The Sharing Knowledge and Ideas under Local Leadership (SKILL) Grant was developed in 2021 so that Start Network’s local members could lead collaborative research projects and learn through partnerships. This document contains the case studies gathered during the grant.
In January 2022 AFPDE was awarded Start Network’s Sharing Knowledge and Ideas Under Local Leadership (SKILL) Grant, to conduct a peer learning programme focused on a research project of their choosing. AFPDE connected with other local, national and international organisation as well as members of the community and local officials, to organise a series of research activities and explore community resilience in Nundu, Lemera and Ruzizi health zones of the DRC. This report is condensed from the full research report written by Bagula Amato, who was the consultant hired by AFPDE to lead the data collection and research analysis which captures the findings and recommendations from this work.
The Transforming Surge Capacity project was one of the Start Network DEPP projects. We asked Pamela Combinido, a local consultant tasked with evaluating the programme in the Philippines, about her involvement in the project and its major achievements.
Hitendra Solanki, Action Against Hunger’s Project Lead for the Mindfulness & Wellbeing Project urges NGOs to act now to protect worker’s mental health and wellbeing.
In Cebu, in the Philippines, the very first dedicated 'Wellbeing Cluster' has been officially launched, aiming to catalyse a new way that NGOs prioritise and support the mental health and wellbeing of staff in the humanitarian sector.
In 2015 the Start Network launched a three-year Transforming Surge Capacity (TSC) project financed with UK aid from the UK government as part of the Department for International Development’s (DFID) Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP). The project has seen engagement by eleven UK-based aid agencies with a collective focus on finding ways to ensure effective civil society surge capacity in order to deliver more efficient, collaborative and localised emergency responses.
Atif Sohail has more than 9 years of experience in programme management and monitoring and evaluation in emergencies (in Pakistan). Previously he was working with Muslim Aid Pakistan and is now working with Christian Aid to manage their response in Nigeria, through the Go Team Asia shared humanitarian roster.
The Asia Regional Platform of the Transforming Surge Capacity project has gathered 7 international NGOs to create the regional shared roster Go Team Asia, which provides surge support to emergencies across the region. Roster members receive many capacity building opportunities; trainings, simulation exercises, one-to-one coaching, and Trainings of Trainers (ToT). This case study shows how the collaborative nature of capacity building for Go Team Asia improves individuals’ and organisations’ ability to work together, which can help them provide faster and more adequate assistance to affected communities.
As of 2014, 26 out of the 35 deadliest tropical cyclones in world history took place in the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar, Bangladesh and India are all on this cyclone-prone belt, which makes them particularly vulnerable to disaster, yet the areas affected also include major business centres. With their capacities, businesses can thus play a major role in building resilience.
As part of the Transforming Surge Capacity project, seven international humanitarian NGOs have come together to test out collaborative app roaches to surge response in the Asia region. This case study highlights how Islamic Relief, one of the platform partners moving towards more regionalised surge systems, has been able to support inter - agency collaboration in the project, and how it used le arnings and outputs of the project to improve its own surge mechanisms.
