Start Network’s Laura-Louise Fairley reports on the Start Fund response to cholera in Yemen, when the rapid release of funds allowed those suffering to receive help in just two days while major humanitarian donors were only just waking up to the emerging crisis.
The Start Network is enabling aid agencies in Kenya act early to mitigate the risk of election violence, in a new way of working for the humanitarian sector.
In June heavy rains in Chalatenango, La Paz and La Libertad territories had caused flooding, landslides, overflowing rivers, collapsed bridges and damaged homes. Start Network member Pro-Vida and their implementing partners Aprodehni and Cordes ran a “WASH for El Salvador” programme funded by the Start Fund to respond.
Localisation is a foundational and non-negotiable principle within the Start Network. This report presents a ‘baseline assessment’ of where the Start Fund and three DEPP projects currently sits with the‘localisation agenda’.
The Start Network has published a new framework for localisation which aims to provide a practical structure to improve the position of local organisations within international aid. The framework is part of an independent review into localisation of the Start Fund and other Start Network initiatives. Responding to the review, the Start Network has committed to “drive a holistic and transformative approach to localisation”.
More members are using the Start Fund to act early, but we are still a long way from a risk-informed, proactive aid system. Start Network’s Luke Caley reflects on what we’ve learned so far and discusses the potential shape of things to come.
The Start Network’s vision is a humanitarian system in which funding will be dependable and predictable, responses are based on humanitarian need and context-appropriate. For this to become reality, the Start Network needs to evolve into a global, decentralised 'network of networks'.
Within a few days of violence erupting in Marawi, Philippines, the Start Fund had been activated, and a consortium of Start members including ACTED, ACF, Oxfam and CRS responded to address the increasing needs of local families.
In May, Start Network member ALIMA contained an Ebola outbreak in the DRC, with support from the Start Fund. Read ALIMA's account of the response here.
International Medical Corps, with funding from the Start Fund, has been working in Yemen to provide an emergency response to the cholera crisis, providing life-saving support with the goal of averting this entirely preventable outbreak.
