Andrew Featherstone

• Independent humanitarian researcher

In February 2020 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UNICEF Executive Director launched a ‘Blueprint’ for joint action (‘A Fair Deal for Refugee Children’). The Blueprint represents a renewed commitment by UNHCR and UNICEF to accelerate joint efforts to promote and protect the rights of refugee children and the communities tha...

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Principals have called for the commitment of donors to put in place the required incentives for the system to be more engaging and responsive to the needs of affected people.1 The Accountability to Affected People (AAP) Task force (TF) recognises that donors have a critical influence on the way organisatio...

The Inter-Agency Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response is an independent assessment of the collective efforts of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) member organizations in support of people, and with government and local actors, in meeting the needs and priorities of the world’s most vulnerable people in the context of COVID-19....

The Inter-Agency Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response is an independent assessment of the collective efforts of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) member organizations in support of people, and with government and local actors, in meeting the needs and priorities of the world’s most vulnerable people in the context of COVID-19....

The Inter-Agency Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response is an independent assessment of the collective efforts of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) member organizations in support of people, and with government and local actors, in meeting the needs and priorities of the world’s most vulnerable people in the context of COVID-19....

The Inter-Agency Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response is an independent assessment of the collective efforts of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) member organizations in support of people, and with government and local actors, in meeting the needs and priorities of the world’s most vulnerable people in the context of COVID-19....

The Inter-Agency Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response is an independent assessment of the collective efforts of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) member organizations in support of people, and with government and local actors, in meeting the needs and priorities of the world’s most vulnerable people in the context of COVID-19....

This article examines state leadership and coordination of humanitarian response. It highlights some of the challenges faced by humanitarian agencies that engage with state-led structures in recent crises and makes recommendations about how these can be addressed in the future, and how agencies may seek to identify and mitigate residual risks. From...

In January 2019, the ERC identified four priority areas to which Resident/Humanitarian Coordinators (RC/HCs) should give ‘due consideration’ when developing CERF applications. The ERC’s communication identified the four areas as: (a) support for women and girls, including tackling gender-based violence, reproductive health and empowerment; (b) prog...

The current LEGS strategy contains a commitment to increased localisation of the LEGS Approach among stakeholders and the LEGS Community of Practice. This encompasses issues of ownership and control of processes as well as supporting local actors to contextualise LEGS in their own situation. Linked to this, a key aspect of the LEGS strategic plan i...

The Grand Bargain, which currently has 62 signatories which includes donors, UN agencies, NGOs and members of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, has been a driver of reform within the humanitarian sector. Within it, the ‘localisation commitment’ (Commitment 2) outlines six measures to ensure ‘more support and funding tools for local and national...

This evaluation sought to assess UNICEF’s performance in achieving coverage and quality in Afghanistan between 2015 and 2020; identify internal and external factors that enabled or inhibited the delivery of high-quality humanitarian action; and capture good practice and innovation.

In less than a year, humanitarian leaders from across the world will meet in Istanbul to discuss the state of the system during the World Humanitarian Summit. Vying for space on a packed agenda will be the vexed issue of how agencies can better account for their actions to the people they work with. While it took one of the greatest crises in livin...

The Start Fund is a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism that consists of a network of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and provides small-scale funding (up to £300k per organisation over a 45 day window) to frontline NGOs. The main objective of the evaluation is to assess the performance of the Start Fund during the 9-month desi...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction, Methodology & Limitations Introduction This research report is one of three outputs from a global mapping study of NGO participation in humanitarian reform training initiatives, the objective of which was to conduct a mapping and analysis of existing and/or planned training initiatives on humanitarian reform (which i...

The core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as they are borne out of International Humanitarian Law and enshrined in the Red Cross/Red Crescent Code of Conduct for Humanitarian Action, provide a value base that underpins the day-to-day operations of humanitarian organisations in situations of both natur...