In 2024, heavy monsoon rains and overflowing rivers devastated communities in Konjyosom RM, Sinamangal, and Bansighat. Entire villages were flooded, homes destroyed, and families left without shelter, food, or clean water.
An evaluation of Start Fund Nepal was held in March/April 2024 with a main objective to evaluate the performance of Start Fund Nepal as a funding mechanism from inception to present (Phase I and II).
“I filled out a voucher form to indicate what I need to survive low temperatures. I expressed my family's need for blankets, sweaters, thermos, rice, salt, oil, lentils, and sugar. A few days later, I got a call to collect the items that I choose. This paper voucher was easy for me," Rita, a community member from Terai shares her experience during Start Fund Nepal's anticipatory response to the cold wave in January 2022.
The British Embassy in Kathmandu (BEK) has announced its continued support to anticipate and rapidly respond to crises through Start Network by providing an additional £ 1.5 million in funding to Start Fund Nepal.
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.
Following the success of last year’s Start Fund COVID-19 response in Nepal, Start Network members are piloting a country-based contingency fund to respond rapidly to, and in anticipation of, small to medium scale crises in the country. Funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), this member-led trial, known as Start Fund Nepal, has been designed by local, national and international organisations. Members of the Start Fund Bangladesh team have also been supporting the design based on their experience of managing a country-based pooled fund since 2017.
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.
The Disasters Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Innovation Labs are composed of national and international humanitarian organisations under the Start Network and CDAC that support innovation emerging from communities in times of crisis. The Bangladesh DEPP lab is one of four labs recently supported by UK Aid for a two year period (2017-2019). This network of labs also extends to Jordan, the Philippines and Kenya. While each lab followed the core principles of lean innovation each adopted their own approach to applying this methodology.
