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I am delighted to present to you A Decade of Positive Disruption, a celebration of ten years of Start Network achievements and impacts on its 10-year anniversary.

Here Saeed Ullah Khan shares some of his reflections on the achievements and challenges of Start Network’s Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) in Pakistan, his observations on its continuing legacy and his suggestions on how these efforts could be further improved.

Concern Worldwide was one of the founding members of the Start Network when it was first conceived under the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies 10 years ago. Here Bob Ruxton, Director of Programme Support at Concern, shares with us some thoughts on being a member of the Start Network and highlights the importance of working collectively in challenging the system and the potential of the hubs as the source of future energy for the Start Network.

The Transforming Surge Capacity project was one of the Start Network DEPP projects. We asked Pamela Combinido, a local consultant tasked with evaluating the programme in the Philippines, about her involvement in the project and its major achievements.

Six years ago today, Christian Aid made the first alert to a new aid financing mechanism. The Start Fund’s first alert to food insecurity in South Sudan went on to disburse just over £300,000 to Action Against Hunger, Christian Aid, Plan International and Tearfund within three days of the alert. Originally conceived as an antidote to the limitations of the large pooled funds and traditional emergency appeals, in 2020 the Start Fund has come of age, a recognised pillar within humanitarian financial architecture and a force for transformation in its own right.

In 2016, the Start Network launched the Start Fund Anticipation Window in Bonn. We set out to link Start Network members with forecasts of impending crises and to facilitate country-level collaborative risk analysis, to release funds before a disaster strikes. Twenty-five Start Network members have since led innovative anticipatory projects, in twenty-four crisis-prone countries.

Start Fund Bangladesh is demonstrating how localisation makes aid more effective and efficient. People in need are receiving help 10 days faster and operational costs have been halved.