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The crisis in Syria has lasted a decade and 2020 saw some of the worst violence since the start of the conflict. As a result, there are some 2.7 million internally displaced people living in North West Syria now. Many of them live in makeshift camps, derelict buildings, or even in the open air. On 18 January, a storm hit Idlib governorate and many of these camps, as well as roads that provide access and movement, were fully or partially destroyed.

As part of the ARC Replica evaluation, in-depth interviews were held with households to better understand the timing and impact of the assistance. The assistance of cash and fortified flour distributions were timed to align with an assumed lean season of June-August. However, interviews with households suggested that the start of lean season is not homogenous across Senegal. These differences are supported by hydrogeological differences across the country and suggest that a staggered rather than uniform distribution may be more appropriate in order to support households in a timely manner.

Women and girls are known to suffer disproportionately during crises and disasters. A recent report by CARE International found 10/11 top humanitarian donors and 5/6 major United Nations agencies to be unsatisfactory in their progress towards their commitments to target 15% of their humanitarian aid to gender equality programming.

En juillet 2020,MIDEFEHOPS (Mouvement international pour les droits des enfants, des femmes et des veufs et leur promotion sociale) était l'un des huit membres nationaux et locaux sélectionnés pour participer à un fonds Covid-19 dédié, avec des réponses en RDC, en Inde et au Pakistan. À la suite de l'examen des propositions par des comités de sélection de projets composés de membres locaux, les agences ont reçu 30 000 £ pour répondre à Covid-19 dans leur zone cible. MIDEFEHOPS a utilisé ce financement pour distribuer des masques de protection et du matériel d'hygiène aux groupes vulnérables à Bunagana zone de santé de Rwanguba, RDC, ainsi que du matériel IEC (Information, Education et Communication), sous forme de dépliants et d'affiches, pour transmettre des messages comportementaux sur la façon de se protéger contre Covid- 19.

In July 2020, MIDEFEHOPS (International Movement for the Rights of Children, Women and Widowers and their Social Advancement) was awarded £30,000 to respond to COVID-19 in their target area. They used this funding to distribute masks and hygiene materials to vulnerable groups in Bunagana, Rwanguba health zone, as well as Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, in the form of leaflets and posters, to convey behavioural messaging on how to protect against COVID-19.

With funding from Start Network, Caritas India supported 500 vulnerable households in Odisha, India during the global pandemic and in the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan. Start Network conducted an independent monitoring evaluation of Caritas India’s response, collecting data in the form of 120 short-form interviews and five in-depth interviews with targeted households.

As the pandemic and its economic impact started to bite, A Single Drop for Safe Water (ASDSW) in the Philippines reflected on how humanitarian assistance should change in the face of this extended crisis. Working with social enterprises like Ashoka, Xchange, Firetree Trust, and Limitless Lab, we developed a programme that looked at and improved the systems in place for emergency response, and worked to strengthen these systems to better serve impacted communities.

2020 was an eventful year, it was also Start Network's 10 year anniversary. Here we look back at 10 things Start Network did in its 10th year.

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.  

Start Fund Bangladesh, since its inception in 2017, has been advocating to change the deep-rooted partnership practices that hinder localisation commitments, one of which is the equal sharing of ICR. Although changes were not reflected initially, in 2019 a few Start Fund Bangladesh INGO members started negotiating with their head offices and became successful in ensuring a share of ICR went to their local partners.