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Alternative funding modalities for humanitarian interventions in partnership with non-traditional humanitarian actors

Date De L'événement Avec Fuseau Horaire
- Europe/Copenhagen
Type D'événement
Workshop/Seminar
Coordinateur
International Organization for Migration

Humanitarian needs continue to escalate rapidly, yet assistance continues to fall short of targets. In this scenario, alternative funding modalities such as diaspora financing or leveraging diasporas' interventions may contribute towards addressing the chronic funding gap. While diaspora contributions are commonly measured in terms of remittances and sponsorships, diaspora organizations have the potential to play a significant role in meeting urgent and longer-term humanitarian needs in their countries of origin or heritage if their interventions are invested in as well. The sub-granting modality opens new avenues to develop and implement creative humanitarian interventions that can benefit the most vulnerable, remote, and underserved populations.

Complementary to localization efforts, diaspora organizations are uniquely positioned to empower local communities, understanding their cultural contexts, while responding to the most pressing needs. These interventions also tend to promote the operationalization of the humanitarian-development nexus. The innovative solutions paired with sub-granting mechanism and others, also lead to the strengthening of capacities of diaspora partners adding to the credibility and sustainability of their efforts, thereby strengthening synergies between traditional and non-traditional humanitarian actors.

These assumptions were tested in several projects. Examples include IOM COVID-19 response in Africa and MENA region working with worldwide diaspora organizations from Europe, USA and Africa, a project with Ukrainian Diaspora Organizations based in Italy providing humanitarian assistance to affected communities in Ukraine, and other projects promoted by the Diaspora Emergency Action & Coordination (DEMAC) global initiative. The results and lessons learned will be presented during the session. The audience will hear from humanitarian actors as well as partner Diaspora organizations.

Zones de sujet / panneau

The overall scope of the session will be to:

1. Present case studies of alternative funding partnerships with the US and European diaspora organizations including sub-granting modalities.

2. Discuss the pros and cons of subgrants modality, as well as other mechanisms with diaspora partners including lessons learned from the subgrants project implementation in different countries.

3. Explore jointly with the audience additional alternative funding and partnership modalities towards innovative solutions to meet gaps in humanitarian assistance.