INSPIRE consortium: Policy development for European Union’s humanitarian aid department (DG ECHO)

Context

The European Union (Member States and Commission), which is the largest humanitarian donor in the world, is at the forefront in developing effective policies to ensure its humanitarian assistance has lasting impact and to provide its many partners with guidance.

With the context of humanitarian action changing rapidly over the past years, good humanitarian policies are needed to respond to a fast-changing environment. The increasing scale of humanitarian needs requires the most effective use of the limited resources available. At the same time, the complexity and volatility of humanitarian contexts call for continuous, in-depth analysis to assess the effects of the current mode of action, identify good practices and improve the quality of aid. In short, there is a constant need to develop, review and adapt humanitarian policies in virtually all areas ranging from food assistance to water and sanitation and across issues such as gender, protection and humanitarian coordination.

The project

Since 2012 the INSPIRE consortium provides DG ECHO with advice and expertise on critical humanitarian issues such as gender, nutrition, protection, water and sanitation, and other sectors and issues. The consortium develops humanitarian policies in close consultation with DG ECHO, its partners and beneficiaries, and also assist DG ECHO in the dissemination of these policies through workshops and trainings. It works in close consultation with DG ECHO, its partners in Brussels and those at the country level.

The consortium is coordinated by Groupe URD.

Activities

As part of the INSPIRE Consortium’s activities, protection workshops were held in Nicaragua and Bangladesh for ECHO staff and partner NGOs based in the countries. A round table was held in Brussels on “Maternal nutrition in emergencies”.

Groupe URD participated in various studies on: the development of strategies to ensure access to basic services for people in CAR; lessons learned from 16 years of DIPECHO’s experience and the improvement of its strategy; the current practices of a number of humanitarian donors regarding the process of allocating funds; and the use of military resources in humanitarian responses.

The INSPIRE Consortium also supports DG ECHO in its reflections on disaster risk reduction.