purpose.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: ACT Alliance

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • As a member of the ACT Alliance, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to significantly increase the proportion of humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national members and their partners for humanitarian response and emergency preparedness, and we will seek to transparently report on this amount; to support initiatives that provide easier and better access to resources for local and national members, particularly where they are first and frontline responders; to continue to demonstrate, learn from, identify and share best practice in local-national-international partnerships, in line with the ACT Principles of Partnership, that are inherent in the ACT Alliance's vision and working practices. It will also seek to foster the ACT Alliance approach to encourage partnerships directly between local and national members through national and regional ACT Forums, working in complementarity and equality.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe commits to invest in its private donor relationships in order to increase un-earmarked financing. This will give it more possibilities to hand down flexibility to local partners, particularly in fragile contexts, so that programs can be better adjusted to changing environments and that it can effectively support them in enhancing their capacities.
    • 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, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe directed 57 per cent of its overall funds directly to national and local partners. (62 per cent in 2017 and 59 per cent in 2016. Changes are caused not by a deliberate reduction, but by nature of different programs and funding). Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continued to commit some of this funding for covering core/institutional costs of a range of strategic partners. In Indonesia and the Philippines, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe successfully set up local response funds, that have proved their effectiveness during the natural disasters in these countries in 2018. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has also contributed funding to the ACT Rapid Response Fund of the ACT Alliance Humanitarian Response Mechanism, a mechanism only available to local and national NGOs.

    Country-based pooled funds

    Together with a group of German NGOs, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has commissioned a study on the accessibility of country-based pooled funds for the organizations and their partners, among others, with the intention to increase the meaningful participation of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe's partners in this mechanism, but also to develop recommendation for improvement for the wider policy discussion. Recommendations/outcome to be shared in 2019.

    Capacity building of national/local actors

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continues to build capacity among local partners through projects, but also through mentoring and and trainings from the relevant community-based officers in two of our regional offices, but also communities themselves, in particular related to Disaster Preparedness and Response. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continues to commit core/institutional funding to a range of strategic partners.

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

    Through the adoption of the key points/self-commitments on localization between the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and humanitarian NGOs in Germany, stand-alone capacity building measures and transferring overhead funds to local partners are now possible with Ministry of Foreign Affairs funds.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe is strongly involved in the Charter4Change, not only in relevant efforts to implement the commitments and reporting about it, but also in shaping the future of the Charter4Change, developing lessons learned and investing in meaningful dialogue with the Charter4Change endorsers in connection to the NEAR Network.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continues to lobby within the ACT Alliance network for more collaboration and inclusion of local partners into humanitarian response.

    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 modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    (1) Challenges related to risk/risk transfer have increased compared to last reporting period, through the politization of the compliance/transparency topics, reducing even further the risk appetite of donors.

    (2) Approaches of scale to achieve potential efficiency gains pose threats to the localization agenda.  

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

    Increase the discussion / showcase the negative impact of different reforms of the humanitarian sector and its response strategies towards the localization agenda. Analyze/showcase stronger potential risk of investment in local civil society in perspective to possible gains, effectiveness. 

    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action, Preparedness, Quality and accountability standards

  • 5B
    Invest according to risk

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to invest in risk management, preparedness and crisis prevention capacity to build the resilience of vulnerable and 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.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe continued to strengthen the emergency preparedness and response planning of its local partners.Seven partners in five countries have worked this year in setting up/improving their Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans and the Community-Based Disaster Response Mechanism. Eighteen out of 100 new projects in 2018 have been disaster risk reduction (DRR) related.

    An important thematic focus has been the development of an institutional capacity support program to help partners to implement community DRR cash-grant mechanisms.

    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
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Funding modalities and humanitarian development collaboration gaps prevent advanced preparedness and early actions. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe deplores the lack of donor understanding on alternative, community-based approaches to DRR i.e. related to community cash, or survivor and community lead crisis response).

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

    Governments in hazard-prone areas need to improve on the accountability of the local level in national disaster management authority systems. Also, the humanitarian community should invest more in understanding and improving support to community/survivor led community response.

    Keywords

    Cash, Disaster Risk Reduction

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

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as a member of the ACT Alliance, commits to amplify its advocacy work with relevant donors and recognizing the potential outcomes of the Grand Bargain, it is committed to streamline and harmonize relevant instruments and approaches in order not to ask more from local and national partners in terms of reporting requirements that what donors ask from it.
    • Advocacy
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: ACT Alliance

    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.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has continued to work together with partners on an improvement of the implementation of cash-transfer programming (CTP) in relevant environments, and it has increased the usage of CTP overall, aiming to contribute to better cost efficiency.

    Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe also remains committed to its joint efforts in the ACT Alliance to continue to improve and make more effective and efficient the different funding tools streams under the ACT Humanitarian Response Mechanism.

    Together with a group of German NGOs, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has commissioned a study on the accessibility of country-based pooled funds for the organizations and their partners, also with the intention to increase the meaningful participation of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe's partners in this key humanitarian funding mechanism.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • 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.
    • Buy-in
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Donor funding modalities and related risk-aversion remain the biggest impediment towards better streamlining and harmonization of relevant instruments and approaches. Increasing compliance need will make it unlikely, that instruments will become lighter in the future.

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

    Harmonized funding and reporting systems of different donors are key to achieve this commitment. More openness to pay flexible, long-term, program oriented funding into different types of pooled funds, not only from UN, but also NGO networks could be an important step ahead, but remain illusional under the background of the understanding of humanitarian aid as a foreign policy tool of states.

    Keywords

    Cash, Country-based pooled funds