1 posts found
Humanitarian crises are escalating in scale and complexity due to issues such as prolonged conflicts, the intensifying climate crisis and economic instability, leading to forced displacement, food insecurity, natural disasters and health emergencies.
On a recent Global Government Forum webinar with knowledge partner Visa, a panel of experts discussed the need to reimagine humanitarian aid systems in the face of these challenges.
According to the United Nations, 300 million people around the world will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2024 and around 733 million people are facing hunger – 152 million more than in 2019.
Marcia K. Wong, deputy assistant to the administrator in the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said: “The statistics and the trendlines demand our attention and accelerated action.”
The US government’s humanitarian budget was bolstered by an additional US$9.15bn through the passage of the National Security Supplemental earlier this year, but Wong stressed the continued need for “donors, international financial institutions and the private sector to step in”.
She also acknowledged that “just piling in more funding does not necessarily translate into effective response if we do not evolve our approach and bring new solutions to the new nature of humanitarian challenges”.
“We can’t move forward without effective robust partnerships, including those with affected populations,” Wong said. “And we can’t evolve if we’re not harnessing innovation and technology.”
She noted that digital technology can help people in crisis to access services and to connect to networks and reliable information. It can also support the collection and analysis of data to create forecasts and communicate risks and information to those in need.
“[Technology] can expand opportunities and bring efficiencies to the system,” Wong commented. “But it’s not simply an app or even an end product, it’s a tool that can serve as a foundation and infrastructure to do more. This digital infrastructure delivers greater impact when it reinforces privacy, trust and equal access.”
Informed by these challenges and opportunities, USAID is developing a new five-year strategic vision for humanitarian assistance.
What humanitarian aid professionals say
Alan Robbins, co-founder and executive vice-president of Devex, a media platform for the global development community, shared research his publication carried out in partnership with Visa to understand the views of humanitarian aid organisations.
The survey of 1,000 humanitarian professionals resulted in a report titled Reimagining aid in the digital age: Building global capabilities to serve local needs which drew several important conclusions. These include that people-centered approaches should prioritise choice and flexibility; inclusivity and accessibility should be central to programme design; rapidly evolving crises require fast, efficient and scalable responses; designing programmes for the long term will produce more sustainable outcomes; and well-coordinated partnerships are key to tackling interconnected challenges.
In terms of the results, 94% of respondents said that having multiple options for delivering and receiving humanitarian aid is important. In addition, 86% said that providing aid through digital payments systems empowers beneficiaries and drives digital financial inclusion. Further, 56% said that when deciding the method of humanitarian aid distribution, the ability to deliver results efficiently and in a timely manner remains top of mind. Top barriers to the adoption of humanitarian digital payments identified by survey respondents were digital infrastructure, financial literacy and mobile device access.
The survey also asked about the top barriers to collaboration between actors involved in the digital payments ecosystem for humanitarian aid. Respondents pinpointed lack of coordination and communication among financial service providers, bureaucracy, and weak policies around digitisation.
“I think it’s important to listen to the people that are doing this work every day,” said Robbins.
Partnership power
Louise Holden, global head of government partnerships at Visa, outlined Visa’s role in humanitarian aid. While many associate the brand with credit cards, Holden likened the global payments technology company to being more like a railway infrastructure operator.
“We ensure the safe and efficient operation of the payment tracks,” she said. “And we support signalling and the rules, and we provide a variety of pathways for organisations to choose their financial destinations.”
Visa’s network includes banks, fintechs, mobile operators, retailers, governments and humanitarian organisations.
“We really try to deeply understand their financial needs and how they need to move money, especially in times of crisis,” said Holden.
She added that involving local experts is central to the company’s approach, as is a commitment to digital and financial inclusion.
Holden shared a case study from Colombia, where Visa has partnered with a local financial technology company and two non-governmental humanitarian organisations to develop a payment system tailored for the large number of Venezuelan refugees making their way into Colombia.
“The approach involved a lengthy deep-dive into the operational challenges faced by both agencies and by the refugees themselves trying to really understand the challenges they were facing,” said Holden.
It turned out that each of the agencies was independently creating and purchasing their own solutions, leading to duplicated costs. The unified solution created by the partners is linked to a unique tokenised identifier for each individual that is onboarded, meaning that refugees can move between agencies using the same payment tools and validated information.
Holden noted that the shared solution also reduces the risk of identity fraud and beneficiary duplication. “It also offers the refugee a financial tool that supports cross-border use and financial inclusion,” she said.
Holden urged governments to support aggregation efforts through funding and endorsements of sector solutions.
“The backing not only promotes efficiency in contracting and resourcing, but also is really important in empowering those local organisations, so that they can have a meaningful impact in the communities in which they’re working,” she explained.
Predict, prevent, prepare
Ferid Belhaj, former vice president, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank, expanded on this, saying: “If governments can do anything, it is really to work very hard at preventing those situations that put us up against these challenges.”
He pointed to a need to use “political clout” to set up “early warning systems” for conflicts, as well as implementing climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
On a similar theme, Belhaj drew attention to the need to focus on the long-term resilience and sustainability of humanitarian aid.
“We need to shift from short-term relief to long-term development projects, to build infrastructure, create jobs, and improve education and healthcare systems,” he said. “And this is what we have done at the [World] Bank [in] the Syrian refugee crisis, in Lebanon and Jordan… in Indonesia, when the earthquake hit part of the of the country, we worked on making sure that nexus between development and humanitarian aid is very much part of the deal.”
Belhaj also agreed with his fellow panellists on the important role of technology, highlighting tools such as blockchain for transparent distribution of funds, drones for delivering aid to hard-to-reach areas, and big data for predictive analytics to anticipate and respond to crises more efficiently.
New financing mechanisms are also key, he said, citing examples such as catastrophe bonds, social impact bonds and public-private partnerships.
“Whatever money governments have, whatever money international financial institutions like the World Bank have, will be a drop in the ocean of needs,” he said. “There is a very, very important need for the private sector to be part and parcel in this conversation.”
Linked to this, he said, is the requirement for better monitoring and evaluation.
“If we want to make sure that governments and international financial institutions, but also the private sector, are involved in this, there is the need to make sure that people know and understand the impact of what they are doing, and see that they are making a difference.”
As humanitarian crises evolve, so must the aid systems that respond to them. The panellists agreed on priorities such as listening to local expertise, fostering effective partnerships, and innovation through technology.
The webinar, How governments can re-imagine humanitarian aid systems to meet global challenges, took place on July 11 in partnership with Visa. Replay it in full here.