On April 17, Start Network received an urgent alert from two of its 42 member organisations, asking for rapid funding to combat a cholera outbreak in northeast Nigeria. The other members of the United Kingdom-based humanitarian network were quickly consulted, but they were divided over whether, of all the world’s pressing humanitarian needs, this one deserved some of the network’s precious funds.
In 2016, thirty of the biggest humanitarian donors and aid providers met at the World Humanitarian Summit to sign the ‘Grand Bargain’ commitments to get more means into the hands of people in need.
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 Start Fund, which provides rapid humanitarian aid for overlooked crises, is marking the second anniversary of the World Humanitarian Summit by sharing the impact of its 4th year, through its new annual report released today.
An outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has spread into the major north-western city of Mbandaka, only 50km from the border with Republic of the Congo, raising fears of a wider epidemic.
The Start Fund is a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism that consists of a network of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and provides small-scale funding (up to £300k per organisation over a 45 day window) to frontline NGOs. It seeks to complement the existing humanitarian financing system by focusing on initial rapid response to low-profile, underfunded emergencies. The first phase of the Start Fund, April to December 2014, represents a design and build period where the Fund is open for allocations to crisis alerts, whilst simultaneously the infrastructure and Fund management processes are being tested and refined.
On 26 December 2013, two-year-old Emile fell ill in a remote village in rural Guinea. His illness was characterised by a high fever, diarrhoea and vomiting, and he died just two days later. His pregnant mother Sia, three-year-old sister Philomène, and grandmother Koumba, also fell ill and died shortly after
‘Rapid onset’ crises relate to the majority of Start Fund alerts and interventions. But this is not the whole story. In its pursuit of helping the world’s most crisis affected populations, the Start Fund has also changed lives for the better in chronic, ‘slow onset’ crises, such as drought, food insecurity, and extreme winters.
Increased violence by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has caused thousands of people to be displaced within the country since September 2016. Most of the internally displaced in Beni are living with host families without any humanitarian support.
Start Fund visit to Goma, DRC: A long awaited and very welcome event. In February 2018, Melina Koutsis from the Start Fund team visited Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to facilitate the induction of our new Start Fund Regional Advisor for West and Central Africa, Antoine Sanon.
