The consultations prior to the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit highlighted inequity and inefficiencies in the aid architecture. Influenced by the UN High-Level Panel (HLP) Report on Humanitarian Financing, “Too Important to Fail: addressing the humanitarian financing gap”, an overall purpose of the Grand Bargain (GB) is to increase the value-for-money of the available resources. One approach is increased cash programming. Another a reduction in paperwork and more resources into actual aid. A third, the provision of more resources to local and national actors to reduce transactional costs1. The purpose and spirit of collaboration are also clearly stated: “We engage with local and national responders in a spirit of partnership and aim to reinforce rather than replace local and national capacities.”
The Covid-19 crisis response and Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP) present opportunities to accelerate progress on GB commitments and reverse the existing inequities. The Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP) is a network of organisations committed to strengthen the humanitarian architecture and locally led
response. A4EP is pleased that its position paper, ‘Localised response to Covid-19 global pandemic’ was referred to while developing the first Covid-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP). Discussions are now taking place to update the GHRP. The following recommendations from frontline responders are intended to ensure we do live up to the commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit. Click here for details report