DG ECHO Partners: “Partnership 2021”

The webinar, reserved for DG ECHO and its NGO partner organisations, covered three sessions with a focus on the changes and challenges of the Partnership 2021, lessons learnt from the pilot programmatic partnerships, and the new environmental requirements.

The morning session ‘First year of the Partnership 2021 – Changes and challenges’ touched upon changes brought by the new partnership framework and various challenges encountered by DG ECHO  and its partners with a view notably to draw  lessons from the experience gained.

This session was a dedicated technical exchange between DG ECHO and its EU humanitarian NGO partners to address jointly the changes, challenges, lessons learnt and future opportunities brought by the year 2021. The goal was to further identify some good practices and future constructive solutions. The recommendations might feed into the European Humanitarian Forum.

The afternoon session on pilot Programmatic Partnerships updated partners on the on-going pilot phase, and shared the first lessons learnt from the four pilot Programmatic Partnerships with NGOs launched in 2020.  Initial expectations, opportunities and challenges encountered were presented both from NGO partners’ and DG ECHO’s perspective. A large part of the session included an open exchange to share ideas and suggestions that would feed into the 2022 reflection about the future of Programmatic Partnerships in the context of the Grand Bargain 2.0.

The second afternoon session served to present and discuss the upcoming minimum environmental requirements that would be launched at the European Humanitarian Forum. These requirements, fitting into the wider DG ECHO approach to reducing the footprint of humanitarian aid, have been developed in broad consultation with partners and donors. Partners were able to comment on the latest draft of the requirements that had been shared with them in early November.

The successful webinar attracted a lot of interest among DG ECHO NGO partners as more than 200 participants attended. Overall, the webinar provided a platform where DG ECHO and its NGO partners could openly exchange and share their position on various issues related to their partnership and beyond. Partners acknowledged some good outcomes from the new partnership set-up, but also strongly reiterated the need to address pending issues and continuously involve them in the decision-making process. Across the various technical sessions, DG ECHO provided concrete answers to pending concerns from its partners. DG ECHO reiterated its continuous support to partners, and agreed to carry on with close exchanges in the future, including in view of the Forum.

Click here to view agenda. 

Webinar Presentations