On International Women’s Day, we take time to reflect on the achievements of women and girls as well as understanding the strides that must be made for further gender equity around the world. At Start Network, we are beginning a gender review of the Start Fund’s projects and processes to see what more can be done to reach women and girls during humanitarian emergencies.
In 2016, the Start Network launched the Start Fund Anticipation Window in Bonn. We set out to link Start Network members with forecasts of impending crises and to facilitate country-level collaborative risk analysis, to release funds before a disaster strikes. Twenty-five Start Network members have since led innovative anticipatory projects, in twenty-four crisis-prone countries.
The drought in Southern Africa has been ongoing since October 2018 and has consistently grown in scale and severity. 45 million people were estimated to be experiencing critical levels of food insecurity at the end of 2019. The ongoing crisis is the cumulative consequences of the climate-related natural disasters (including drought, cyclone, and flooding) that have hit Zambia.
Start Fund Bangladesh is demonstrating how localisation makes aid more effective and efficient. People in need are receiving help 10 days faster and operational costs have been halved.
Since 2017 the Start Fund reporting systems have included a section on the leveraging of additional funds. In 2018 the total amount secured in additional funding was reported to be £64 million, more than five times the amount that was awarded by the Start Fund in the first place.
Myanmar's annual rainy season brought devastating floods to villages in Hpa-An and Bago this year. People were stranded in their homes or forced to flee them. Schools were closed. Harvests were wiped out. Livestock killed.
Continual heavy rains in Freetown, Sierra Leone, triggered flooding in the country's capital damaging homes, washing away livestock and destroying livelihoods. The Start Fund was alerted to the crisis in early August and awarded rapid responding funding to Action Aid, Care International, Catholic Relief Services and Oxfam to help meet the needs of those affected.
October saw the Start Fund respond on a global level to seven alerts, awarding just under £1.5million to rapid responses to fires, flooding, earthquakes, and displacement alerts Read more.
Crises, violent conflicts, war, extreme climatic events and economic slowdowns continue to drive hunger in many parts of the world. Read more about the Start Network on World Food Day,
