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Melina joined the Start Network in 2016. Before this she had been working with the International Rescue Committee in Mali as their grants manager, and this is where she had her first experience with the Start Network through two initiatives. The first was a Start Fund Alert (Alert 36) in response to internal displacement and the second was Start Response Ebola Preparedness Programme. Both these introduced Melina to very different ways of working with rapid and collaborative decision-making processes and implementation in just 45 days. Soon after, she joined the Start Network as a Start Fund Programme Officer establishing the Start Fund Regional Advisor roles as well as leading on a growing number of alerts, before moving to the Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) in 2018 first as the Regional Coordinator based out of Tunis and then as the Programme Manager. She joined MERF as it started its second phase and here reflects on some of the learnings along the way.  

During the recently completed research piece conducted for the Start Network on the work of the Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF), a number of tensions were revealed that go to the heart of the problem of humanitarian interventions in mixed migration situations. One is what we are calling the "nexus dilemma" where, when designing a response to specific or general mixed migration crises, it is not clear how exactly to categorise the needs, who should fund the response, and who is best placed to carry it out.

Between August 2018 and October 2019, the Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) funded three 3-month long projects in Morocco. These short-term projects have allowed insight through key informant interviews into the scale and complexity of challenges relating to the needs of migrants in an urban context. Two of these projects specifically concentrated in Casablanca. The learning from this report reflects on some of the lessons learned when implementing a migration humanitarian response in an urban context, both in an informal urban camp and in a setting that has a more geographic spread.

The evolving nature of mixed migration, particularly its drivers, politicisation and corresponding flows, continues to challenge humanitarian actors to respond in a way that is appropriate, adapts with learning, and adheres to humanitarian principles of independence and impartiality.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, Cameroon has been afflicted with one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases in sub-Saharan African. The Start Network’s Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) funded one of the first projects in the country to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and work to complement existing responses.

On International Migrants Day 2019, the number of people who are migrants and refugees across the globe has reached an estimated 272 million, 51 million more than in 2010, according to the UN. Under this year’s theme of #WeTogether, Start Network takes stock of its work in 2019 to understand, anticipate, and address migration needs and patterns, using a collaborative and speedy approach in its work.

Entrepreneur Ahmad Nouh lives and works in Jordan, currently home to some 761,100 refugees, mostly from Syria. Like Ahmad, they fled the brutal eight-year conflict across the border in an attempt to re-establish their lives. Read about Ahmad's innovative solution to rising rental costs in Jordan.

Every year on the 20th of June, World Refugee Day marks the strength, courage and perseverance of refugees. It is important to recognise the difficulties that refugees face, and work towards a world where all refugees have accessibility to assistance and protection. So, how does the Start Network respond to the needs of refugees and migrants?

The Start Network's Migration Emergency Response Fund's (MERF) Emergency Coordinator, Melina Larson, and Start Fund MEAL office, Micheala Larson, have been in Morocco visiting Humanity & Inclusion's project funded by the MERF. In this blog post Melina gives her first-hand account of their project on the ground.

The Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) funded two projects in Agadez over the past year, both led by Doctors of the World (DOTW). Melina Koutsis, reflects on the impact of last year’s project and what lessons learned had been drawn from it for the current response.