Resources

Dear NGO colleagues,

We are pleased to share with you the first draft of the collective NGO statement to be delivered at the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review Meeting taking place in Geneva on the 15-17 December 2025.

The draft statement is now open for NGO feedback. Please download the statement, below, insert your suggestions directly onto the document using track changes, and send them to the e-mail address indicated at the header of the document. Deadline for inputs: Monday 24 November 2025 COB.

With over 122 million people forcibly displaced worldwide and protracted crises lasting nearly two decades on average, durable solutions are needed more than ever. Voluntary return remains one of the three UNHCR-recognised durable solutions, alongside local integration and resettlement. While often framed as the “preferred solution,” voluntary repatriation is frequently hindered by insecurity, lack of legal protections, and inadequate reintegration support.

This report captures the key insights from the ICVA webinar “Is Return Always a Durable Solution?” held in July 2025, which explored the relevance, realities, and sustainability of voluntary repatriation in the context of today’s forced displacement.

Download the paper at the link below 👇

The global humanitarian system is at a breaking point. Needs are rising, yet funding has collapsed at unprecedented scale.

Business as usual is no longer acceptable or viable. A fundamental shift is needed: from competition to collaboration, from international leadership to local leadership with international support, and from project delivery to people-centred outcomes.

This paper proposes humanitarian complementarity as the organising framework for a more effective, equitable, and sustainable system. It focuses primarily on NGO inter-complementarity and UN/NGO complementarity, not necessarily looking to establish an overall blueprint for the system. The ideas presented are to provoke discussion, and the preliminary recommendations will be further elaborated in a forthcoming series of ICVA roundtables.

Download the paper at the link below

The Saving Lives Together (SLT) framework is a no-cost, practical, and valuable tool that enables NGOs and the UN to share information, coordinate, and align approaches in the face of resource constraints — helping aid workers operate more safely and effectively to deliver assistance where it’s most needed.

ICVA represents our members at the Saving Lives Together (SLT) Oversight Committee. Continued commitment from partners sector-wide is essential to ensure this collaboration mechanism remains meaningful in practice.

The SLT have developed a one-page brief outlining their ways of working.

Download the resource on the link below

Humanitarians cautiously welcome ceasefire announcement, demand end to two years of forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza

13 October 2025

The announcement of a ceasefire offers a long-overdue moment of relief and hope. However, it must mark the beginning – not the end – of the international community fulfilling its responsibilities.

This ceasefire announcement comes at a time of profound crisis – when life in Gaza stands on a precipice. A human-made famine has taken hold due to Israel’s continued and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, with tens of thousands of children at risk of death by acute malnutrition in the coming months. Women, men, children and older people have been severely deprived of the essentials required for survival and dignity, including food, water, fuel, shelter and medical care.

Sustained and indiscriminate bombardment has killed over 66,000 people and maimed over 150,000 – disabling at least 21,000 children – destroying entire neighbourhoods and wiping out generations of families. Thousands more remain missing beneath the rubble. Over 92% of homes, 518 schools, as well as hospitals, water, education and livelihood systems have been destroyed, damaged or contaminated with unexploded ordnance.

Today, 13 October 2025, marks two years since Israel’s first mass displacement order for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza – an order amounting to forcible transfer, a crime against humanity and a “form of collective punishment prohibited under International Humanitarian Law”. In defiance of international legal obligations, Israel has forcibly and repeatedly displaced at least 1.9 million people in Gaza, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in which children, pregnant women, older people, people with disabilities, the sick and injured struggle to flee, access aid, or survive in unsafe conditions.

Forcible transfer is happening throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, thousands have been forcibly displaced since October 2023, most alarmingly is the mass forcible displacement of around 32,000 Palestinians from northern West Bank refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem and Nur Shams, denied return till today.

Last month, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that the Israeli authorities are committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Leaders of major aid groups called on world leaders to intervene following the UN genocide conclusion.

These findings trigger clear legal obligations on all States to act to prevent further destruction, ensure accountability, and uphold the protections guaranteed under international law.

The ceasefire must establish the conditions for safe, principled humanitarian action and protection of civilians. To date, humanitarian access has been systematically denied or severely obstructed, with hundreds of aid and health care workers targeted and killed. Despite the existence of a principled UN coordinated mechanism that has reached communities despite countless obstructions by Israeli authorities, aid has been restricted through a militarised and unsafe distribution model implicated in the deaths of over 3,000 of civilians.Aid convoys are obstructed, bridges and roads have been demolished.

