Good questions, Andrew Let me share some reflections, which may not necessarily fall into the direct response to your questions: I am assuming that your question is in consideration of "communal" WASH infrastructure in the refugee camp settings? Where we have been engaged in providing WASH solutions ... More
Thank you, Gile. ------------------------------ Andrew Cunningham Humanitarian Researcher Independent/Consultant LONDON United Kingdom ------------------------------ More
Hello, From my experience in refugee camps, it would be interesting to also add community leaders to the consultation process. The use of local material in the design of their latrines, from my experience, appears to be more durable. Good monitoring of the usability of WASH insfrastructures encompasses ... More
Thank you, Shajjat Hossain, very helpful indeed. cheers, andrew ------------------------------ Andrew Cunningham Humanitarian Researcher Independent/Consultant LONDON United Kingdom ------------------------------ More
Considering the COVID situation, "Distance Audio-Visual FGD and KII" with most vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, elderly people, pregnant women, lactating mother, children have been more effective to collect authentic information. Regarding persons with disabilities we can also considered ... More
Hello WASH community. I have been doing some work recently on documenting methods to adequately engage and consult with communities in the design of WASH infrastructure in refugee camp settings. For example, how showers and latrines are designed, located, and labeled. How can WASH project managers best ... More
This is what I was referring to: https://msf-transformation.org/ ------------------------------ Andrew Cunningham Humanitarian Researcher Independent/Consultant LONDON United Kingdom ------------------------------ More
Dear all I am working in the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Isolation and Treatment Centres (ITC) in Bangladesh, where we are treating both guest and host communities. I am looking at improving the process for consent/acknowledgement of patients before they are admitted to the centres. Does ... More
Sounds very interesting. The ability to absorb innovation from outside is a key point. Thanks Andrew ------------------------------ Liz Hughes Chief Executive MapAction Westbury sub Mendip United Kingdom ------------------------------ More
I would agree with Julia. When a need arises, or when circumstances change dramatically, it's time to be creative and to innovate. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of bottom-up innovations bubble up to the top; all too often these local innovations remain unnoticed and are simply part of what needs to ... More
Hi Liz, I am currently working on an 'innovation' project which, in my organisation, is referred to as transformative investment. The process is basically using 'start-up' funding mechanisms and agile change management techniques. In other words, proposals for transformative projects are made, funding ... More
Really interesting point. I wonder how we can profile these innovations more? ------------------------------ Liz Hughes Chief Executive MapAction Westbury sub Mendip United Kingdom ------------------------------ More
Hi Liz, I agree with you that larger organizations, especially international NGOs with a long history of humanitarian work, have the required resources to provide the environment of innovation and creativity. However, working in big organizations may cause a kind of routine and iterative activities for ... More
Hello colleagues, We had series of localization dialogue here in Philippines, in support of field review of localisation implementation and how these practices can feed into the global review, five years after WHS. It used a seven dimensions framework – from relationship quality, participation revolution, ... More
Good point on time to innovate and on the importance of making innovation relevant. ------------------------------ Liz Hughes Chief Executive MapAction ------------------------------ More
Dear Melindi, I share your interest and am myself always on the lookout for concrete examples. The project I am working in presently is conducting efforts right now to link our semi-permanent shelter aid combined with non-formal vocational skills training to IDPs with programmes in Afghanistan that ... More
A couple of good examples are highlighted in this research paper on Partnerships and Security Risk Management: from the local partner's perspective. I'd particularly recommend having a look at the example of Caritas Ukraine on page 28. You should also have a look at this great initiative by HPG ... More
Capacity building support through encouragement, mentorship, tools. Easier said than done and patience is needed... I trust my counterparts and let them decide and do what they can, setting a wide range of their initiative and autonomy and taking small mistakes for granted. And what I think is most ... More
Hi Siba! Humanitarian assistance is complex work. Due diligence alone may not be enough, as capacity to deliver is very key. The speed at which the INGOs would transfer the skills to local NGOs cannot be determined. Different Local NGOs are at different levels in terms of competencies. The in-country ... More
We discussed about due diligence and risk management of donors in the webinar on this topic last week . But in terms of localization, are the due diligence rules enough for donors to develop confidence in LNGOs for long-term partnerships or is something else needed? When and how Local Leadership will ... More
In case interested, there were also a number of questions answered here in the PHAP Community in the follow-up to this event. These include: Local understanding of humanitarian principles – access to funds Raising complaints against INGO partners in inequal partnerships "Relationship" review ... More
HI Bigirimana, I suggest that the partnering agency needs to have very good contextual knowledge and do their due diligence on potential partners. Having a local presence and implementing operations alongside the local partnership probably helps. Also investing in good field level capacity building ... More
In terms of security issues, I would recommend having a look at this publication by the Global Interagency Security Forum (GISF) - The Cost of Security Risk Management for NGOs. It provides some indications as to how NGOs include security costs which can give you some insights in the topic. ------------------------------ ... More
Hi Liz, the organization I am now working for (which I consider very large with about 20,000 employees worldwide) is running annual internal innovation competitions - so yes, they are planning for it. My personal experience from participating in a number of open innovation competitions in our sector ... More
Great conversation Lucia, thank you for initiating it. Building on Veronique's point, GISF conducted a research project investing the perspective of local NGO partners on security risk management with international NGO partners. I'd recommend having a look at the paper, which you can access here ... More
Part of the Go/No Go Decision review process is on the grant/contract agreement. It is advisable for NGOs to review the agreement and any clauses that may pause a challenge should be flagged out and discussed with the donor or the prime agency. The bottom line is that the NGO must demonstrate that they ... More
