Attachments
Executive summary
The IFRC-DREF continues to advance initiatives aligned with its strategic ambition. Dedicated to promoting the localization of aid, in collaboration with the British Red Cross Society, the IFRC-DREF team commissioned a review of the IFRC-DREF pooled funding mechanism to assess its support for localization, in line with Grand Bargain commitments. The objective of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of the IFRCDREF mechanism in enabling National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to prepare and lead local responses. It captures findings and lessons from country case studies on National Society engagement with the IFRC-DREF funding, identifying challenges, and opportunities to strengthen the IFRC-DREF’s utility internally and externally. The review has been completed, with the report expected to be published in the second half of 2024.
In extending partnerships and following the recommendations from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s 2022 report, “Pooled funds: the new humanitarian silver bullet?”, the IFRC-DREF launched a cross-learning collaboration with the Start Network (Start Fund and Start Ready) this year. The first hybrid session in June focused on the structure, strategy, and mechanisms of each Fund, with additional sessions planned for September and October.
The collaboration aims to:
• Jointly identify common themes, knowledge, and experiences that can be scaled and widely adopted.
• Provide a space for participants to candidly discuss barriers and enablers within their respective Funds.
• Facilitate connections between counterparts from each Fund.
• Identify potential advocacy channels within the broader humanitarian financing landscape.
A key next step is an in-person workshop that will be hosted by IFRC and the British Red Cross in London, co-organized with the Start Network, in November 2024. This workshop will further explore and establish systemic learning between pooled funds, and identify potential joint research, advocacy, and policy themes.
Other pooled funds have already expressed interest in joining this event.
Aligned with these partnership developments, the IFRC-DREF featured prominently at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks held from 29 April to 10 May 2024, in Geneva. Four sessions were organized by the IFRC-DREF, focusing on:
• The IFRC-DREF as a Pooled Fund using data through the IFRC GO platform (in coordination with the IFRC IM team and the Head of Disaster Management from Malawi Red Cross).
• Humanitarian Pooled Funds’ contribution to the global localization agenda (in coordination with British Red Cross, FCDO, Malawi Red Cross, and Start Network).
• Enhancing Two-Way Accountability Systems through Feedback Mechanisms (in coordination with the IFRC CEA team, Ground Truth Solutions, and Start Network).
• Lessons Learned from Anticipatory Action supported by Humanitarian Pooled Funds (in coordination with American Red Cross and Start Network/Start Ready).
The IFRC-DREF continues to develop applications on the IFRC GO Platform to better support National Societies. New developments are on track, and a review of the prioritization of modules was conducted in the first semester. The development of the Early Action Protocols (EAPs) modules will begin in the second semester of 2024, along with translations into the four official IFRC languages.
Simultaneously, the revision of the IFRC-DREF procedures to reflect the evolution of the operational parameters is still ongoing. During this process, new areas for improvement were identified and integrated into this revision. The development of the new IFRCDREF advance payment modality and the revision of the IFRC-DREF imminent modality have delayed the revision process but are expected to enhance flexibility and impact for National Societies in anticipating and responding to disasters and crises.
The IFRC-DREF is also working to improve its visibility with a stronger communication strategy and the live operational dashboard. Additionally, an interactive online report micro-site is being developed for the annual IFRC-DREF report to complement the PDF version, enhancing interactivity for donors and partners, and better highlighting IFRC-DREF’s progress, results, and impact.