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Takeaways from the 2021 Start Network Assembly Explore session: Quality partnerships from the perspectives of local and national actors This interactive session explored what quality partnerships could look like between Start Network members and local partners. It explored what local partners perceive to be important values, and how to achieve these, especially trust, flexibility, and transparency. The session included a presentation of main findings from the survey, a panel discussion, and breakout rooms with participating INGOs and L/NNGOs. The panellists were local partners: Nanette Antequisa (ECOWEB, the Philippines) Muleneh Tesfaye (Caritas Ethiopia) and Lynn Walker (Tree of Life, Zimbabwe). The session was facilitated by Lola Gostelow (an independent humanitarian and associate of the Partnership Brokers Association). The session was based on a survey of 98 local organisations and their experiences working with Start Network members, or directly with Start Network.

Takeaways from the 2021 Start Network Assembly Learn session: Recovering costs more equitably: an important step in rebalancing power This session aimed to raise awareness on why a more equitable Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR) across the humanitarian sector is a concrete and tangible way to make progress towards locally led action. Panellists from the session include Fhakrul Islam and Sajid Raihan from Start Fund Bangladesh, Yeakub Hossain from SEEP, and Dulon Gomes from World Vision Bangladesh. The session was facilitated by Myriam Castaneda Solares.

Takeaways from the 2021 Start Network Assembly Explore session: Decolonising evidence: Locally-led approaches of measuring programme success This panel session aimed to explore what alternative approaches to collecting data and measuring success could look like from the perspective of local communities and non-western lenses. It was facilitated by Sanjukta Moorthy (a planning and MEL consultant) who has a special interest in championing diverse perspectives and decolonised frameworks. The three panellists were Saeed Ullah Khan (GLOW consultants, Pakistan) who brings extensive multi sectoral experience especially in large scale survey handling; Anuarite Kabuo (MIDEFEHOPS asbl, DRC) who works for an NGO passionate about contributing effectively to the development of vulnerable communities, children, women, victims of situations of armed conflict; and Pradytia Pertiwi (Rooted Impact, Indonesia) whose work focuses on research and development practice at the intersection of psychology, disasters, development and inclusion, seeking to co-create knowledge with communities.

Start Fund Bangladesh produced key evidence on the impact of Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR). How can organisations use ICR for their own organisational development and how INGOs can adopt these practices to strengthen partnerships with local organisations.

In April 2020, five locally led groups of changemakers came together to explore what it takes to launch local hubs as part of Start Network, as envisioned within ‘Start Evolves’. This phase was called a ‘Proof of Concept’ and has resulted in the emergence of Hubs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, the Pacific Region and Pakistan. 

This session introduced Start Ready, a new financial service for the humanitarian sector that will use climate science, risk protection mechanisms, and financial best practice to protect more people against predictable disasters worldwide. Start Ready will sit alongside the Start Fund in Start Network's financing facility. 

As the network decentralises, and more functions and decisions devolve to the hubs, the role of the Start Network secretariat will also need to change to support a new way of working. The "network of networks" will require a new global infrastructure which enables many members across many hubs to work together, share and learn from each other; and which provides aggregated solutions that reduce duplication across the network. This session was an opportunity to hear about the work and thinking that has been done to date around this new service-provider model and what it might look like.

Recently the Start Network partnered with Complexity University and Global Fund for Community Foundations offering organisations a unique opportunity to take part in a radical experimental intiative. Global teams engaged in an intensive course looking at how we can work together to transform the humanitarian aid sector from the ground up. In this session, we presented the outcomes from the Crisis Response Resilience Lab and showcased some of the teams experiments and lessons from the innovation course.

This session was an opportunity to re-engage with the proposed changes to Start Network's governance and membership structures, in line with our shift towards a distributed model of power and decision making. In particular, this session aimed to address the issues and questions raised by members over the past few months, and present a roadmap for addressing the next set of challenges in the network's development journey.

This session provided an overview of Start Fund Bangladesh and Start Fund Nepal, and provided a platform for Start Network member and partner organisations to share what they have learned through the development and delivery of local Start Funds.