Last month, four humanitarian organisations from Pakistan joined the Start Network, and one of these is BSDSB. We spoke with Naseer Channa about his previous interactions with the Start Network and his motivations for joining.
The Start Network’s $10.6m ARC Replica pay-out in Senegal is being used to support the food security and livelihoods of more than 27,000 households across seven regions of Senegal.
During the heatwave season, temperatures in Pakistan regularly soar above 40 degrees celsius and past heatwaves in the country have been fatal. In order to provide a faster, more localised and proactive response, Start Network developed a predictive model with pre-agreed triggers, which would release pre-positioned funding when the trigger was met.
Through ARC Replica, Start Network has sought to introduce this new financing approach to the NGO community, while protecting communities at risk of drought in Senegal.
Like many villages in the heart of Senegal’s semi-arid Diourbel region, Yassi Gueye features a covering of sand, towering baobab trees and staggering heat. It has not rained since October, and everything on the desert-like earth has dried up.
The DEPP closed two years ago this month. Many articles were published on its achievements and the independent evaluation by Harvard Humanitarian Initiative drew attention to these as well as some of the challenges including its sustainability. As part of our 10-year celebrations, the Evidence and Learning team of the Start Network have been finding out “what happened next” following the close of the DEPP by speaking to some of member organisations and other stakeholders who were involved in the programme.
Here we talk with Sana Zulfiqar who told us about the continuation of the work of the DEPP and how it has led to new initiatives in Pakistan and the wider region. Sana has been able to push forward many of the Start Networks initiatives in localisation and “shifting the power”.
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.
Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, older Venezuelan migrants, returnees and those in need of protection in La Guajira, Colombia were struggling to access basic necessities such as food, healthcare and WASH facilities. Since the pandemic hit, their living conditions have worsened as they can no longer live off informal trade or access social canteens due to lockdown restrictions.
Every June, humanitarian agencies gather together at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss and agree on how to best tackle the most recent and pressing humanitarian concerns—it’s called the ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS). Start Network joined UN member states and organisations, IFRC and the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) for a side event, which discussed an ‘Anticipatory Approach to Humanitarian Crisis and COVID-19’.
