Flagship Initiative Second Year Learning Report, April 2025

Lewis Sida, Tina Nelis, Philip Proudfoot, Mariah Cannon, Patrick Andrey, Abdoulahi Garba Modibo, Mónica Almanza, Manuel De Vera, Nyachangkuoth Rambang Tai

In 2023, the Flagship Initiative was launched as a radical shift in humanitarian coordination and response. Its aim was to deliver solutions and build resilience by ensuring the priorities of crisis-affected communities drive humanitarian assistance. Systematically engaging communities by localizing humanitarian decision-making, empowering local partners, and putting community priorities at the heart of humanitarian programming, the initiative seeks to create the space for a more holistic, community-driven, and sustainable humanitarian system, one that is ready to face a new reality of increasingly complex challenges.

Piloted in Colombia, South Sudan, Niger, and the Philippines, with the later addition of Somalia, RC/HCs lead the implementation of innovative approaches that move coordination and response closer to crisis-affected communities, ensure genuine and unfiltered listening of their priorities, and deliver solutions in partnership with local and national actors.

Throughout, the initiative has been accompanied by an external evaluation team. This is their second annual external learning report which summarizes the system-wide implications of the Initiative’s learning to date. It is accompanied by a covering note which reflects the OCHA Headquarters Flagship Initiative Support Team's response and recommendations to the evaluation report.