The Flagship Initiative: Redesigning Humanitarian Response (Status Update Two: July 2024)

Launched in 2023, the Flagship Initiative aims to transform humanitarian action by organizing assistance around the priorities of crisis-affected communities rather than aid providers. This, the second status update, highlights progress in four pilot countries: Colombia, Niger, the Philippines, and South Sudan.

The initiative is driving a new approach to humanitarian action that:

1. Systematically engages communities to understand their priorities, risks, capacities, and aspirations.
2. Coordinates planning and programming at decentralized, subnational levels.
3. Finances coalitions of partners and packages of assistance that address community priorities for both emergency response and resilience-building.

Key common evolving elements across the four pilot countries include:

• Systematic and participatory community engagement
• Decentralized area-based coordination
• Funding local communities' priorities and capacities
• Programming and planning based on community priorities
• Empowering Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators to drive integrated responses

Country-specific highlights:

• Colombia: Decentralized area-based coordination

Area-based advisors were deployed to La Guajira, Buenaventura, and Guaviare, reporting directly to the RC/HC. These advisors are integrating humanitarian and development responses in regions with complex challenges, working with local communities, partners, government, and the private sector to develop and implement community-level operational plans.

• Niger: Funding local communities' priorities and capacities

A dedicated US$2 million envelope from the Regional Humanitarian Fund for West and Central Africa was launched to directly support local actors in Diffa. This funding is restricted to NGOs with an operational presence in target communes, prioritizing national and local NGOs and community-based organizations. All funded projects must align with documented community priorities.

• Philippines: Programming and planning based on community priorities

The Flagship Initiative team has been experimenting with barangay (village)-level people's plans, which are organized around community priorities and articulate the community's assets and aspirations. This approach has led to co-funding commitments from local NGOs and government units for community-driven resilience preparedness activities.

• South Sudan: Empowering Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators to drive integrated responses

The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator launched the first South Sudan Humanitarian Fund standard allocation for 2024, which requires all proposals to be based on community engagement results. This allocation channels a significant proportion of funds directly to local and national humanitarian actors, especially women-led organizations, and includes micro cash grants for extremely local initiatives.

The Flagship Initiative is driving significant changes in how humanitarian assistance is delivered, shifting focus from providers to communities and aiming to graduate people out of dependence on aid. As the approach evolves, it has the potential to fundamentally transform the humanitarian system, leading to more effective, community-centered responses that address both immediate needs and long-term resilience.

For more information, visit: https://www.unocha.org/flagship-initiative