New forms of financing
shifting from reactive to proactive financing
We believe that by providing funding fast, early, in a collaborative way – and by providing it based on need and not on media headlines or political will - we can help responders and communities to become better prepared to act in a crisis. In short, fast funds in the right place at the right time, saves lives.
There is increasing momentum to move beyond the ‘begging bowl’ model of humanitarian funding that simply reacts to crises after they happen.
Initiatives such as the InsuResilience global agenda, the DFID Global Centre for Disaster Protection and the World Humanitarian Summit Grand Bargain have highlighted the need for a more anticipatory, pre-organised system of humanitarian financing.
By being financially prepared in advance of crises, we can ensure that the right money gets there at the right time. This is more efficient and effective; it can prevent unnecessary loss and save more lives.
Our new funding mechanisms get money to where it’s needed when it’s needed
We enable fast and early action through our pooled funds to tackle the kind of crises that are often overlooked by other funding mechanisms, while our risk financing pilots are introducing humanitarians to a new way of working.
Any Start Network member (often with their local partners) can alert the Start Network funds to a crisis anywhere in the world, irrespective of how high it is on political or media agendas. Organisations work together to highlight the needs of people on the ground and to decide on how to help. Only by responders working together and with communities will we be able to assist greater numbers of those in need and in time-saving ways.
Risk financing aims to ensure predictable and early funding to reducing the impact of disasters even before they hit. Such planning saves more lives. Our approach to disaster risk financing brings together the prediction of risks through scientific models, collaborative contingency planning to identify activities to be delivered ahead of time, and pre-positioned financing through a broad set of financial instruments (including contingency funds, parametric insurance, or other tools).
In 2017:
- We disbursed £9,999,293 from the global Start Fund, reaching almost 2.5 million people, across 34 countries.
- The Start Fund’s Anticipation Window saw seven anticipatory alerts, three of which were funded.
- The Start Network became the official Replica Partner for the African Risk Capacity (ARC) in Senegal
- Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) announced it would join Start Network’s partnership to test our Drought Financing Facility
- The Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) was launched in January 2017.
In 2018 and beyond we are developing a financial architecture that connects these initiatives together, offering fast and efficient channelling of pre-positioned funds at scale to frontline actors in any crisis in the world.
Some examples of our programmes
The Start Fund
Start Fund Bangladesh
Anticipation & Risk Financing
Migration Emergency Response Fund
New financing in action
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News, blog and opinion
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