What are the practices of different donors for the refunding/justification in the cases of the loss of humanitarian aid due to the disaster or security issues such as the theft by the armed groups? On the receiving end, what kinds of policies do you face in this regard and how do you approach them from ... More
Hello Philip, thank you for pointing this issue out. One line of thought is the Core Humanitarian Standard (#CHS) and its recognition by governments/donors. In a nutshell: the CHS sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve ... More
Hi Bigirimana – thank you for this important question. Here are a few recommendations: Being present, engage with and involve different local actors, build trust, stay impartial and neutral (adhere to international humanitarian principles and standards); use Do No Harm and update/verify your conflict- ... More
Being from Burundi, a country familiar with conflict for many decades, my question is: Practically speaking, what can international organizations do to effectively improve local partnerships in conflict settings while avoiding ending up providing support to those parties who are oppressing others? In ... More
Dear Nelly, I recently published an analysis to barriers of localization and participation in Afghanistan for IARAN - a response to their ground breaking analysis "From Voices to Choices": Humanitarian Actors in Afghanistan Need to Up Their Game From my point of view, there are many structural barriers ... More
Based on DCA's experience in South Sudan we have seen that too many international agencies in one spot can risk duplicating interventions and overburdening local communities/partners. Moreover, coordination becomes more complicated, and it can exacerbate negative relationships between local actors as ... More
In the recent webinar on humanitarian and partnership principles , we discussed in detail the situation in South Sudan. Based on what I heard regarding the views of local actors, as someone working for an international NGO, I was left wondering about the overall effects of humanitarian response in the ... More
Thanks for posing this question, Philip! Here are some initial thoughts: Ideally, risk assessment tools must address what risks the organization anticipate and this should not be limited to Finance and Procurement though most of the audit findings are in this area. Assessments could consider an organization's ... More
We discussed the processes for assessing partners and its relationship to risk in the webinar last week . The assessments of some donors tend to over-emphasise the financial accounting procedures and less on evidence of robust programme implementation capabilities. How does your risk assessment think ... More
Dear Julia, Land conflict is one of the main causes of the internal displacement of populations in several countries around the world. As in DR Congo, for example, we have always come up against this same problem in the implementation of sustainable solutions for IDPs. Starting from the principle of ... More
Thanks Lucia for starting this conversation. I still find this study on risk and partnerships to be the best out there: https://www.interaction.org/blog/managing-risk-in-international-and-local-ngo-partnerships/ One of the interesting topics in this report is that different actors will face different ... More
Hi Milward, you are addressing a very important issue here. So far, I have seen two approaches that worked to a certain extend / in most cases: After the infrastructure is handed over, a number of spare parts and repair tools are also handed over to the community, along with training of course. ... More
Hi Joel and Nelly, thank you very much for your responsed, much appreciated. I was still hoping to get any first-hand-experiences on cash-for-land, but so far, I couldn't find anything on that. We are still looking into all options and will start discussions with communities and government authorities ... More
Thanks for your question, Lucia. INGOs would need to work with the national and local NGOs in a manner that is mutually respectful. As donors are channelling more and more funding towards local NGOs, it's imperative for INGOs to strategically partner with the local NGOs. In this regard, INGOs should ... More
In the webinar earlier this week on risk management and funding partnerships , we ended up talking quite a bit about the expectations on local NGOs. Conversely, in your experience regarding challenges as well as opportunities for national and local NGOs to receive funding, what would (or should) they ... More
DanChurchAid Country Offices facilitate strategic annual meetings with selected partners. The agenda focuses on information sharing, joint strategic objective setting, joint fundraising, advocacy issues as well as organisational development, but the issues differ from context to context. These bilateral ... More
In the recent webinar on humanitarian and partnership principles , there was some discussion on review meetings. We do conduct periodic project review meetings, but do you also conduct "relationship" review meetings to jointly analyse how is the partnership going, what is the health of the relationship, ... More
Hi Nok, Greetings. Thank you so much for your interest. There are very good examples existing in the broader community but those are not properly documented to showcase equitable partnership. I will share one example to you and explain little about it also. " Accompaniment" is a " Value" preposition ... More
The idea behind Theories of Change is a valid one. Indeed, being clear about what particular thing do we want to change, what is going to be different as a result of my actions or my programme is a very healthy way to look at it. However, as often is the case in humanitarian assistance, the road to hell ... More
Thanks to raise this topic Agnes. And really curious to hear other's thoughts. My understanding is really that ToC help move us away from a linear thinking that was really what RBM prescribed. That even though they map out pathways to change, the correlation between different goals and actions is interconnected ... More
Thanks a lot, Jonas for answering my question raised earlier. However, I know about how to raise complaints against DCA if any, but I meant the other partners though. Nevertheless, your answer has given me a hint on how to examine other Partners' complaint mechanisms. Thanks once again for the insight. ... More
Hi John, It will most likely depend on the nature of complaint and whether it is an individual complaint from a staff member or a collective complaint from one organisation. In terms of the latter example, if a partner of DanChurchAid (DCA) has a complaint they are free to use our online complaints ... More
In the webinar last week on partnerships and principles in South Sudan and Nigeria , we discussed the imbalanced power relationship between NNGOs and INGOs when in an implementing partnership. Given this common situation, how would you suggest that NNGOs raise their complaints against INGOs if needed? ... More
Dear Subhashis, does LWR have a protocol "/guidance for this "accompaniment model" that you would be willing to share as I would be really interested to see this?...in the recent seminar I asked a question in the chatbox about successful examples of equitable partnerships in the SS context and got no ... More