Sudan Humanitarian Fund Operational Manual, November 2017

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose

1. The purpose of the Operational Manual for Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) is to describe the governance arrangements, objectives, allocation modalities, and accountability mechanisms of fund, as well as, to detail the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved.

2. Under the direction of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC), the Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) aims to support the timely allocation and disbursement of donor resources to the most critical humanitarian needs as defined by the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) or any agreed upon strategy by the HC. In order to meet this goal, this manual is issued by the HC and endorsed by the Advisory Board (AB) to:

(i) provide clarification and instructions for all stakeholders involved in the management of the SHF on effective management and governance practices;

(ii) describe the steps and requirements of the allocation processes with the aim of enhancing timely and strategic allocation decisions;

1. In this regard, this manual will provide guidance to Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) sector coordinators, partners and facilitate the role of OCHA as well as the members of the Strategic and Technical Review Committees.

1.2 Scope

1. The Operational Manual defines the country-specific regulations that govern the SHF. It is designed within the framework provided by the Operational Handbook for Country-Based Pooled Funds 2 (CBPFs), which describes the global set of rules that apply to all CBPFs worldwide, and adapts specific aspects of these global guidelines to the humanitarian context in Sudan.

2. Adherence to the guidance provided in the two documents is mandatory to ensure a standard and transparent process.

2 Objectives of the SHF

1. The SHF has three main objectives:

• To improve humanitarian response by increasing the extent to which funding is allocated to priority humanitarian needs through an inclusive and coordinated process at the field level.

• To strengthen the leadership of the HC.

• To contribute to the delivery of the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) within the context of the Humanitarian Program Cycle (HPC) or any agreed upon strategy by the HC.

1. Further, the SHF aims to ensure that humanitarian needs are addressed in a collaborative manner, fostering cooperation and coordination within and between the IASC (and UNHCR) sectors3 present in Sudan and humanitarian organizations. As such, the SHF contributes to improving needs assessments, enhancing the HRP as the strategic planning document for humanitarian action, strengthening coordination mechanisms, in particular the IASC sector system, and improving accountability through an enhanced monitoring and reporting framework.

2. Interventions supported by SHF are to be consistent with the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.