A Participation Revolution: include people receiving aid in making the decisions which affect their lives

The co-conveners: SCHR and The US

NGOs co-champion: Kate Halff, SCHR

Helpful contacts: Kate Halff, Katherine Perkins,

 Official IASC page on this workstream available here

Main progress in the last 2 years:

What has been achieved to date?

• A definition of Participation for the purpose of the workstream has been agreed
• Recommendations for action by Grand Bargain signatories (donors and aid organisations) to progress their Participation Revolution commitments have been agreed.

Currently (June 2018), the workstream is focusing on

• The development of success indicators to measure progress against the recommendations for action by Grand Bargain signatories
• Facilitating/promoting the recommendations for action through advocacy and engagement with relevant fora or processes, such as other Grand Bargain workstreams, the IASC Task Team on Accountability to Affected People and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC), etc.
• Providing a platform to:
  • Process and share learning from initiatives in support of the implementation of the recommendations for action;
  • Promote relevant initiatives in support of collaborative participation approaches;

Why should you engage?

To a large extent, the work of the co-convenors and the workstream is accomplished. The focus now must be on the implementation of the recommendations for action.

These include recommendations for donors and aid organisations in support of organisation-level participation and recommendations for donors and aid organisations in support of collaborative multi-organisation participation.

NGO engagement in the implementation of these recommendations is essential to progress the Participation Revolution, as NGOs collectively have the biggest operational footprint, and operate in proximity to people affected by crisis.

How can you engage?

Your engagement is an organisational commitment to participation, which translates in country-level responses which are influenced by what affected people are saying they need and want. You can demonstrate that your responses are influenced by what affected people are telling you.

Your country-level programmes collaborate with other humanitarian actors to ensure that affected people have coherent means to influence the decision-making of the different humanitarian organisations which are providing them with assistance and protection. You demonstrate how you collaborate with others in terms of participation and how this contributes to your own operational decision-making.

You engage with the co-convenors of the Participation Revolution workstream to share your experiences, challenges and learnings, to inform and influence Grand Bargain signatories and hopefully also benefit from their relevant experience.