Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Yemen

Yemen: Humanitarian Pooled Fund (YHPF) - Flash Appeal Allocation, 25 - 28 April 2015

Attachments

Overview

With the launch of the OCHA Global Guidelines for Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) in February 2015, the Yemen Emergency Response Fund (ERF) became the Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund. Global Guidelines establish minimum standards for the management of pooled funds with an emphasis on accountability and control mechanisms. The Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund (YHPF) aims to promote a strategic and coordinated response towards the highest humanitarian priorities of the Humanitarian Response Plan or due to acute emergency needs.

The YHPF Advisory Board, on 10 April 2015, decided to focus the YHPF on responding to the impact of escalating conflict in Yemen. The Fund will, therefore, operate within the allocation mode for the next three months. This decision will be reviewed at the end of this period. OCHA opened the first Reserve Allocation for grant applications in the period 20 to 28 April with a resource envelope of US$10 million. A separate Allocation Paper for this allocation has been shared with partners.

OCHA issued the Yemen Flash Appeal (FA) on 17 April for US$273.7 million for the next three month to meet immediate life-saving and protection needs of US$7.5 million people affected by the escalating humanitarian crisis. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decided to fund the entire appeal and to contribute US$274 million. These funds will be channeled through the Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund (YHPF).

The Flash Appeal is based on the Yemen humanitarian contingency plan, as well as on needs identified through inter-agency needs assessments during March and April. Allocation will be focused on the highest priority lifesaving interventions in the health, water and sanitation, protection, food security, nutrition, logistics, shelter and non-food items sectors. The cluster envelopes follow the funding needs outlined in the FA. Cluster Coordinators will facilitate the FA project formulation together with their Cluster members through cluster meetings on 25-27 April. 28 April is the deadline to upload all FA projects into the GMS. To ensure that grant applications match the FA funding needs and Pooled Fund requirements, OCHA’s Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU) and the Clusters’ Strategic and Technical Review Boards will undertake a review of the projects on 29-30 April. The HC will sign off the FA projects on 1 May. OCHA will facilitate the allocation through strategic and technical project review until grant agreement signatures and disbursement. The approved projects can be implemented from the day that both the HC and the implementing partner have signed the grant agreement.

OCHA is committed to provide the necessary support for the rapid disbursement of the funds to implementing partners. To ensure rapid response and efficacy in implementing the Flash Appeal, large grants are preferred and sub-granting encouraged for smaller projects. The UN, IOM and NGO partners have no maximum ceiling however the minimum ceiling is US$500,000. Partners applying funding from several clusters are requested to group the projects under one grant application, as this will simplify the grant management and ensure rapid disbursement. Clusters must be clearly stated in the application. The Flash Appeal includes a large component of procurement in all sectors. To ensure rapid implementation, logistics and economies of scale, the Advisory Board has encouraged joint procurement through Cluster Lead Agencies.

In order to manage risk in a highly volatile environment with limited presence of staff to monitor the implementation of grants, the YHPF will make direct grants through large NGO partners and the UN and IOM with the following criteria: Due Diligence assessment passed (NGOs); Active participation in humanitarian coordination system in Yemen; Cluster technical review passed - including demonstrated project and financial implementation capacity on the ground. Due to the grave situation in the country, OCHA may not be able to monitor due to insecurity.

Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.