Search

Increasingly restrictive border policies have created the most dangerous route in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has made it even worse. The Central Mediterranean Route runs from sub-saharan Africa through the deserts of Niger, to conflict-ridden Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. It’s been named the most perilous migration route in the world by the Institute of Migration as people are forced into destitution by smugglers and risk dying while crossing the desert or drowning in the sea.

Start Network is pleased to announce that 12 new local and national aid agencies, based in India, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have joined the network. The new members have joined as part of Start Network’s plans to build a more balanced network made up of more local and national actors.

More than 30 Start Network members have supported a letter to the UK Prime Minister, raising our concern over the decision to merge the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because of its potentially devastating consequences for humanitarian aid.

Today Start Network's five hubs have launched a bold paper aimed at catalysing a more local response to the immediate needs of COVID-19 needs and to accelerate a lasting step-change in humanitarian response.

Start Network has decided to move it's annual Assembly meeting and 10-year anniversary celebrations to a virtual format.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to prioritise locally led responses and reverse existing inequities within the humanitarian sector. The Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP) shares 10 recommendations from frontline responders to ensure that we live up to the Grand Bargain.

Humanitarian agencies in Senegal are this week distributing aid as part of an early response to food shortage, which has been caused by the late onset of rainfall last year. This early action will help alleviate the suffering of those affected and reduce the need for them to resort to negative coping actions such as taking children out of schools, eating their seeds, and migrating or selling their farming implements.

Projects for the first five alerts with the Start Fund COVID-19 were selected this weekend by local project selection committees.

Start Network has received a record number of crisis alerts - with 85 in a single weekend - from members in 69 countries. The alerts were for Start Network's new COVID-19 fund launched to anticipate and respond to critical virus-related humanitarian needs in low-income countries.

The Forecast-based Warning, Analysis and Response Network (FOREWARN) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder community that brings together forecasting information providers, experts across a range of fields and experienced humanitarians to provide advice in support of operationally-sound decision making regarding how the funding could be put to greatest use. We are urgently seeking experts in disease, epidemiology and public health to support the Start Fund COVID-19 decision making process