In 2020, ACTED embarked with ECHO – the European Commission’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department – on a 3-year Programmatic Partnership (PP).The partnership aims at supporting displaced populations in Syria, Iraq, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, eight countries that are experiencing some of the longest and most dramatic humanitarian crises in the world, and where conflict, locust invasions, droughts and floods worsened by climate change as well as epidemics have contributed to mass displacements and loss of livelihoods.Displaced populations are among the most exposed to Covid-19 due to their living conditions, often in substandard and densely populated settlements, and lack of access to basic services. This intervention provides vital assistance such as water and food, hygiene items and a shelter to more than 1 million people who have lost everything, and enables them to reconnect to a better life and find durable solutions to emerge from the crisis. The programme allows a flexible and long-term response to address the needs of displaced populations. The multi-annual versus the usual annual financing modality ensures greater funding predictability and a more efficient response, by allowing to implement a “phased approach”. During phase 1 (set-up phase), we carry out household registration, site planning/layout, site maintenance and improvements, and support governance structures, community groups, and complaints and feedback mechanisms; in phase 2 (reinforce phase), we strengthen local authorities’ and partners’ service provision capacity and scale down site maintenance support, while scaling up community ownership; phase 3 links affected communities with development actors, focusing on training, mentoring and shadowing local authorities or local partners to ensure handover of activities.This crucial programme came at a time the number of displaced people is the highest ever, with 70.8 million displaced worldwide, 85% of whom are hosted by developing countries.
