Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much of her Department’s funding to UN agencies for the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan will be allocated to (a) local, (b) national and (c) international NGOs; and what her assessment is of the speed with which that funding will reach those NGOS.

DFID welcomes the vital role that NGOs continue to play in service delivery through multilaterals and we are pleased that, following our lobbying,UN agencies are seeking to simplify their processes for NGO partners, to ensure funding reaches them more swiftly. Given the global nature of this pandemic, as part of the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, UK funding to UN appeals is pooled with that of other donors, and is therefore not earmarked for any specific implementing partner, whether they are local, national or international NGOs. Instead, the UN’s global presence ensures it is best placed to determine needs in-country and identify the most appropriate delivery partner on a country by country basis.

Country Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) are providing flexible funding to a broad range of humanitarian partners to deliver a holistic response to COVID-19 and other needs. Approximately 64% of the total funding will be granted to NGOs, directly and through sub-grants. In 2019 CBPFs distributed 26% of these funds directly to local and national NGOs.

It is anticipated that all funding received from both the UK Government and other donors will be fully utilised by 31 December 2020, in line with the current appeal. DFID will be working with the UN and DFID’s country offices to increasingly better understand and track flows to NGOs in-country. Given the important role that NGOs and civil society organisations can play in tackling COVID-19, the implementing UN agencies have undertaken a review of their existing procedures related to partnership management and issued additional internal guidance to simplify and expedite collaboration where appropriate, in order to speed up the response.