Humanitarian emergency fund: independent review

1 Background and Context to the Review

Box 1: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Global Humanitarian Overview 2019 provides a useful summary of the current challenging humanitarian context:

• Despite global development gains, one in every 70 people around the world (132 million people) urgently needs humanitarian assistance and protection.
• More people are being displaced by conflict, even though globally numbers of conflicts are reducing. 68.5 million people were forcibly displaced in 2017.
• Natural disasters and climate change affect 350 million people on average each year and cause billions of dollars of damage.
• Food insecurity is rising. Between 2015 and 2017, the number of people experiencing crisis-level food insecurity or worse increased from 80 million to 124 million people.
• Crises exacerbate gender inequalities. Girls in conflict settings are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys.
• The average humanitarian crisis now lasts more than nine years. Nearly three quarters of people targeted to receive assistance in 2018 were in countries affected by humanitarian crisis for seven years or more.
• Many needs remain unmet. Despite a significant increase in funding, from US$10.6 billion in 2014 to US$13.9 billion in 2017, the gap in coverage for UN-led humanitarian response plans hovers at about 40%.

The Scottish Government Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF) was established in 2017 following policy commitments in the Programme for Government 2016/17 to establish a £1 million humanitarian aid fund. This decision followed a period from 2008 to 2016 when the Scottish Government responded to ten international crises, making decisions on humanitarian funding on a case by case basis.

The HEF was developed through a process of co-creation with the Scottish humanitarian sector. This was launched when the Scottish Government International Development Team convened a meeting in June 2016, effectively initiating a working group of the primary humanitarian actors with a presence in Scotland. Guided by a Scottish Government steering paper, the group worked together and prepared a proposal to Scottish Government that was delivered in December 2016 and on which Scottish Government undertook further sector consultation. Scottish Government contracted the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to provide a Secretariat function and an independent organisation^[1] to manage a Panel member application process in spring 2017; HEF Panel member organisations and a Chair were subsequently appointed and the inaugural Panel meeting was held on 5 July 2017.

The HEF Panel is comprised of leading humanitarian aid organisations with a presence in Scotland with expertise in responding to emergencies in developing countries, and has an independent Chair. HEF Panel organisations are signatories to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, and are members of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance. Members of the Panel, appointed by the Scottish Government, advise on and access the fund.

Five HEF Panel members are Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) members: British Red Cross, Christian Aid Scotland, Oxfam Scotland, Save the Children and Tearfund. Three HEF Panel members are not DEC members: Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Mercy Corps Europe and Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF).

The DEC brings together 13 leading UK aid agencies in times of humanitarian crises to raise money to help those impacted by disaster. The DEC Secretariat is contracted to manage the HEF and support the HEF Panel. The DEC appointed a Co-ordinator to deliver the HEF Secretariat function and liaise with the HEF Panel, the Scottish Government, and the DEC. The current part-time Co-ordinator also has another part-time role as DEC External Relations Manager (Scotland).

1.1 Scope of the Review

The review was led by Philippa Bonella, an independent consultant retained by the Corra Foundation for this contract, with research support from Corra. This team will hereafter be referred to as the Reviewers.

The scope of the review was determined by the Terms of Reference (ToR) confirmed by Scottish Government (Appendix 1) and guided by a research outline prepared by the Reviewers (Appendix 2). The ToR outline the following objectives for the review:

1. "Work with the Scottish Government's International Development team to devise a scheme for the review of the HEF.

2. Carry out an independent review of the HEF.

3. Gather evidence from the HEF Panel members, the Disasters Emergency Committee; Scotland's International Development Alliance, Scottish Government officials and others on the structure and operations of the HEF.

4. Consider how the HEF would continue to successfully operate if there was a flux in the current commitment of £1M. To consider the impact of up to a 50% increase (~£1.5M) and up to a 50% decrease (~£500,000).

5. Collate all responses and comments made in relation to the evaluation.

6. Produce a report to the Scottish Government: containing options for any changes to the HEF; and detailing any recommendations for the improvement and future of the HEF."

In addition to the information collected and presented in this report, the review also gathered some complementary information on other country models (presented in Appendix 7).

The review did not cover:

• Review of performance of individual Panel member organisations or staff representatives
• Review of the performance of the contracted Secretariat function performed by the DEC
• Consideration of future Panel membership beyond broad sectoral observation
• Assessment of the impact of funded projects, either on an individual or collective level.

1.2 Methodology

The purpose of the review was to:

i. Review how the HEF is working to deliver its original aims

ii. Consider the future operation of the HEF in light of best practice, and in light of potential budget changes.

Within this core purpose, the review placed additional focus on Stream 2 HEF funding as it became apparent from initial consultations that this was an area where there was more scope for strengthened practice. Beyond this core purpose, the review additionally considered four areas of focus felt relevant to the HEF's work: learning, impact measurement, the Grand Bargain, and safeguarding.

Information sources included: desk review of a range of Scottish Government and HEF Panel documentation; desk review of policy commitments, trends and good practice in the humanitarian sector; 24 semi-structured interviews with 28 individuals, in addition to three group interviews (two with the HEF Panel and one with key members of the Scottish Government team), gathering responses from 36 individuals in total. These included 16 HEF Panel members' representatives (each participating organisation has a primary and deputy Panel representative), 3 DEC representatives, 5 Scottish Government representatives, 4 representatives of INGOs in Scotland not involved in the HEF, and 8 humanitarian sector experts. Interviewees were identified and selected by their professional role: of the total 36 individuals responding in individual or group interviews, 22 were women, 14 men.

The process used was an inclusive one, adopted with the intention of ensuring that all key stakeholders had an opportunity to provide input and perspectives to the review. This included an initial consultation with the HEF Panel Chair and Co-ordinator, followed by two HEF Panel group meetings and individual, confidential interviews with each HEF Panel member, as well as other INGO stakeholders in Scotland and a number of international experts in the UK and abroad. The review ran from July to August with the final report submitted to the Scottish Government on 6 September 2019.

No conflicts of interest were identified or noted during the review. In terms of the objectivity of the Reviewers:

• Philippa Bonella, the independent consultant, is an experienced researcher and programme reviewer with a background in international development. She has had no previous engagement with the HEF, though did have previous experience of work with two HEF Panel organisations and of a previous strategic review for Scottish Government.
• Corra had undertaken review of applications for the initial HEF Panel appointments so brought some insights from the Panel's inception stages. The Foundation has had no engagement with the work of the HEF since then, though does deliver two grant management contracts for other Scottish Government international development funding streams.