ZIF as key partner in the Standby Partnership Network: 2024 annual report published

| ZIF news

‘Strengthening humanitarian response capacities worldwide’ is the title of the annual report and also the guiding principle of the Standby Partnership (SBP) Network, which comprises various international and national organisations that provide civilian experts for UN partner organisations for humanitarian crisis response at short notice. It has now been published. 

 

ZIF 2024 IN THE STANDBY PARTNERSHIP NETWORK 

With financial support and in close cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office, ZIF 2024 has once again made a significant contribution to the successful work of the SBP network. This is reflected in the 2024 SBP Network Annual Report:  

  •  Implementation of a total of 17 secondments to humanitarian missions at OCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. This includes 13 new secondments (e.g. to Niger, Ethiopia, Jordan, Mozambique, Zambia, Somalia and Uganda) and four secondments from 2023 (e.g. to Senegal, Chad and Nigeria). 
  • Signing of the renegotiated secondment agreement between ZIF and UNDP in New York City in January 2024.
  • Together with OCHA, ZIF coordinated the SBP Network Duty of Care Working Group with 22 SBP partners on duty of care.  

 With 13 secondments in 2024, ZIF ranked 10th among the 27 sending organisations that provided highly qualified personnel for short-term assignments to UN partner organisations. In 2019, ZIF carried out its first secondment with OCHA to Iran. Since then, a total of 61 short-term humanitarian assignments to 34 countries and six UN partner organisations have been made possible. 

 

HUMANITARIAN EXPERTS ON MISSION FOR THE UN  

The network currently brings together 16 UN partner organisations, 38 sending organisations and approximately 60,000 humanitarian experts to respond to humanitarian crises with targeted additional expertise. In 2024, 964 experts from 27 sending organisations were deployed to Ukraine, Ethiopia, Gaza, Chad, Sudan and Syria, among other places, representing US$70 million in humanitarian aid. UN partner organisations that had a high demand for short-term expertise in 2024 included UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR and WHO. Additional personnel capacities were requested in 2024, particularly in the areas of information management, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), protection of human rights, safety and dignity, as well as health and gender.    

This reflects the growing humanitarian needs of people living in countries affected by humanitarian crises triggered by violence, persecution, displacement or the climate crisis. OCHA currently estimates that more than 305 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. 

 

STRENGTHENING HUMANITARIAN EXPERTISE TOGETHER IN CHALLENGING TIMES  

‘The outstanding cooperation and commitment within the SBP network are of crucial importance to us – especially in times when humanitarian resources are scarce and fundamental values are increasingly under threat,’ said Dr. Katja Niethammer, Deputy Executive Director of ZIF.  

The SBP annual report emphasises that joint monitoring missions by the Standby Partners (to Sudan in 2024), regular exchanges at annual and semi-annual meetings, and virtual coordination and working group meetings strengthen the humanitarian expertise of all partners in the network. The annual report highlights the added value of secondments: experts work closely with the people affected, translate humanitarian aid into concrete measures and help UN organisations, sending partners such as ZIF and donors such as the Federal Foreign Office to continuously learn how humanitarian aid can be implemented more efficiently. It is important to ZIF to optimally prepare each individual expert who is seconded to a short-term humanitarian assignment and to support them during and after the assignment. 

 

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