Diplomatic efforts have too often failed to uphold international law or protect civilians. The ceasefire must be the foundation for sustained action to restore protection and humanitarian access, enable the safe and voluntary return of displaced people, and ensure accountability.

We, as the humanitarian NGO community, therefore call for:

• A permanent and meaningful ceasefire with guarantees.

• All parties must protect civilians and humanitarian and healthcare workers.

• The safe, voluntary and dignified return of Palestinians to their homes throughout the occupied Palestinian territory accompanied with the scaled and sufficient humanitarian response to meet all needs.

• The protection and restoration of essential civilian infrastructure and services, including health, water, and sanitation systems.

• Full and unhindered principled humanitarian access for independent organisations to deliver comprehensive and swift life-saving assistance, including food, medicine, fuel, protection and essential services at scale. All land crossing-points must be reopened immediately and unconditionally, enabling the unrestricted passage of people and goods.

• The immediate release of arbitrarily detained Palestinians, including those held without charge or trial as administrative detainees.

• An end to the militarisation of assistance and the removal of barriers, including the denial of registration for INGOs on vague or spurious grounds and the requirements to provide staff lists.

• All States to fulfil their obligations including the duty to prevent further atrocity crimes, in line with international law, including the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law.

• The immediate halt of the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel to prevent their use in violations of international law, in line with the Arms Trade Treaty provisions and as prescribed by the UN General Assembly resolution on the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

• A collective and transparent vision and coordinated approach to support rebuilding Gaza, a vision which must be driven by Palestinian agency and self-determination The occupied Palestinian territory cannot be an exception to the law that binds us all.

Download the statement and full list of signatories on the link below (available in English, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, French):

In 2025, several Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) country-level humanitarian coordination structures are planning to fully or partially transition from international leadership. Past research shows that hurried transitions can generate challenges to inclusive planning and in creating sustainable coordination structures.

This research set out to learn from past transitions of internationally led humanitarian coordination. Using two contrasting contexts – Iraq and Indonesia – it identifies lessons-learned and recommendations relevant to NGOs navigating current and future transition planning. The report is accompanied by four case studies.

GAZA, 17 Sept 2025: The leaders of over 20 major aid agencies working in Gaza are calling on world leaders to urgently intervene after a UN commission concluded, for the first time, that genocide is being committed.

Download the statement on the link below

In 2015, 2005 and 2000, ICVA issued a public call encouraging applicants for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to answer five key questions.

ICVA’s goal was to promote transparency in the selection process – not endorse any particular candidate.

The below are the published responses. Please note the following:

 The applicants are listed in alphabetical order.

 Their submissions were not edited by ICVA. They are presented exactly as submitted.

 Information on their professional backgrounds can be found on publicly available resources.

For more information on the current UNHCR High Commissioner recruitment:

https://www.icvanetwork.org/unhcr-high-commissioner-candidates-2025 

Download the previous responses here:

Please see below the collective NGO statements delivered at the 76th Executive Committee meeting of the UNHCR.

With a special thanks to the following organisations for their role in leading the drafting process, and delivering the statements:

• RELON-Kenya
• The Norwegian Refugee Council
• INTERSOS
• International Refugee Assistance Project
• Refugees International
• RELON-Uganda
• Save the Children

And with thanks to the whole NGO community, in all your diversity, for engaging with this process.

Please see below the oral and written versions of the collective NGO statement delivered at the 94th Standing Committee meeting on 9 September 2025, under the agenda item: UNHCRs Programme Budgets and Funding.

The collective NGO statement was delivered by Nasma Kavas, Programme Manager for Women Now for Development, a Syrian feminist, women-led organisation.

The collective NGO statement was co-drafted by representatives from RELON-Uganda, Refugee Protection Watch, and Force4Refugees – a coalition established in 2025, uniting the expertise and effort of Syrian, Turkish and European organisations undertaking research and advocacy on humanitarian and protection issues facing refugees in Türkiye. F4R particularly focuses on refugee leadership and meaningful participation in national and global refugee policy processes, which directly and profoundly impact their rights, needs, present lives and futures. The coalition consists of seven Syrian, Turkish and European organisations: Basmeh and Zeitooneh, Door Beyond War, IGAM, Olive Branch, Support to Life, Women Now for Development Türkiye, and 11.11.11.

Overview

In early 2023, the Independent Review of the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Response to Internal Displacement concluded that the IASC humanitarian system was “too slow to respond” and “not joined up, if and when it does respond.” This assessment, echoed across numerous evaluations, highlights a systemic gap: despite years of reform, the sector continues to struggle with adapting and coordinating in large-scale, complex crisis, including Myanmar, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia. To avoid this, greater agility is critical in the early days of an emergency, particularly in complex and politicised crises, rather than defaulting to the position of providing ‘more of the same, faster’.

