In March 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General issued a call for solidarity in response to the unprecedented global health and development threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main objectives of this call were:
- Delivery of a large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive health response
- To adopt policies that address the devastating socioeconomic, humanitarian and human rights aspects of the crisis
- Implement a recovery process that builds back better.
To mobilise resources to meet these needs in humanitarian contexts, the Secretary-General launched the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), a consolidated plan that brought together Covid-19 appeals.
Under the GHRP, the IASC and Standing Committee members and partners, including the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, stepped up their response to address the most urgent humanitarian needs. The GHRP targets nearly 250 million people with COVID-19 assistance
Our role
Commissioned by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, our evaluation focuses primarily on the actions and roles of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and its member organisations; it looks at the global, regional and country-level Covid-19 response in support of governments and local actors to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people and those in hard-to-reach areas.
The main objectives of this evaluation are to:
- Determine the extent to which the IASC member agencies’ collective preparedness and response actions, including its existing and adapted special measures, were relevant to addressing humanitarian needs in the context of the pandemic.
- Assess the results achieved from these actions at the global, regional, and country-level in support of people, and with governments and local actors.
- Identify best practices, opportunities, and lessons learnt that will help to improve ongoing and future humanitarian responses, including through wider and accelerated adaptation of certain humanitarian policies, approaches, and practices.
Organisations part of the GHRP include: the World Food Programme, World Health Organisation, International Organisation for Migration, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, UN-Habitat, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF and other NGOs.
