In January 2023, joint members of both Start Network and the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) approached the former regarding a DEC commissioned report on local humanitarian action in Ukraine. This report highlighted that less than 1% of humanitarian contributions were transferred directly to local and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ukraine.
The DEC Members specifically wanted to explore a recommendation made in the report that proposed the establishment of a new pooled fund, accessible to local and national actors, with reduced, and tiered, due diligence requirements in Ukraine. The DEC has seed-funded a project to resource this recommendation and develop a local pooled fund.
The National Network of Local Philanthropy Development will act as the host of the local pooled fund with day-to-day responsibility for implementing the initiative. This fund aims to increase the amount of humanitarian funding to local and national actors, resulting in locally led humanitarian action reaching people in need.
