Humanitarian Capacity

➡️The future of humanitarian action is increasingly digital, with new technologies driving both opportunities and challenges. Today, data flows faster than ever, but with rising needs and funding cuts, efficiency and accountability are in the spotlight. 🖱Digital tools are critical in creating evidence-based programs, boosting transparency, and enhancing coordination. Yet, as tech companies step into humanitarian roles and NGOs evolve into IT service providers, concerns like data security, cyber threats, and misinformation grow. In the latest "Digitalization of humanitarian action - To Go paper", Andrea Düchting explores how the sector can adapt responsibly, prioritizing inclusive digital transformation that protects vulnerable populations and promotes fair access. #digitalhumanitarianism #humanitarianaid #digitaltransformation https://lnkd.in/dFYFcpNG

📢 For the past five years, Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge (CHIC) has empowered 41 initiatives led by individuals directly affected by conflict. By funding local innovators, CHIC has unlocked insights and solutions crafted by those closest to the challenges. To set the new strategy, CHIC commissioned a study to identify challenges and ways forward. ➡ Here are the main takeaways from the final report: 💡 Local Innovation:  there is a rich potential for community-led and community-owned innovations within conflict-affected areas with actors varying widely in their structures, motivations, and expertise, including NGOs, for-profit companies, and grassroots organizations. 💡 Leveraging Local Knowledge: Innovators from affected communities use cultural understanding and local relationships to address unique challenges like access restrictions, insecurity, and bureaucratic obstacles. 💡 Tailored Support: customized support is needed by innovators to build necessary skills, connections, and infrastructure to operate effectively in conflict settings. 💡 Broader Humanitarian Challenges: Innovators face common challenges—limited overhead funding, high administrative demands, and short-term grants—typical of humanitarian work. 💡 Scaling and Funding Gaps: Although some CHIC-supported initiatives have scaled successfully, limited funding for core operational costs and expansion restricts overall impact and long-term growth. 💡 Areas for Improvement: Enhancing support for core operational funding and follow-up resources could help CHIC maximize impact in future support initiatives. https://lnkd.in/g2fPkayR

The 2023 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development highlights the critical need to harness social protection for gender equality, resilience, and transformation. As a matter of fact, despite progress, 2 billion women and girls still lack access to social protection, with many facing inadequate support. Women and gender-diverse people, especially those facing multiple forms of discrimination, are often the most excluded. The report offers concrete recommendations to protect women from poverty and strengthen resilience. It calls for coordinated systems that integrate public services and employment policies to unlock the full potential of social protection. #GenderEquality #SocialProtection #UN #HumanRights https://lnkd.in/dT_vhiEX

Internally displaced people and refugees face threats of rent hikes, evictions, and renewed displacement, compromising their safety and dignity. Access to land and housing is essential for survival and rebuilding lives. Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) rights are critical for humanitarian efforts, linking protection and recovery while addressing root causes. This brief highlights the importance of housing land and property rights in emergency and transitional contexts, with examples from Palestine-Gaza, Somalia, and Colombia, and underscores the need for consistent housing land and property rights protection throughout all displacement phases. It draws from a session by the Norwegian Refugee Council for the 2024 World Bank Land Conference. #displacement #IDP #humanitarian #humanitarianaid https://lnkd.in/dhUnGzJ2

Peacebuilding faces unprecedented challenges with rising global conflicts driven by geopolitical shifts, climate change, and social inequalities. To tackle these issues, a new approach to financing is needed —one that involves diverse actors and innovative solutions. Peace Finance is a game-changer, leveraging the expertise of peacebuilding organizations to inform peace-aligned investments. This not only reduces risks for investors but also strengthens community resilience. #peacebuilding #finance #peacefinance #humanitarian https://lnkd.in/dJ9gMmUR

The strong connection between climate change and health is undeniable. However, the world still lacks effective systems to tackle the complex interplay of the climate-health crisis. While climate change is a global issue, its health effects are felt locally, with cities being especially at risk. Shockingly, fewer than 25% of cities have emergency protocols that incorporate health considerations into their climate disaster strategies. The report “Urban Climate-Health Action: A New Approach to Safeguarding Health in the Age of Climate Change” by the Rockefeller Foundation highlights the significant gaps in how cities respond to health threats caused by climate change. It also presents a three-step action plan designed to help cities worldwide improve their preparedness and responses to this global health emergency. #climatehealth #sustainablecities #humanitarian https://lnkd.in/dY7aF9j9

The LEGS and SEADS handbooks provide guidance for initial assessments in smallholder and agro-pastoral communities affected by crises. The newly released LEGS-SEADS Joint Assessment Tool (JAT) combines knowledge taken from the two handbooks and provides a joint assessment framework, allowing field officers save time and resources. This unified tool reduces demands on affected communities and helps identify key connections between livestock and crop production. #livestock #foodsecurity #assessmenttool #humanitarianaid https://lnkd.in/detfmw6f

Global Witness reported 196 defenders were murdered in 2023 for protecting their lands and environment, though the actual number is likely higher. This raises the total to over 2,000 killings since 2012, with an estimated 2,106 to date. Murder remains a brutal method to silence defenders, often combined with violence, intimidation, and criminalization from various actors across all regions and sectors. The deaths of these defenders worsen climate, biodiversity, and pollution crises. Since the Paris Agreement in December 2015, over 1,500 defenders have been murdered. The report also uncovers non-lethal attacks and their impact on communities, including enforced disappearances and abductions, particularly in the Philippines and Mexico. It highlights the criminalization of activists and a crackdown on environmental defenders in the UK, Europe, and the US, where laws are increasingly used against them and harsh sentences are imposed. #environment #environmentaljustice #humanitarian https://lnkd.in/eHUXcsA7

The Arab region is home to around 45 million persons with disabilities, a number that has increased due to instability and conflict. They face significant economic challenges, social exclusion, and greater vulnerability to violence, inadequate healthcare, and natural disasters. Disability and poverty are closely linked, with most disabled persons living in rural areas lacking services and employment, perpetuating poverty. A brief by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) examines the disability-poverty link and offers policy recommendations to address these challenges and implement effective programs. #inclusivity #disability #middleeast #humanitarian https://lnkd.in/dYDtbmSz

The "Checklist for Safe and Inclusive Consultations with Children" by the Education Cluster in collaboration with Unicef serves as an essential guide for cluster coordinators and partners who are responsible for organizing consultations with children, such as Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) or Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). The focus is on ensuring that these consultations are safe, inclusive, and responsive to gender, age, and disability considerations. The checklist included in this guide is designed to be a practical tool, applicable at any stage of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) process. It outlines key actions that can be used as entry points for facilitating meaningful and contextually appropriate consultations. #Eie #education #SDG4 #humanitarian https://lnkd.in/dXcDSe58