This report provides a brief summary of the learnings from two strategies that agencies – including ICVA – have employed to improve response agility and leadership: 1) Surge deployments, 2) Strengthening NGO coordination. The reflections are based on an extensive literature review, interviews and workshops, and ICVA’s own experiences.

The importance of effective solutions to strengthening humanitarian leadership and NGO coordination in large scale, complex emergencies is only set to grow: Rising humanitarian needs will increase demand for effective emergency response support and short-term surge and mutual aid.  As realignment of the humanitarian sector progresses throughout 2025, it is essential that emergency response capabilities are not simply downsized, but strengthened to be more efficient, more targeted and better connected to existing emergency responders in-country.

Recommendations

1. Reprioritise emergency preparedness and response capacities – recognise it is a core technical function As budgets shrink, emergency management must be prioritised as a core technical area. To maximise efficiencies, this requires integrating emergency management into humanitarian training curricula, investing in dedicated emergency experts and systems, and embedding learning from past emergencies to inform future practice.

2. Strengthen overall agility in emergency preparedness and response Humanitarian emergency response must become more agile and adaptive. This will require a range of solutions including sharing resources and mobilising the comparative advantages of the UN, Red Cross, INGOs, local civil society, government and communities. Practical preparedness exercises and the development of safety protocols and evacuations ahead of time can help build trust among the collective, which is vital to response success. Exploring step-aside policies, shadowing or empowered emergency response leaders for a short period of time can also improve agility and reduce the risk of a “business as usual” approach.

3. Ensure emergency coordination is operationally focused and context driven Coordination at all levels needs to prioritise the facilitation of operational delivery in the most principled and effective manner possible and be a catalyst for agility during emergencies. This requires adapting emergency coordination structures, membership, locations and coordination leaders in accordance to the needs of a context rather than using a standard model.

4. Support local first responders in an emergency where possible As the first responders, local communities, civil society and local authorities should be actively supported and reinforced, to the greatest extent possible. This can include financing, people surge, mutual aid and technical assistance as relevant for a context. Supporting diverse pooled funds and rapid financing mechanisms led by foundations and NGOs, as well as initiatives such as due diligence passporting and reducing barriers to accessing financing and risk transfer to local actors will also yield positive benefits. Short term emergency assistance, technical support and shadowing for local coordination structures can be particularly beneficial.

5. Strengthen shared services Greater efforts should be undertaken by international actors to support collective approaches before and during emergencies, with a particular focus on making these available to local actors. This can include mobilising coordination platforms and sharing technical experts on issues such as safety, access and sectoral approaches. Investing in shared assets such as facilities, warehousing and transport and harnessing specialist common service initiatives and organisations beyond the UN will also be of benefit.

6. Foster a culture of learning, drawing from inside and outside the sector A culture of continuous collective learning on emergency preparedness and response between agencies and inter-agency structures must be fostered. This will require establishing mechanisms for real-time learning during emergencies and incorporating findings into forward planning. Given the overlapping learning and discussions, drawing lessons from both within the humanitarian sector, but also from other actors from disaster risk reduction, public health and national emergency response seen with emergency management actors outside the humanitarian sector is key.

Download the report on the link below

Following the HPC Steering Group strategic discussion in early June, ICVA members and partners have worked together to elaborate a set of key requirements for a future collective, principled and lightened humanitarian planning process. The paper outlines NGO perspectives on what a credible, inclusive, and efficient humanitarian planning process must look like in today’s constrained and complex operational environment.

ICVA hopes this document will help to prompt further discussion with donors and IASC members, including at the HPC Steering Group when the conversation there continues.

Download the paper using the link here below.

À propos de l’adhésion à l’ICVA 

L’adhésion à l’ICVA est ouverte aux organisations à but non lucratif enregistrées et alignées sur notre mission d’amélioration des politiques et pratiques humanitaires. Notre stratégie ICVA 2030 met l’accent sur des domaines clés tels que la migration forcée, le financement, la coordination et les enjeux transversaux de transformation. 

Détails de l’adhésion 

• Frais d’adhésion : Entre 500 et 12 000 CHF par an, selon les revenus de votre organisation.
• Engagement des membres : Nous encourageons nos membres à participer activement à la gouvernance et aux groupes de travail de l’ICVA, tout en respectant leurs obligations en matière de cotisation annuelle.
• Veuillez noter que l’ICVA ne fournit aucun soutien financier à ses membres.

