Where does power lie in the humanitarian system? What barriers need to be overcome for local organisations to play a leading role in decision-making and responding to crises?
The Shifting the Power project brings together 6 leading humanitarian agencies to work in 5 disaster-prone countries to strengthen the capacity of local organisations to determine and deliver humanitarian preparedness and response.
The vision of the consortium of ActionAid, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Concern and Tearfund is to support local actors to take their place alongside international actors to create a more balanced humanitarian system that is more responsive and accountable to disaster affected communities. The project will strengthen local and national organisation’s decision-making and leadership in humanitarian response. It will be implemented in Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, DRC and Bangladesh. The overall budget is £4.9 million over 3 years.
This project is part of an ambitious suite of projects in the Start Network designed to develop decentralised approaches to capacity building and to improve the quality and speed of humanitarian response. The project is supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) through the Disasters Emergency Preparedness Programme (DEPP).
The launch of the Shifting the Power project took place at the Southern Sun hotel in Nairobi, Kenya from 6pm-9pm on Monday 16th March, 2015. Project staff from the 5 project countries, local partner agencies, INGOs, donors, the UN, and Ambassadors were invited to attend. The event, which was held on the first evening of a 5-day project Inception Workshop, highlighted the ambition and vision of the project to contribute to the transformation of the humanitarian system.
A fantastic video where event attendees discuss the importance of this project is available on YouTube here.
For more information about the Shifting the Power project, please contact lisa.joerke@actionaid.org.