Start Build launches with funding from DFID’s DEPP

July 24, 2014

On July 8^th 2014 the first four projects from the Start Build portfolio were able to begin with funding from the UK Department for International Development’s Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP). Start Build is now at the beginning of a three year journey in partnership with DFID, CDAC-Network, and a host of other actors collaborating through one of the DEPP-funded projects.

Through Start Build, the Start Network aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society to ensure humanitarian response is led by those on the front line of emergencies, who know how best to respond. The Start Network believes this will be achieved by channelling resources to local actors and re-thinking the role of international organisations. The Start Network believes the humanitarian system needs to fundamentally evolve to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s crises.  The current Start Build portfolio brings together a diverse collection of collaborative and innovative projects that will contribute to this vision. Over time many more projects will be added to this portfolio to enable a more locally led, better resourced, and more prepared humanitarian sector.

The four funded projects are as follows:

Transforming Surge Capacity: A ground breaking collaborative and more locally focused approach to surge capacity, to enable the more efficient scale up of resources in emergency response. Read more.

Shifting the Power: Supporting local actors to take their place alongside international actors, by strengthening their capacity for decision making and leadership in humanitarian response. Read more.

Talent Development: An innovative ‘package offer’ bringing together state-of-the-art learning and development programmes to professionalise local people who are best placed to assist the vulnerable. Read more.

Age and Disability: Improve the quality of humanitarian assistance for older and disabled people in times of crisis through a training and research programme led by embedded ‘Focal points’. Read more.

It is hoped that the remaining three projects that sit within the Start Build portfolio will also secure DEPP funding in September. The next three years will enable the Start Network to test ways of decentralising capacity building and evaluate how best to broaden the portfolio.

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