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter le document « Comment rejoindre l’ICVA » ainsi que les statuts  disponibles sur notre site web. 

Comment postuler 

Nous accueillons les candidatures d’organisations éligibles. Pour postuler : 

1. Remplissez le formulaire de candidature trouver ici –
2. Envoyez-le avec tous les documents justificatifs requis à : membership@icvanetwork.org

Dates limites de dépôt des candidatures : 

• 30 avril pour une évaluation lors du cycle de mai
• 31 octobre pour une évaluation lors du cycle de novembre

This ICVA paper explores how humanitarian pooled funds manage and share risk across delivery chains and how these practices impact localisation and response effectiveness. Drawing on research from Sudan, Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine, the report identifies barriers faced by local actors, highlights scalable good practices in risk-sharing, and offers actionable recommendations for donors, fund managers, intermediaries, and local partners. It calls for more equitable, codified risk-sharing approaches to ensure quality funding reaches local actors and strengthen partnerships across the humanitarian system.

Download the report by clicking on the link below.

UNHCR and ICVA launched the 2025 round of the Interagency Community Outreach and Communication Fund on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) in June 2025. The Fund will provide rapid, targeted financial support to national and local NGOs to develop and disseminate PSEA outreach and communication materials, and to make these available to all IASC members and the wider sector on the PSEA database.

The 2025 call for applications is now closed.

Collective NGO Statements delivered at the 93rd meeting of UNHCR’s Standing Committee, 17-19 June 2025

As the humanitarian sector grapples with escalating crises, deep funding cuts and growing political pressure, bold reforms such as those proposed by the Humanitarian Reset are urgently needed. Yet, these proposals also demand rigorous scrutiny. One of the most significant among them is the call to channel 33% of global humanitarian funding through Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs), which would see a potential increase in CBPF funding from USD 1 billion to USD 6 billion.

This proposal goes beyond a financial shift. It signals a major reconfiguration of how humanitarian financing is prioritised, governed, delivered, and made accountable. While CBPFs offer recognised strengths—including alignment with Humanitarian Response Plans, support to local actors, and risk sharing—scaling them to manage a third of all humanitarian funding will have far-reaching implications.

This paper presents the collective reflections from ICVA, in consultation with its members, on the practical implications of the CBPF proposal. While recognising the advantages of CBPFs, it calls for further collective reflection and analysis before targets are adopted. It offers constructive recommendations to ensure that any expansion of CBPFs enhances—not replaces—the broader system of pooled funding, direct donor partnerships, and local initiatives.

Recommendations

As the humanitarian sector faces unprecedented levels of need, funding models must evolve to be more inclusive, balanced and responsive. CBPFs offer a valuable tool for aligning funding with strategic priorities at the country level. However, scale alone will not deliver the transformation envisioned by the Humanitarian Reset.

Many NGOs fully support a responsible increase in funding volumes to CBPFs and critically an increase in direct financing to local and national actors best placed to reach people in need.

Our call is for:

1. A rebalanced, inclusive, and diverse pooled funding landscape, one where CBPFs, NGO-led funds, regional mechanisms, thematic pools work together and complement each other to serve communities in crisis. Only by embracing this diversity can we build a more effective, equitable, and resilient humanitarian system for the future
2. If an international target is placed on CBPFs it should remain at the current 15% funding levels and informed by the Guidance note for donors: Promoting inclusive and locally-led action through humanitarian pooled funds (November 2024).
3. Both in their roles as governance members and funders, donors should work with the funds and their grantees, in particular local national NGOs to achieve the objectives set out in the Guidance Note.
4. The priority of CBPFs should remain focused on increasing direct quality financing to the diversity of local and national NGOs, including WLOs/WROs, RLOs, and CBOs. Measurable action plans with clear timelines should be adopted to raise the percentages of funding to 70 or 100% as the operational contexts allow. Increase funding to local and national actors should be prioritised over increasing amounts of CBPF funding.
5. National and international intermediaries that actively promote and have a proven track record of equitable partnerships should be recognised and supported as strategic enablers. Their experience and expertise leveraged and their role in risk-sharing supported.
6. While funding to CBPFs should be increased, this increase must be responsible and go hand in hand with continuous fund improvement. The 11-point plan agreed with OCHA must be implemented and funding increases tied to progress made.
7. Ensure CBPFs set ambitious context specific and measurable targets for funding to WLOs / WROs and for gender specific interventions.
8. The increase in CBPF funding should not be at the cost of the operational capacity of key actors nor should it substitute for direct bilateral funding, when the latter is more efficient.

Download the Briefing Paper