Financial flows mapping: the potential for a risk finance facility for civil society

The Start Network is embarking on an ambitious design process for the Start Financing Facility (SFF); envisaged as the future financial infrastructure for the network. The long-term goal is for the SFF to incorporate existing Start Network funding mechanisms as well as new national and global instruments to provide a continuum of funding that will enable frontline humanitarian actors to better support communities at risk. This paper provides some initial quantification of the challenges with the humanitarian financing system that the SFF seeks to address. It highlights important gaps in the financing landscape, indicating that funding is reactive and not pre-planned, dominated by post-event response, and not sufficiently meeting the needs of people affected by under the radar crises. These gaps could be addressed by the Start Network, through the SFF and this analysis could eventually serve as a baseline against which to measure progress against the SFF once we enter the implementation phase.