ICVA is a champion of principled humanitarian action, advocating for the respect and protection of humanitarian space and supporting the effective, appropriate translation of principles into practice.

Humanitarian principles were created recognising the imperative for space to respond to civilian needs in times of conflict in a human, impartial, neutral, and independent manner. The rationale for their creation remains a powerful argument to demand continued respect for humanitarian action that is both distinct from and complementary to civil society ambitions for peace and development. ICVA will continue to be an advocate to protect and ensure respect for principled humanitarian action. We will drive and advocate the value of NGO influence to shape humanitarian space.

ICVA’s mission is to make humanitarian response more principled and effective. Our members believe that a rights-based approach, and operations and advocacy based on core humanitarian principles, will benefit people affected by disasters, conflict, and crises. Humanitarian Principles are therefore, fundamental to ICVA’s work with NGOs and other humanitarian stakeholders. ICVA advocates this perspective when dealing with various stakeholders including the UN Security Council, member states and NGOs.

The core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and operational independence provide the foundations for humanitarian action. The principles are rooted in the Geneva Conventions and endorsed by the UN General Assembly as guidelines for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) delivering humanitarian assistance.

Here is what each principle entails:

Humanity: Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life and health and ensure respect for human beings.

Neutrality: Humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.

Impartiality: Humanitarian action must be carried out on the basis of need alone, giving priority to the most urgent cases of distress and making no distinctions on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political opinions

Independence: Humanitarian action must be autonomous from the political, economic, military or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented.

Commitment to these principles has also been expressed in the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and non-governmental organisations in disaster relief, and in the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response of the Sphere Project.

ICVA works with NGOs and other humanitarian stakeholders to promote an active dialogue on humanitarian principles and help NGOs understand their application during crises and humanitarian response.

Humanitarian actors, with the lead of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), have been developing what is called International Disaster Response Law (IDRL) deriving from principles in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and customary law principles. It aims at clarifying responsibilities and facilitated cooperation in situations of natural disasters. IDRL Guidelines are recommendations to governments on how to best structure their domestic laws relating to disaster management, and include guidance on coordination among organisations and governments, free passage of essential items and medical personel, and legal recognition of humanitarian organisations to operate. They are not legally binding, but serve to promote uniform legislation throughout countries to improve the response to natural disasters and facilitate fast and efficient recovery to an affected population.

ICVA regards this initiative as an important complementary component to IHL and has been involved in its development and promotion, including through co-hosting the International Dialogue on Strengthening Partnership in Disaster Response.

The unwarranted use of legal tools, misuse of power and politicisation of humanitarian aid by some governments and authorities has gradually and in some cases dramatically impacted civic space and the space for humanitarian action. It has also reduced the civic space in which people and NGOs can operate, including laws criminalising access to foreign funding and unduly limiting the scope of their permissible activities. Trends in nationalism have also been used as a rationale for limiting civic freedom. ICVA, our Secretariat and members, along with other civil society actors, will work strategically and collaboratively, advocating jointly to ensure an enabling environment for agile humanitarian response and in turn to promote civic space more generally.

Climate change is an existential threat that is already completely altering the work we do as humanitarian NGOs, and the lives of the people we support. ICVA engages through our selected work areas, working in collaboration and drawing on the wealth of knowledge and experience of ICVA members and our partner networks. We commit to creatively explore how the humanitarian, development and climate communities can work together to shape policy, increase resilience, improve practice, and secure resourcing for climate related humanitarian crises.

Sign the Charter

The pledge on “Strengthening the resilience of communities to climate change and environmental degradation through climate-smart humanitarian action”, made at the 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent by the IFRC and the ICRC led to a consultative process to develop a new, succinct, accessible and aspirational Climate and Environment Charter that is open to the wider humanitarian sector for adoption in the spirit of the Code of Conduct of 1994.

ICVA is a core part of the Advisory Committee to the Climate and Environment Charter which included a number of humanitarian and climate actors.

The Advisory Committee to the Climate and Environment Charter developed a series of short and clear commitments that could guide our efforts as humanitarians in relation to limiting the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on communities and reducing our own footprint. ICVA together with the ICRC, IFRC and the Advisory Committee conducted consultations on the draft of the Charter.

The Charter includes seven high-level commitments to guide the sector’s response to the climate and environment crises. These commitments will only be possible by embracing local leadership, increasing the capacity to understand climate and environment risks, and working together across and beyond the sector to mobilise even more ambitious climate action.

ICVA is a Signatory to the Charter and will continue our commitment in engaging on this theme through the “Commitment and Motion to Action” on Climate and Environment adopted by ICVA members at the General Assembly on 18-19 May 2021.

