Start Network Hubs
Putting power in the hands of organisations that are closer to crises and communities
Start Network Hubs have been created to move the network to a more balanced and distributed network, with power and decision making in the hands of organisations on the front line of crises. Hubs are collectives of local, national and international organisations operating in the same country or region. They will control their own resources and define their own responses to crises affecting their communities, united by a shared purpose and common standards, and supported by a global Start Network Platform.
About Start Network Hubs
Decentralising and localising the Network
Organisations and communities based in the countries where crises occur are better able to determine the need on the ground and the solutions to the problems they face.
That is why Start Network is supporting a distributed network of national and regional hubs, that will shift power, decisions, resources, and collective action closer to crises.
This model was determined following a visioning exercise in 2017 by hundreds of contributors from across the network and beyond, Start Network imagined a bold new future called Start Evolves. Start Network Hubs were the backbone of this vision. Read more about our vision for the future of Start Network or watch the video in English, Spanish, French.
Five hubs were selected in 2019 – Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, the Pacific region, and Pakistan – to be in the first cohort of founding hubs, to grow and learn together about what it takes to deliver the vision, and scale it across the network.
Through a ‘proof-of-concept’ phase of 18 months, Start Network and Hubs are learning the best way to build a decentralised network and will share learning as they go. Start Network and the hubs identified six collective outcomes critical for their change vision. These hub outcomes are:
1. Distributed
Start Network’s services & infrastructure evolve in line with the vision of the hubs, as a collectively owned and user-driven resource
2. Collective
The hub network has mutual accountability for results, makes shared decisions and achieves collective sustainability
3. Driving change
Hubs solve locally-defined problems in new ways and experiment and test to achieve better outcomes
4. Power-balanced
Hubs have a diverse membership and make collective decisions to allocate resources and pursue change agendas
5. Connected to frontline
Affected communities directly influence response and hubs are accountable to them for results
6. Financially agile
Hubs have the resources, infrastructure and systems to pool risk and funds and flexibly use them when and where they will have the greatest impact
Learn more about these six outcomes.
The five Hubs
Decentralising and localising the Network
Each Hub itself has been founded by collectives of organisations in those countries and together all hubs are working with the Start Network to build a distributed and connected network. Learn more about the visions and goals of each of the hubs.
The Hub’s leaderships teams are made of the following people and organisations:
Hub membership
How to get involved
Start Network membership will transition over time from global membership to hub-based membership. During the proof of concept phase, we will support the first five hubs to take in members. This process will be guided by some collective membership principles, and ensures the hubs have a minimum 50% local members at any one time. Country offices of existing global Start Network members will also opt-in to the hubs in countries where this is relevant.
The hubs in Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and India have already participated in a pilot that enabled them to take in four local organisations per hub. Other organisations interested in becoming a member of a hub can register interest here.
Becoming a Hub in future
It is our intention to support other hubs from August 2021. The design of the next hub intake will be based on learning from the current proof of concept.
Groups of organisations that are interested to follow the journey and hear lessons of these first five hubs, will be able to join a webinar soon.
Learning & Resources
‘Crisis is a time for new dreams - leadership at times of COVID-19’
Hubs six-month learning report
Hub support tools (governance, due diligence, brand)
More about our hubs
Find out more about how you can work with us