Walking side by side – not voices in the wilderness Grand Bargain Statement from A4EP

A4EP, a global alliance of Southern organisations, the 63rd and the newest signatory,  will ensure GB policy discourses remain centred on affected populations and informed  by the experiences of local actors to strengthen effective, efficient and timely  responses through a nexus approach. A4EP commits to working together with  international actors to address the barriers in establishing equitable partnerships with  local actors. We will work with others to ensure distributive and collaborative decision 
making in the global governance of the Grand Bargain and at the country level. 

The last five years of experience of the Grand Bargain has shown that progress is slow and deep rooted systems change  takes time. The short term two-year planning is leading to ad hoc activities which are not bringing required system wide  change. Given the ongoing pandemic and the climate crisis and its longer terms impacts, the Grand Bargain v2.0 needs a  longer time horizon and commitment, in line with SDGs and Sendai Framework for DRR and Paris Climate Goals. For the  Grand Bargain commitments to be meaningfully moving forward, it needs to be systematically implemented at country  level by contextualising it to the country context. There must be a country level process roadmap with M&E framework  to ensure accountability.  

a) Extend the timeline for the Grand Bargain v 2.0 to 2030.  

b) Engage Principals in high level dialogue to harness political will to make real progress on shrinking needs and  dignified life for affected population. 

c) Carry out a review of state of localisation at country level and create a road map and action plan to ensure  efficient, effective and timely response for affected populations in which they are the main decision-maker  and actors. 

d) Create a localisation task force co-led by local actors and supported by international actors which can jointly  monitor the progress at country level 

Shrinking space  

In the race for deepening and broadening the resource base the INGOs are now nationalising and the UN agencies are  now  also  raising  funds  in  the  aid-recipient  countries.  Both  INGOs  and  UN  agencies  are  now  monopolising  every  operational, policy and resource space in countries. If the GB signatories want to make real process on localisation and  participation revolution, there is a need to revisit the IASC Definitions Paper to make the definition apolitical and thereby  creating a facilitative environment for locally rooted CSOs. The GB signatories need to complement the local and national  actors not replace them.  

1) Review  and  revise  the  IASC  definitions  of  local,  national  and  international  actors  and  develop  a  localisation  marker to assess progress. 

2) Stop  further  nationalisation  of INGOs. The existing  branches  of INGOs  registered in  countries  should  not  be  treated as national CSO but should be required to complement and support home grown CSOs as intermediaries.  They should be shifting  roles, shrink  their operational space while providing support  for increasing space  for  local/national actors. 

3) INGO and UN should only be operational as a last resort otherwise they should be reinforcing and not replacing  local actors in operational and policy space and should be complementing the local actors and sharing risks.  

Increasing inclusion and representation of local organizations  

At  present  the  global  and  country  level  aid  architecture  displays  authoritarian and  colonial tendencies  with  decision  making in the hands of a few powerful international actors with patriarchal (or patronising) attitudes who dominate the  resources. There is a serious lack of diversity and inclusion of local actors in the decision-making in aid architecture and  the Grand Bargain process. Where local actors are present, their voices are not being heard or being able to influence  the decision making because they are outnumbered. 

1) Open  up  and  broaden  the  representation  and  participation  of  diverse  networks  of  local  actors  from  local,  national and regional level at the Grand Bargain table.  

2) Democratize  Grand  Bargain  governance  and  decision-making  so  it  does  not  remain  in  the  hands  of  a  few  powerful international actors and become more inclusive.  

3) Create a safe space for local actors to share openly and honestly the issues without retaliation or backlash.  4) Let GB be a template, which can be evolved by local and national actors according to a specific context with  complementary support from international actors, instead of it being prescriptive.  

Funding and financing 

Funding and financing of local organisations has made the least progress in the last 5 years. 

1) Support  or  establish  country-owned  and  locally  led  pooled  fund in  aid-recipient  countries  earmarking  percentage only for access by local actors. 

2) Pooled funds that are created must be operated with consistency and with full transparency and accountability.  3) Given that pooled are only available in a few humanitarian contexts, a pool of local actors need to be identified  for direct support or through intermediaries, based on the GB commitment 4.  

4) Provide fair overhead  costs and multi-year  flexible  funding  to local actors  for  timely, effective, efficient and  predictable response that is accountable to the community.   

5) Set  up  a  simplified  county  level  dashboard, respecting  the  IATI  principles, that  can  be  used  by  all  actors  so  funding can be more clearly tracked to where it is most needed at country level and establish open feedback  

Website: www.A4EP.net  Twitter: @A4EP2  

Contact numbers of Persons for further information:

Singh, Sudhanshu S, Chief Executive Officer, Humanitarian Aid  International, India,  

Email: [email protected] 

Mobile: +91 9953 163 572 

https://hai-india.org/ 

Patel, Smruti: Director, Global Mentoring Initiative,  Switzerland  

email: [email protected] 

Tel: +41 79 561 4749 

www.gmentor.org