Sign the Charter

• Sign the Charter and find tools, resource and guidance (available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic)
• See the list of signatories
• General PowerPoint presentation and talking points about the Charter

The Humanitarian aid donor’s declaration on climate and environment was officially validated by the European Union at the European Humanitarian Forum. The document promotes a humanitarian response system that prevents, prepares, anticipates and responds to climate and environment challenges. It complements the Statement of Commitment on Climate by Humanitarian Organisations (2020), signed by 10 organisations, and the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations (2021), now signed by over 220 organisations (as at 12 April 2022).

Carbon Accounting Tool

ICVA is part of a project together with ICRC, IFRC and many other organisations that aims to engage and collaborate with as many humanitarian organisations as possible to develop a shared standard and a tool to measure carbon emissions. Learning from existing tools already built, the group will jointly agree on how Green House Gass  (GHG) emissions should be measured in the humanitarian sector, and then a tool will be adapted/developed and freely offered to the sector, together with online training and a user guide. This project is envisioned to be the cornerstone for a sector-wide collaboration on reducing the negative footprint globally.

Climate Finance in Conflict and Fragile Settings

ICVA is a member of the expert roundtable working together to address obstacles to climate finance in conflict and fragile settings. The roundtable has been meeting bi-monthly and will focus on identifying why gaps and shortfalls in climate finance exist, the consequences of these shortfalls, and on proposing practical ways to unlock climate finance for populations that are particularly vulnerable to climate risks. This policy dialogue will provide a neutral, non-political space for expert discussions on ensuring that climate finance leaves no one behind.

If you would like to know more about this initiative, please contact Nishanie Jayamaha nishanie.jayamaha@icvanetwork.org

C7 and G7 Summits and Climate Action

The Civil7 Summit will be a 2-day conference on 4-5 May 2022 including both digital formats and face-to-face events in Berlin. The Civil 7 Summit marks the highlight of the Civil 7 process. Over the past months, about 500 representatives from more than 40 countries have participated in the five Working Groups and contributed their perspectives to the joint political declaration.

The recommendations developed by several Working Groups during the event and bundled in the final Communiqué will be officially handed over to the G7 Presidency prior to the G7 Summit. ICVA is a member of the Climate and Environment Justice working group and is shaping content of the Recommendations to include humanitarian perspectives. ICVA also Co-chairs the Humanitarian Assistance and Conflict WG.

Register for the C7 Summit here. Note: The number of participants at Humboldt Carré is limited and regulations will depend on current COVID-19 safety measures in May. All sessions will be online as well.

The G7 Summit will take place from 26 – 28 June 2022 at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps. The goal of this unofficial forum is for the G7 heads of state and governments to come together to discuss global issues and coordinate their discussions. You can find more information on the Official website of the G7. and the Federal Ministry of Finance website.

COP26 Engagement

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP26 was held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom from 31 October 2021 to 13 November 2021. During this conference more countries announced pledges to go carbon neutral, developed nations committed to increase funding to help low- and middle-income countries deal with damaging climatic effects, and world leaders promised to report their progress on emissions cuts every year.

ICVA members were engaged in the discussions and negotiations at COP26. See below some of the key advocacy messages and resources from ICVA and other stakeholders.

ICVA will work at country, regional, and global levels to enable and support collaboration, strengthen accountability, social interaction, capacity, understanding and trust.

Localization is the process through which a diverse range of humanitarian actors are attempting, each in their own way and from different perspectives to ensure that local and national actors are not only better engaged but also play an active role when it comes to planning relief efforts.

We believe localization creates an opportunity to critically examine and improve the overall structure and functionality of the humanitarian system by:

1. Strengthening inclusion of, accountability to, and acceptance by affected populations
2. Increasing resilience through linking preparedness, response and recovery efforts
3. Enhancing the speed, quality and scale of humanitarian response
4. Adding value through improving the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian action
5. Promoting diversity and supporting innovative and contextual approaches

The “triple” nexus refers to the interlinkages between humanitarian, development and peace actors. Following the recommendations from the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), the UN’s “new way of working”, Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there has been a lot more reference to the “triple” nexus, and how the humanitarian, development and peace actors are expected to work towards collective outcomes over multiple years.

The 2018 ICVA Annual Conference and the Learning Stream webinars both focused on the Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus providing an opportunity for further discussions with actors on this topic.

We proactively address issues of bias and racism both at the organisational and individual, personal level. We commit to protecting the rights of people and also to promoting best practices for safeguarding, ensuring protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and fulfilling a duty of care.

The ICVA membership seeks to represent the full diversity of NGOs and NGO networks engaged in humanitarian action. Our approach to membership will require us to be creative in exploring effective ways of including both formal and informal groups that are less structured, but still represent important voices that need to be heard.

Sexual exploitation and abuse of crisis affected populations and humanitarian staff by actors who provide aid is neither a new nor a standalone issue. However, since the media disclosure of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) cases by humanitarian actors in February 2018, attempts across the sector to address the issue and increase protection against SEA have multiplied. PSEA cuts across the issues of gender, protection, accountability, localisation, power dynamics, faith and culture, and the nexus.

