Charter4Change Commitments on Investing in Humanity:

The following statement is made by Mr Chris Bain, Director of CAFOD (Caritas and ) on behalf of Charter4Change signatories and endorsers at the World Humanitarian Summit High Level Leaders Round Table on Investing in Humanity on Monday May 23rd 2016

27 International NGOs have signed the Charter4Change, and more than 120 southern-based NGOs from 37 countries have endorsed it. The Charter, which was conceived by CAFOD, Christian Aid, ADESO and Dan Church Aid, commits signatories to deliver change within their own organisational ways of working with, relating to, and funding national and local humanitarian actors in order to support southern-based organisations to play an increased and more prominent role in humanitarian response. Signatories of the Charter include CARE, Oxfam and Islamic Relief and endorsers include START Network, ACT Alliance and large southern NGOs such as Mercy Malaysia, AMEL and OFADEC

Of the 8 commitments in the Charter, 5 relate most closely to the WHS Core Commitment of Investing in Humanity:

Firstly, we commit to increase direct funding to southern NGOs for humanitarian action. By May 2018 we will pass at least 20% of our own humanitarian funding directly to southern-based NGOs.

We commit through advocacy and policy influence to encourage donors to increase the year-on-year percentage of their humanitarian funding going to southern-based NGOs. Secondly we commit to introduce our NGO partners to our own direct donors with the aim of them accessing direct financing.

Thirdly, we commit to increasing transparency around resource transfers to southern NGOs and we pledge to document the types of organisation we cooperate with and to publish these figures in our public accounts using a recognised categorisation in real-time and to the IATI standard.

Fourthly we undertake to advocate to donors to make working through national actors part of their criteria for assessing framework partners and calls for project proposals. Many of us have also been involved in promoting recent calls for the introduction of a ‘localisation marker’ to record money passed to national actors and to track its usage and impact.

Finally we commit to supporting local actors to become robust organisations that continuously improve their role in, and share of, the overall global humanitarian response. We undertake to pay adequate administrative support. By May 2018 we will have allocated resources and we will publish the percentages of our humanitarian budget which go directly to partners for humanitarian capacity.

ENDS The 27 organisations are: CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), Christian Aid; Danish Church Aid; CARE; Caritas Denmark; Caritas Norway; Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan); Cordaid (Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid); Diakonia; Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe; Help – Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe; ICCO; Islamic Relief Worldwide; Johanniter International Assistance/Johanniter-Auslandshife; Kerk in Actie; Kindernothilfe e.V.; Norwegian Church Aid (NCA); Oxfam; Rescue Global; SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund); Terram Pacis; Trocaire; WarChild UK, HelpAge; IPPF; Human Appeal; Finn Church Aid