Burundi leads the way in new localization partnership
The World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are piloting a new, more collaborative way of working.
Staff from the Burundi Red Cross, IFRC and WFP recently met in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura for training on cash-based transfers and nutrition-sensitive programming in the first of a series of meetings to strengthen the capacity of the Burundi Red Cross.
“It was useful to see the options cash-based transfers can offer, because in-kind assistance does not always match the beneficiaries’ first choice and needs,” said Nadine Munezero, a nutrition manager with the Burundi Red Cross.
“I already know about nutrition, but I learned a lot about cash-based transfers. What we need now after this introductory training is to be able to apply what we learned to our daily work,” she added.
Nadine and her colleagues will soon have an opportunity to do just that. The Burundi Red Cross, IFRC and WFP plan another such workshop followed by a simulation on cash-based transfer basics and the programmatic, financial, IT and supply chain aspects of cash-based interventions.
The goal is that the Burundi Red Cross should become a leader in cash-transfer programming in Burundi n a few years, able to launch large-scale, cash-based operations and receive direct donor funding. Other initiatives on supply chain management and organizational development are scheduled for the next few months.
These plans follow a decade of gain in Burundi — including more stability and moderate economic growth — being eroded by a political and socio-economic crisis after the 2015 presidential elections. More than half a million people have left their provinces of origin and food prices have nearly doubled in the past two-and-a-half years.
The Burundi Red Cross has a key role in coordinating humanitarian response and community development. It has at least 600,000 active volunteers and, due to its reliability and its extensive presence, is the main partner of a number of United Nations agencies.
A global partnership
The closer relationship is one of four pilots in a capacity strengthening initiative launched by the IFRC and WFP in 2017. In the Dominican Republic, Pakistan and Sudan, staff from Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, IFRC and WFP are working on new partnerships similar to Burundi.
More pilots are currently under discussion in the Asia-Pacific region, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
The key objective is for IFRC National Societies to play a more prominent role in national humanitarian responses in support of governments and in partnership with the UN. Capacity investments in National Societies are context-specific and seek to strengthen organizations as holistic institutions.
At the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016, more than 30 major donors and aid organizations adopted a “Grand Bargain,” a package of reforms that seek to reduce the financing gap by improving the delivery and efficiency of aid.
However, only few of the organizations that signed up to the Bargain have taken concrete steps to deliver on a central promise of the agreement: a commitment to localize humanitarian action by increasing support to local and national responders.
With the new capacity strengthening initiative, WFP and IFRC seek to show what localization looks like in practice.
At the same time, they hope to outline a new and more collaborative way of working between the United Nations and Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to help communities lead, and sustain, their own fight against hunger.
Over 50 participants from National Societies, the IFRC and WFP will attend a Global Learning Workshop on the initiative 10–11 April 2018 at WFP in Rome.
