Throughout PHAP’s and ICVA’s series on humanitarian financing, speakers have referred to a process that promises to significantly reshape humanitarian funding – the “Grand Bargain”. This package of commitments to improve humanitarian financing was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit last year and aims to reduce the humanitarian funding gap and improve funding processes. Given the interest expressed in this topic by participants in previous sessions, PHAP and ICVA hosted an additional event focusing on this reform process on 3 March.

In this session, participants were provided with an overview of the origins and current processes related to the Grand Bargain and how it might impact the work of NGOs. Based on the interests expressed in previous sessions, the session focused on three areas of the Grand Bargain: increasing support to local and national responders, harmonized and simplified reporting, and the humanitarian-development nexus.

Briefing paper

ICVA has prepared an explanatory briefing paper on the Grand Bargain process. You can access the document in English. The briefing paper will be soon available in also French and Arabic.

For additional resources on this topic, you can go here.

Follow-up responses

Read the written responses to the follow-up questions by the guest experts

Learning stream on humanitarian financing

This session was the final event of six live interactive online learning sessions that ICVA and PHAP have organized in the learning stream on humanitarian financing between September 2016 and March 2017 with the purpose of providing NGOs and humanitarian workers with a stronger understanding of the humanitarian financing system.

Recommended resources

• “The Grand Bargain - A Shared Commitment to Better Serve People in Need”, Istanbul, 23 May 2016
• ICVA, "The Grand Bargain explained: An ICVA briefing paper," March 2017
• Ben Parker, "Is the Grand Bargain a Big Deal?," IRIN News, 24 May 2016
• Sophia Swithern & Charlotte Lattimer, “Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2016,” Development Initiatives, 2016

During the event the following resources were mentioned by speakers and participants:

• Erica Gaston, "Harmonizing Donor Reporting," Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI), February 2017
• NRC's video on Four Key challenges affecting the entire humanitarian sector after a 6-month internal study on donor conditionalities
• Definitions Survey to feed into Grand Bargain work regarding the definition of localisation, and local and national actors, deadine: 23 March 2017 (in French/ in Arabic)

Geneva Humanitarian Connector

This event was made possible through the Geneva Humanitarian Connector, an initiative of PHAP supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Learning objectives

• Knowledge of the main processes (and their origins) and actors involved in the Grand Bargain
• Awareness of the current trends and emerging policies in relation to increasing support to national and local responders
• Awareness of the challenges faced by NGOs regarding the harmonization and simplification of reporting vis-à-vis donors
• Familiarity with current discussions relating to the humanitarian-development nexus and its implications for humanitarian planning and funding

Target audience and event access

The learning stream specifically targets NGO staff, including field, policy and HQ staff, but all live sessions are open to anyone interested in improving their understanding of humanitarian financing.