Flagship Initiative evaluation launch and roundtable outcome note

Background: Established in late 2022, the Flagship Initiative was an ambitious effort to reimagine the humanitarian system in four pilot countries Colombia, Niger, the Philippines, South Sudan, and subsequently Somalia, to be driven by the participation, preferences, and priorities of affected communities. It was one of the most significant practical efforts by OCHA since the establishment of the Cluster system to reimagine humanitarian assistance. At its core it was a learning initiative, and it was accompanied by an external evaluation throughout its three-year duration. On 17 March 2026, the evaluation team launched their final report and hosted a roundtable event to consider what lessons from the Initiative the humanitarian system should learn from going forward, including for the Humanitarian Reset. The online launch was attended by 118 participants from 25 countries. The roundtable was attended by practitioners and policymakers from Flagship Initiative countries, the HQ support team, and the wider humanitarian community.

Final evaluation presentation: In advance of the roundtable, the learning team lead, Lewis Sida, presented the key findings, conclusions and recommendations of the final evaluation of the Flagship Initiative. The report highlights the significant body of work developed through the Initiative on community engagement and decentralised coordination and financing. It emphasises that, where affected communities and individuals were engaged with the Flagship way of working, they overwhelmingly preferred it to traditional distributions. However, it also identifies a range of challenges which limited the scale of the initiative and its ability to influence systems-change. The report recommends that the humanitarian system should draw on the learning from the Flagship Initiative to inform change going forward; both in how the system could become more peoplecentred, and how future reforms could more likely achieve lasting change.

Q&A: Participants focused their questions on two areas: which conditions for successful people-centered response had been uncovered by the Flagship Initiative, and how the learning from the initiative would inform ongoing humanitarian systems-change initiatives, such as UN80 and the Humanitarian Reset. The evaluation lead reflected that key enablers had been flexible financing to respond to community needs, the involvement of national and local actors, and the establishment of inclusive area-based coordination. However, he emphasised that it was up to OCHA and the humanitarian system to put these lessons into practice.

Next steps roundtable: Roundtable participants agreed that the Flagship Initiative offers valuable lessons for the humanitarian system going forward; both for operational coordination and response, and for systems-change. In the immediate-term, participants agreed with the evaluation recommendation that the lessons from the Flagship Initiative should contribute to the Humanitarian Reset, in line with the Emergency Relief Coordinator’s challenge to the system: “Can what we are doing be better done by the community we are serving?” (Statement by ERC Tom Fletcher, The Humanitarian Reset – Phase Two, Geneva, 19 June 2025). Participants reinforced the evaluation finding that for future systems-change initiatives to be successful, they will require a sustained effort, backed by a broad partnership of international and local humanitarian organizations and donors. Participants highlighted a number of practices by the Flagship Initiative that could support efforts to build a people-centred humanitarian system: Empowered HC leadership of a joined-up and contextsensitive response; pooled funding to ensure that funds are directed based on needs rather than supply, including micro-grants to address community-identified priorities; and locally-led decisionmaking, involving communities, authorities and local organizations.