The Grand Bargain calls for least 25 per cent of donor funding to go to L/NAs as directly as possible. OCHA’s Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) are uniquely positioned to contribute to achieving this target due to their highly localized decision-making structures and elaborate in-country networks.
In recent years, the CBPFs have significantly increased the share of funding going to L/NAs. In 2022, L/NAs directly received 27 per cent of overall CBPF funding. By November 2022, the CBPFs had allocated a total of $201 million towards L/NAs. When including grants to sub-implementing partners, approximately 35 per cent of all CBPF funding during 2022 has so far reached L/NAs. In Venezuela, 62 per cent of funds went to national NGOs; in Somalia, national NGOs received 61 per cent.
To strengthen the representation and participation of L/NAs in the governance of CBPFs, representatives from L/NAs are included in all CBPF Advisory Boards as a matter of principle. In addition, the upcoming revised CBPF Global Guidelines seek to establish localization as the funds’ secondary aim. OCHA has also enhanced the grant conditions for L/NAs and others to ensure that improvements in budget flexibility, project periods, eligible costs and sharing of programme support costs benefit front-line responders. Greater focus on capacity development is enabling better support throughout the humanitarian programme cycle for L/NAs.
CBPF funding to local and national actors
The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is mandated to directly support UN agencies. However, L/NAs are key to delivering CERF-funded humanitarian programmes as implementing partners of UN agencies. In 2020, a record $201 million in CERF funding was subgranted to implementing partners, equivalent to 24 per cent of the year’s total CERF funding ($848 million). That same year, 1,056 partners participated in the implementation of CERF funding, including 688 L/NAs. CERF often also funds programmes that have a specific localization objective or that promote localization efforts. For example, in 2020, CERF allocated $25 million in response to rising levels of gender-based violence (GBV) during the pandemic, supporting local women-led organizations working on GBV in 11 countries through funding and strengthened partnerships. In 2022, CERF localization efforts were a specific strategic objective for allocations through its Underfunded Emergencies window.
The spread of insecurity and the associated rapid rise in humanitarian needs across the broader Sahel gave impetus to the establishment of the Regional Humanitarian Fund for West and Central Africa (RHFWCA) in 2021 to support humanitarian operations without CBPFs across the region. Burkina Faso became the second country to open an RHFWCA envelope in late 2021. The first $20 million allocation for 34 projects in six prioritized and hard-to-reach regions is supporting 860,000 people through interventions including WASH, food security, protection and shelter.
Committed to advancing localization through direct funding and capacity-building initiatives, the RHFWCA directly funded eight national NGOs in Burkina Faso. The fund also worked with international NGOs to ensure that an additional 32 local NGOs were engaged in balanced partnerships, with international NGO partners required to submit a capacity-building plan to reinforce their local partners
Burkina Faso
With humanitarian needs increasing in central Sahel, the Regional Humanitarian Fund for West and Central Africa allocated $20 million in early 2022 to help NGOs respond to the most critical needs of 860,000 people in hard-to-reach areas, where people urgently need WASH, protection, food and shelter support.
OCHA/Naomi FrerotteA strength of RHFWCA projects is the participative approach undertaken and encouraged by national and international NGOs, who connect with local communities and thus ensure their active engagement in shaping humanitarian action. Solidarités International and local NGO SOLIDEV are a good example of this. They worked with local community members in Tougan commune (Boucle de Mouhoun region) to provide training on shelter construction. With more than 300 local NGOs and associations registered in the country, the role of local actors is critical in Burkina Faso. The RHFWCA is an important proponent of localization and, thereby, more robust humanitarian response.
There is no doubt that pooled funds play an important role in promoting localization through the empowerment of L/NAs, both as decision makers and direct recipients of aid. However, there is still work to be done to meet the promises of the Grand Bargain, such as increasing the flexibility of pooled funds to make multi-year allocations, and simplifying due diligence requirements so that more L/NAs can access funding through CBPFs.
References
- Data as of 1 November 2022.
- A total of $201 million directly with a further $59 million via subgrants.
- Figures include subgrants.
- While the funds maintain their primary life-saving goal, the Guidelines also seek to capture their leading role in advancing localization, strengthening the role of local and national actors in governance and the delivery of aid. The revised guidelines are expected to be published by the end of 2022.
- Due to the nature of CERF’s reporting cycle, 2020 is the most recent year for which comprehensive information on subgrants made with CERF funding is available.
- Subgranting of funds indicates that the funds passed through an agency and were then disbursed to an implementing partner.
- Humanitarian Policy Group and Overseas Development Institute. The Grand Bargain in 2021: an independent review. 22 June 2022.