admin June 16th, 2011
DFID yesterday produced its response to the Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR), chaired by Lord Paddy Ashdown. You can read the press release and download the paper here.
Disappointingly, as far as Advance Aid is concerned, the words ‘pre-positioning’ do not appear at all in the 36 page response. Nor does the phrase ‘local procurement’. So whilst there will be a lot of changes in DFID’s approach to responding to disasters, pre-positioning and local procurement are not explicitly part of any new approach.
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Tags: Andrew Mitchell, DFID, HERR, Lord Paddy Ashdown, natural disasters
admin April 5th, 2011
For all that Andrew Mitchell’s new-style DFID has been promising to bring the private sector into the ministry, the recommendations in the recent Ashdown Committee report (HERR) on working more closely with the private sector in humanitarian situations are hugely disappointing. They neither strongly advocate increased private sector involvement, nor do they advocate the disciplining of the private sector when it underperforms – something that seems long overdue in the humanitarian space.
In fact there is just one recommendation, Recommendation 21, and it asks that DFID “ensure that the new Private Sector Department gives full consideration to those areas where private sector expertise can improve humanitarian response effectiveness, including at the country level”.
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Tags: Andrew Mitchell, DFID, HERR, Lord Paddy Ashdown, natural disasters
admin April 4th, 2011
The Ashdown Committee’s report, amongst other things, provides a breakdown of where DFID’s spending on humanitarian aid goes. The sums involved are substantial – £528 million in 2009/10 – that was spent as follows:
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Tags: CERF, Crown Agents, DFID, HERR, ICRC, Lord Paddy Ashdown, NGOs, OCHA, Red Cross, Save the Children, UN, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP
admin March 28th, 2011
Lord Paddy Ashdown has spoken, with the publication today of his Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR) for DFID, and he has some interesting things to say. We have to welcome, in particular, the section on ‘Changing the funding model’, something that Advance Aid has been arguing for.
Within this section there is an acknowledgment that funding is not done well at the moment and he states that, “DFID…needs to use its funds to promote change – to ensure that agencies are equipped to respond fast and deliver what people really need.” He goes on to offer the following damning critique, “Funding is not proportionate to needs, it is not equitable, it is not coordinated or harmonised, it does not focus enough on prevention and it does not demand demonstrable performance of funded agencies.”
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Tags: CERF, DFID, Emergencies, HERR, Lord Paddy Ashdown, natural disasters, UN
admin March 22nd, 2011
In just under a week, DFID’s Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (also known as HERR, otherwise knows as the Ashdown Committee) will be submitting its recommendations. It could be a real red-letter day for those involved in the provision of emergency relief, because the way that we currently do things has to change and Ashdown has the ability, and the remit, to deliver change.
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Tags: DFID, Emergencies, Lord Paddy Ashdown, natural disasters
admin July 16th, 2010
There have been two interesting developments in the past few days relating to the new UK government’s thinking on disasters and disaster relief.
On Wednesday the Financial Times’s Westminster blog speculated that Lord (Paddy) Ashdown was to be appointed by incoming DFID minister Andrew Mitchell to a new humanitarian role as Chair of the Emergency Response Review – and that appointment was confirmed later in the day. And on Thursday DFID itself announced a major tender to review both its humanitarian policy and its delivery.
The review of humanitarian funding has been widely expected. And, according to the FT blog, “It will involve looking at how UK emergency aid is functioning and how it could be improved.” Not before time, many involved in the provision of emergency relief would argue.
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Tags: Bosnia, DFID, Lord Paddy Ashdown