Joint NGO Article on the Dakar Workshops: a read out of the Dakar workshops by a few NGOs
Two years post the World Health Summit and more than two years into the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, commitments to transcend the humanitarian-development divide, strengthen development and prevent crises, are driving reforms in the eco-system of aid. The reforms include a joint UN and World Bank Commitment to adopt a New Way of Working; the UN Secretary General’s proposed Reform of the UN on Prevention and Development, a whole-of-society approach in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF); the World Bank entering contexts of fragility and conflict; and the Commitments by donors to multi-year, better coordinated humanitarian and development funding, in the Grand Bargain.
The Dakar workshops (28th May to 1st June 2018), attended by UN and NGO participants, focused specifically on the New Way of Working and the process leading to “collective outcomes” meant to be guiding humanitarian, development and peace actors in countries where humanitarian needs, low development indicators and violence coexist simultaneously. These initiatives could drastically change the landscape of aid for all actors involved, including NGOs, in terms of objectives, coordination structures, methods, leadership and funding. This document is a read out of the Dakar workshops covering: ‘The missing pieces of the “collective” of collective outcomes’, ‘Towards a common vision of the nexus around the SDGs’, ‘Clarifying the peace element of the “triple nexus”‘ and ‘Humanitarian space: what can NGOs contribute?’.
