Annual Meetings and Related Documents

July 2009 - July 2010

• Chairs' Summary of the Annual Review Meeting GHD-IASC session July 2010
• i. Presentation on State of the Humanitarian System: Assessing Performance and Progress
• ii. Presentation on Global Trends
• iii. Presentation on The Role of M&E in Learning, Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action: Where are we now?
• iv. Presentation on IFRC Federation Wide Reporting for Haiti
• GHD Chairs' Summary May 2010
• GHD Chairs' Summary February 2010
• GHD Chairs' Summary October 2009

July 2008 - July 2009

• Annual Report on activities pursued under the the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) Initiative (2008-9)
• GHD Chairs' Summary July 2009

July 2007 - July 2008

• GHD Annual Report for July 2007 - July 2008
• July GHD Chairs' Summary

Good Humanitarian Donorship workplan 2007-08

The GHD workplan for 2007-8 sets out 4 main areas of work:

• How do we as donors improve our decisions on how we provide humanitarian funding?
• How do we as donors improve our choice of mechanisms we use to best provide humanitarian aid?
• How do we as GHD donors measure our performance?
• How do we as donors improve our outreach and advocacy on good humanitarian donorship?

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July 2006 - July 2007

• Update on the Good humanitarian Initiative of April 2007
• Best practice in Disaster Risk Reduction
• Allocating Humanitarian Funding according to need discussion paper and the Brussels Workshop
• Update on the Good Humanitarian Initiative of January 2007
• Review of the OCHA Emergency Response Funds
• Evaluation of Common humanitarian funding paper December 2006

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July 2005 - July 2006

The latest GHD meeting took place in Geneva in July 2006.

The first half of the meeting was dedicated to identifying ways in which donors could ensure that their resources are allocated to where they are most needed. A background paper on the topic was tabled by Ireland. A number of key action points were agreed to take this work forward. These included: exchange of experience in the use of severity indices; investing more in improving the evidence base for humanitarian decision-making; and examining how multilateral organisations ensure resources are allocated according to need when using unearmarked and pooled funding.

The remainder of meeting reviewed progress over the past year. The meeting agreed to further strengthen donor coordination at field level, drawing on new guidance for field colleagues. It also agreed to maintain a capacity to monitor progress against GHD objectives. The priorities for 2006/7 were agreed.Canada issued revised GHD Domestic implementation plans in both English and French.

The following papers were issued at this meeting:

• Latest news - Chair's summary: 4th GHD meeting
• A review of progress over the past year
• A new guidance for field colleagues on further strengthening donor coordination at field level
• A paper monitoring progress against GHD objectives
• A background paper on identifying ways in which donors could ensure that their resources are allocated to where they are most needed

May 2006

Ireland has commissioned a consultant to review practical approaches to needs-based allocation. The aim is to help donors better fulfil their GHD commitment to provide assistance on the basis of need by understanding the constraints and challenges to doing this, and sharing approaches that have been successful. The report will be prepared in time for the ECOSOC humanitarian segment in July 2006 and will make a number of recommendations to donors to strengthen the needs basis of their allocations. Further details are available in the Terms of reference.

March/April 2006

The final OECD DAC peer reviews for 2004/2005 were released in February 2006. A compilation of the reports for Norway, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany was produced in English and French, and a synthesis report is also available in English and French.With thanks to Henrik Hammargren for making these files available.

Jan Egeland, UN OCHA Deputy High Commissioner gave a speech on the DAC and Good Humanitarian Donorship at the DAC OECD meeting on 6 April. His speech can be found here.

January 2006

January GHD update is available here.

December 2005

On December 15 the UN resolution A/RES/60/124 was passed which officially adopted the new CERF mechanism. The Central Emergency Response Fund, replaces the pre-existing Central Emergency Revolving Fund. UN General Assembly Press Release.

Humanitarian assistance to be discussed at the High Level meeting of the DAC and formal endorsement of principles will be sought.

October 2005

The Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH) and Intermon (Oxfam Spain) convened a seminar on GHD on 20 October 2005 to raise awareness among the Spanish government and NGOs about the initiative. Presentations on GHD were provided by the OECD-DAC, Sweden and UK among others, followed by panel discussions.

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July 2004 - July 2005

The latest meeting took place in New York in July 2005. TheNew York GHD - Chair's Summarydraws attention to important progress made in advancing the implementation plan, particularly work on the DAC peer reviews, and on the harmonisation of reporting. It was agreed that the United Kingdom/Department for International Development (DFID) would take over the chair of the GHD initiative from Canada in July 2005.

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July 2003 - July 2004

The second international meeting was held in Ottawa, in October 2004. An additional 6 countries attended the meeting (Austria, Greece, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain). Support for the principles and practices agreed in Stockholm was reiterated. The Ottawa GHD - Chair's Roadmap (English language version) Ottawa GHD - Sommaire du Président(Version Français) outlined the next steps for the initiative.

These steps included work on outreach and advocacy, and furthering the institutionalisation of GHD through domestic implementation plans. Canada was asked to continue chairing the initiative until July 2005.

Further information

• Outcome documents and background documents for the Ottawa GHD meeting

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Stockholm in 2003

In 2003 a meeting was convened by the Government of Sweden to discuss good humanitarian donorship. It was attended by representatives from 16 donor governments (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US), as well as the European Commission, the OECD, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs, and academics.

The meeting produced a set of23 Principles and Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship(English language version)Principes et bonnes pratiques pour l'aide humanitaire(Version Français) Principios y Buenas Practicas en la Donacion Humanitaria (Version Espanol) and animplementation plan.

Five sub-groups formed to work on areas of the implementation plan. These areas included 2 country pilots in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo; integration of humanitarian aid into the DAC's peer review process; work on agreeing a common definition of humanitarian assistance; harmonisation of donor reporting requirements and management demands on implementing agencies; and the promotion of GHD principles and good practice.

Between 2003-2005, Canada chaired the initiative, including the Implementation Group based in Geneva. During 2005-6 the UK is the chair of GHD.

Further information

• Outcome documents and background documents for the Stockholm GHD meeting

Last updated: 2 Decemeber 2009

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