The crisis in Burkina Faso is one of the fastest-growing humanitarian crises in the world, with over 2 million people internally displaced and around a quarter of the country’s population currently relying on humanitarian aid.
Stories of Flood Response and Recovery from Sunamganj
An overview of the Start Fund pilot in Madagascar to anticipate cyclones
A case study of HANDS, BSDSB and Muslim Aid's consortium project in response to flooding in Pakistan.
A case study of CADENA's response to cold spikes in Guatemala, in consortium with ASECSA and ADAM.
Over the last decade, the humanitarian sector has been heavily impacted by more frequent and severe climate-related crises. We need a more proactive, faster and locally led humanitarian system where communities are supported to analyse risks, create plans and have access to pre-arranged financing to prevent loss of life and livelihoods.
Each case study shows how the small interventions can make a difference in life of people. What it means to the one in need as we reached them on time.
This study aims to map the flow of funding for disaster risk management (DRM) in the Philippines in recent years, particularly from 2018 to 2020 (and part of 2021). For a country that is highly vulnerable to multiple, compounding hazards, tracking the sources of annual financing to deal with disaster risks, both ex ante and ex post, is necessary to help us understand better the scope of actionable DRM strategies by both government and non-government actors, especially in light of anticipatory humanitarian action. The exercise is also valuable in identifying financing gaps geographically and hazards-wise, as well as in exploring the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on DRM funding.
Start Network members in the Philippines have identified severe winds and flooding caused by tropical cyclones as the most impactful hazards that have hit the country. This study identifies the geographic and socio-economic extent of impacts of these hazards, the vulnerability factors and cross-sectoral issues related to tropical cyclones, and the existing community-based coping mechanisms that the humanitarian sector can leverage on.
In 2019, Start Fund Bangladesh opened up its membership to 26 local and national organisations enabling them to access direct funding and become involved in decision-making around funding and responses. As a direct result, 80% of all Start Fund Bangladesh funding had been awarded directly to local and national organisations in 2020. This directive to shift the power has also been explored in other ways. For example, Start Fund Bangladesh has also been working to encourage INGOs who have local implementing partners to share overhead costs so that these can be used to grow and strengthen local organisations. To understand more about further changes that Start Fund Bangladesh could make, we listened to some of the reflections of Sina Chowdhury and Sirajul Islam who work for two of the local organisations that joined in 2019. The verbatim quotes from the interviews provide a powerful and rich narrative around their experience working with Start Fund Bangladesh and as humanitarians and have led us to formulate three main lessons for the Start Network: BE MORE INCLUSIVE TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE; UPSKILL TO EMPOWER; and CHAMPION FOR CHANGE. This report would be of interest to all those working towards a system change to a more locally led humanitarian system that is more accountable to those affected by crisis.
