At Start Network we always aim to learn from experience. So, we have endeavoured to analyse the data and information from past Start Fund responses in order to present a set of lessons for COVID-19 projects.
The Start Fund has an established practice of providing management response to its external, independent evaluations. Developed through a participatory process, the management response helps to ensure that the evaluations are used, contributing to the Start Funds’ effectiveness, learning, and accountability. Start Fund constituted an Evaluation Management Response Drafting Committee, comprising of: Three representatives from the Start Fund Strategic Committee: John Birchenough from Catholic international development charity, CAFOD; Jonathan Brooker from Solidarites International UK; and Saba Mahmood from Islamic Relief Worldwide and Start Funds, Head of Funds, Lucile Brethes Start Fund Manager, Lucretia Puentes Start Funds MEAL Manager, Chaitali Chattopadhyay The drafting committee members carried out a wide-range consultation with the broader Start Fund committee members, Start Network Leadership Team and the Board members to develop a comprehensive management response to the evaluation. The document can be accessed here. The progress against the management response will be presented to the Start Fund Strategic Committee on a regular basis to ensure compliance and accountability towards the committed actions.
This external evaluation was commissioned to ‘assess the preparedness of Start Fund to scale-up its operations and suggest future growth rate scenarios’. The overarching purpose of the evaluation is stated as two-fold: Assess the preparedness of the Start Fund to scale up its operation; Inform the Start Fund of the appropriate scale-up considerations (including the size and growth rate scenarios).
This handbook is for MERF members, from headquarters to in-country staff. The handbook is a guide to the most up-to-date processes, systems, and governance mechanisms which enable the MERF to operate. It is a live document and will be continuously updated based on experience and feedback.
Between 1 January and 20 August 2018, some 27,788 migrants have arrived by sea and 4,125 by land from Morocco to Europe in 2018. Doctors of the World, were awarded MERF funding to respond to the needs of over 8,000 migrants in a three month intervention programme.
In September 2018, Doctors of the World were awarded MERF funding to repond to urgent needs of migrants during a migration spike within the city Agadez in Niger.
This useful guide has everything Start Network members need to know when raising an alert for the new phase of the Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF). The new phase of the MERF is focused entirely on Africa and members of the Start Network can now respond to acute needs along the migration route. The fund is filling critical gaps in migration response within the continent, with funding on its way to members as quickly as 72 hours of an alert first being raised.
Now moving into its fifth year of operation, the Start Fund is the fastest collectively-owned funding mechanism in the world. It is a leading enabler of rapid, needs-driven humanitarian response for overlooked crises. Filling a critical gap in humanitarian financing, it pools funding from donors for immediate release for crises around the world. In its fourth year alone the Start Fund spent over £8.8 million responding to the unmet needs of 2,050,546 people across 44 crises in 31 countries. Find out more about the work of the Start Fund, including our performance, how we are meeting our commitments to the Grand Bargain, our Anticipation Window, and why we hold localisation at the heart of our work.
The Migration Emergency Response Fund is a UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded rapid response, context specific, contingency fund run by the Start Network to respond to changes in the context, spikes, ongoing gaps and acute needs among refugees and other migrants along the central Mediterranean route.
The Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF), funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), was established in January 2017 in partnership with the 15 member representatives of the Start Network present in the region. The MERF allows member organisations to react to a significant change of needs, or provide assistance to previously unidentified vulnerable groups. Its aim is to address the unpredictable nature of the mixed migration crisis across the Mediterranean that exacerbated an already difficult operating context for aid workers and made it difficult to plan for a response.
