Acting in partnership to provide coordinated humanitarian assistance

The Standby Partnership (SBP) Network is the central platform through which 65 partners (15 UN partners and 50 SBP sending partners) regularly exchange information and experiences in order to effectively and efficiently implement short-term deployments in humanitarian operations. Central topics of this year's Annual Consultations, which took place on April 25/26, 2023 in Geneva, were e.g. the governance of the network, monitoring processes and deployment procedures.

ZIF, as a current SBP Steering Committee member, played a leading role in the development of the new governance document. Clear rules of procedure contribute to the effectiveness of the network and thus to the strengthening of the SBP deployment mechanism. The consultations provided an opportunity for ZIF to engage in constructive bilateral exchanges on deployments and training opportunities with its UN partners the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as well as with the future partner the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

As part of Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks 2023, ZIF participated in discussions including the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus and localization. HDP Nexus Expert Barbara Kobler, who advises ZIF on the HDP Nexus, participated as a panelist at the event "An Introduction to the HDP Nexus," hosted by the Nexus Academy. Panelists and the audience discussed how humanitarian, development, and peace actors can better work together to more effectively support people affected by crises and conflicts. In this context, the ZIF briefing “The Humanitarian Development-Peace-Nexus. Recipes for success from the field: time for action“ summarizes practical opportunities and challenges of the HDP Nexus in a compact and relevant manner.

ZIF has been an active partner of the SBP Network since 2013 and so far has deployment agreements with five UN partner organizations within the Network. Since 2019, ZIF has seconded 36 experts to support humanitarian operations of UN OCHA, WFP, UNHCR, WHO, and UNICEF.