Start Fund: Learning from Partnerships

The Start Fund is a multi-donor pooled rapid response fund that initiates disbursement of humanitarian finance within 72 hours. It is collectively owned and managed by the Start Network members, a group of 42 national and international aid agencies from five continents. The fund was officially launched on 1st April 2014 and has an annual disbursement of approximately £11 million (GBP). It is designed to fill gaps in the humanitarian funding architecture in three main areas: underfunded small to medium scale crises; forecasts of impending crises; and spikes in chronic humanitarian crises. This product is produced for the Start Fund, part of the Start Network. Evidence and learning for the Start Fund is provided by World Vision UK.

This is the Fund’s first review of the contribution and participation of partners in Start Fund responses. Here, partners are defined as local or national NGOs that are not formal members of the Network but are involved in Start alerts. This learning review was commissioned as the result of a recommendation in the 2017 ‘The Start Fund, Start Network and Localisation’ report. It explores how members identify and maintain their partners, as well as how partners contribute to the Fund’s projects - from design to decision-making, implementation, and learning.

This product is based on a review of project reports and learning exchanges during Alert 151 to 202 (Apr 2017 - Dec 2017) and on 19 key informant interviews with members (9) and their partners (10). For the period of analysis, Start Fund MEAL was provided by World Vision UK.

You can view all Start Fund Alerts on our interactive map and learn more about the Crisis Anticipation Window by clicking here.