Start Fund: Learning from Slow-Onset Crises

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 review is one in a series of learning products developed by the Start Fund Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team with the intention of providing actionable recommendations to improve decision making at the project, crisis and system level . Evidence and learning for the Start Fund is provided by World Vision UK.