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Charter for Change: Update on Progress since the World Humanitarian Summit

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Executive Summary:

The Charter for Change (C4C) is an initiative, launched at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in May 2016, signed by 29 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) which commits them to change the way they work with and relate to national actors. C4C has been endorsed by over 130 national non-governmental organisations (NNGOs). Signatories made 8 commitments to be implemented by May 2018:

• Pass at least 20 per cent of their humanitarian funding to national NGOs

• Publish the amount/percentage of funding passed to NNGOs

• Reaffirm principles of partnership

• Address and prevent negative impact of recruiting NNGO staff during emergencies

• Address subcontracting and ensure equality in decision-making

• Emphasise the importance of national actors to donors

• Provide robust organisational support and capacity building

• Promote the role of local actors to media and the public

The Charter for Change (C4C) has firmly established its reputation in the post-WHS humanitarian eco-system as a clear commitment on the part of its signatories to change their practices. The initiative has also proved effective as an advocacy tool to encourage others to shift towards a greater focus on working with and through local actors. The fact that C4C links closely to other post-WHS processes has strengthened engagement and implementation of the C4C, for example by linking to the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) commitments on support to national actors, the Grand Bargain workstreams on localisation, transparency and harmonised and simplified reporting requirements, as well as the increased emphasis on the use of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and the research work of the Missed Opportunities group.2 Within the 29 C4C signatory organisations the Charter has been a catalyst for some real improvements in the way these organisations work with and relate to national actors. On the other hand, signatories also recognise the need to continue to drive internal changes in order to deliver on the 8 commitments by the pledged date of May 2018.

The C4C commitments can be grouped into five key areas, which are used as a framework for reporting in this paper: 1) tracking and increasing funding; 2) partnering; 3) representation of local actors in communications; 4) human resources; and 5) advocacy.