June witnessed the first ever alert and allocation for Paraguay, as well as the first anticipation alert in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Read how the Start Fund responded to several under-reported crises during the month.
May saw a quieter month for the Start Fund with only two Start Fund alerts activated in a global context of higher-profile alerts.
The month of April saw a diverse range of alerts raised by our members; however, amidst a context of multiple high-profile crises, the Start Fund responded to three important and under-the-radar alerts.
In late January, Start Network member ALIMA alerted the Start Fund to a Lassa Fever outbreak in Nigeria. The Start Fund's MEAL advisor, Ian Sim-Cox Heath, and Start Fund programme officer Anne Noirhomme, give their first hand account of the Start Fund awarded response on the ground.
The month of October saw the highest alerting and activated month in the history of the Start Fund, where 13 alerts out of 15 were activated.
Learn about the world's fastest pooled financing mechanism, Start Fund.
With their homes destroyed, livestock buried, and crops washed way affected families were left stranded, struggling to survive and forced to depend on the help of their neighbouring communities.
In early October, heavy rainfall from two low pressure systems led to devastating flash floods and landslides in El Salvador. More than a 1000 people were forced to leave their homes as rivers burst their banks, mudslides in the country’s hilly interior cut roads, buried buildings, and flooded homes.
The economic crisis and widespread social unrest that has gripped Venezuela in recent years has led to the displacement of millions of Venezuelans. Families, in search of economic and social security, have fled across borders into neighbouring Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. The Start Fund is filling a critical gap in this under-funded socio-economic crisis to respond to the needs of those displaced in Peru and Ecuador.
In summer 2016, the Start Fund decided to revise the learning grant process and subsequently set aside one per cent of its total annual disbursement, to fund learning activities that went above and beyond project level for members of the Start Network to strengthen humanitarian response. This fund for learning maintained the name ‘one per cent learning budget’ and agencies could apply for a greater amount, anything up to £10,000 GBP, with a greater freedom of focus.
