Start Network has launched its new online course for our members and local partners within the series of courses on Start Ready Disaster Risk Financing system. This new course named Contingency Plan in Start Ready DRF is hosted via Kaya Connect and covers the first pillar of the Disaster Risk Financing-DRF approach.
Start Network has launched Intro to Disaster Risk Financing, a new online course for our members and their local partners. This course will build your understanding of Start Ready's proactive Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) approach.
Start Ready, a new global financial service that will support the humanitarian sector to tackle the climate crisis is launching today at COP26, with funding from the UK Government, the French Government, the IKEA Foundation and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.
Start Network and the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) are today announcing a new partnership to support the development of a new global financial service for the humanitarian sector, which will help communities to get ahead of escalating climate risks.
The United Nations and the Governments of Germany and the United Kingdom convened a high-level event to advance anticipatory action and galvanise a collective push to act ahead of crises. Start Network CEO Christina Bennett made the following statement at the event.
A High-level Humanitarian Event on Anticipatory Action, convened by OCHA and the Governments of Germany and the UK, took place on 9 September 2021. This brought together leaders from across governments, international financial institutions, the United Nations (UN) and civil society, who delivered powerful statements on their commitments to act to ahead of crises. Here, Sarah Klassen, Ben Webster, Jânio Dambo, and LA Dimailig offer their personal reflections on what this event achieved – and what should happen next.
The DEPP Innovation Labs programme was a two and a half year initiative from 2016-2019 that supported the creation of four community-centred innovation labs in disaster-affected countries (Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya and the Philippines) to strengthen disaster preparedness and response. The programme was managed by Start Network and the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network. The labs offered skills training, business mentoring, financial support, and the necessary infrastructure to turn local ideas into viable, scalable solutions. All the innovation labs followed a human-centred design process to create local-level solutions that work for and with vulnerable people. Overall, the DEPP Labs supported close to 100 innovations covering a broad range of areas such as early warning communication systems, disaster awareness education tools, protective flood barriers, agricultural tech applications to counter the effects of drought and transport and accommodation solutions for refugees.
On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples we look back at the DEPP Innovation Labs project in the Philippines. Enhancing Traditional Food Source Management is one of the 40 innovative solutions supported by Philippines TUKLAS Innovation Labs that help communities better prepare for disasters. The project is implemented by a consortium of four non-governmental organisations: Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, CARE Philippines, and the Citizens' Disaster Response Center. It is part of the Disasters Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Innovation Labs, a programme that is managed collaboratively by the Start Network and the Communications with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network.
Reimagining Systems of Support for Aid Sector Innovators To date, much of the work on innovation lab design has focused on serving individual innovators who develop well-bounded products and services. Other more complex forms of innovation, ideas that engage a diverse range of participants in a wider creative effort, have received less attention and have fewer formal systems of support. This paper explores these untapped innovation strategies and lays out the ecosystems of support they need to succeed. In this "post-lab" world, sponsors of innovation have a unique opportunity to expand their strategies for funding and mentoring impactful creative change.
Reimagining Systems of Support for Aid Sector Innovators by Dan McClure with support of UNSW and the DEPP Labs.