Commitment and Motion to Action on PSEA and Sexual Harassment

ICVA and members organisations reaffirmed their accountability towards affected populations, partners, supporters and public at large at the 2018 ICVA General Assembly. The Commitment and Motion to Action on PSEA and Sexual Harassment also mandates the Secretariat to document and voice the PSEA work, challenges and good practices existing among members and identify recommendations to feed efforts at international, regional and national level.

ICVA recognises the need to ensure that safeguarding is incorporated into every aspect of an organisation’s process and operations, from the support of the Board and the Executive Director to the programmes and partnerships on the ground.  This is reflected in ICVA’s policy on PSEA.

The framing of ICVA’s response on not just the technical but also the cultural, root causes and political dimensions contributes to solutions-orientated reflections. ICVA is a critical and constructive voice of the new polices and their impact on resourcing and capacity building of smaller organisations.  Our two publications “The Long Run to Protection Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse”  which shares the experiences of ICVA members on PSEA, and our discussion paper on “Humanitarian Ombudsperson” also contribute to the debates.

With emergency situations, disasters and conflict increasing worldwide, the suffering and humanitarian needs are driven upwards as well, in particular affecting children. While humanitarian principles require that assistance be delivered impartially to those most in need without discrimination, a “one-size fits-all” emergency response tends to overlook the specific, yet wide-ranging, vulnerabilities of young girls and boys in emergency contexts.

Within ICVA’s diversity work, child rights have become priority streams through joint initiatives and partnerships with members, UN agencies and other networks.

• UNICEF-NGO Partnership in Humanitarian Action Annual Consultation

Beginning in 2019, ICVA and UNICEF agreed to reach out to the NGO sector to gather their feedback and perceptions of current strengths and challenges in the partnership with UNICEF and to explore pathways to improve such partnership. This resulted in the publication of ICVA’s scoping study on UNICEF-NGOs Partnership in Humanitarian Settings. The acknowledgement of both UNICEF and NGOs that more regular exchanges are needed to enable a partnership fit to respond to the challenges faced by children in today’s humanitarian landscape and the scoping study’s findings, led to the joint organisation by ICVA and UNICEF of the UNICEF-NGO Consultation for Partnership in Humanitarian Settings ‘Enhancing the Culture of Partnership’ in November 2019.

From 17 to 19 November 2020, UNICEF and ICVA hosted the virtual 2020 UNICEF-NGO Partnership in Humanitarian Action Annual Consultation ‘Working Together to Address Emerging Challenges’. It followed up on the commitments endorsed in 2019 and focused on the ongoing efforts to address emerging challenges in 2020, most notably the impacts of COVID-19 on partnerships, decolonialisation of aid, localisation, UNICEF simplified partnership procedures and funding flexibility for NGOs in the context of COVID-19.

• UNICEF-NGO COVID-19 Briefings

In 2020, ICVA, UNICEF, InterAction and SCHR convened a series of NGO briefings on Humanitarian partnerships on COVID-19 response. The briefings aimed at ensuring that the impact of COVID-19 and the response needed are discussed and built upon jointly by UNICEF and NGO partners to ensure a better collaboration on the ground in the collective response for children.

The FAQ, agendas and PowerPoint Presentations and other relevant documents from the UNICEF-NGO consultations and UNICEF-NGO COVID-19 briefings can be accessed in the resources section below.

Persons with disabilities are among the most marginalised people in crisis-affected communities and disproportionately affected by conflict and disasters. Facing substantial barriers to accessing assistance, people with disabilities are often not taken into account in humanitarian response or are considered only as recipients of aid and not as actors in the response.

This situation is however changing as people with disabilities have asked humanitarian actors to better consider their rights in intervention. Today a number of key documents and tools support inclusion of persons with disability in humanitarian programming.

In 2016, the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Working Group agreed on the establishment of a Task Team on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, which, through a large number of consultations with member States, organisations of persons with disabilities and/or in humanitarian action and UN agencies, drafted the Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.  They were endorsed by the IASC Principals in 2019.

Following the launch of the Guidelines, ICVA organised a webinar, entitled, Inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action: what after the guidelines?, to discuss how the Guidelines should be implemented in practice and what actions are needed to translate them into concrete improvements in the daily activities of humanitarian organisations.

A Reference Group was also established to continue to bring together key stakeholders for the implementation of the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. The group provides support, develops supporting tools and resources and assists in dissemination. ICVA joined the Reference Group and is engaging in its working streams.

ICVA recognises the value and complementarity of other networks, international organisations, other actors in the civil, government and private sectors and that our collective impact can be multiplied by working together. Creating partnerships is a necessity to be transformative in the way we collectively find innovative responses and durable solutions to humanitarian challenges.