NRC's Humanitarian Programme 2021-2025

Programes and projects results 2022 I- NRC increased 24.4% its budget in 2022 compared to 2021 and received incomes for 2022 that are 26% above the budgeted target. Sida remains NRC's 4th donor after the Norwegian MFA, ECHO and BHA, in volume with 7.5% of your income. - Flexible funding represents in average 19% of NRC's resources, with extremes in Afghanistan (8%) and Cameroon (43%). - NRC worked with 9.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 40 crisis settings, including 28 contexts with Sida's humanitarian funding for 2022: a level comparable to pre-pandemic situation. NRC has reported that it reached 8 596 818 persons in programes and projects funded by Sida/HUM in 2022. - The proportion of cash assistance continued to grow in 2022 compared to 2021 (4%); the growth was 24% from 2020 to 2021. - The need to invest further in preventing SEAH and fraud remains a high priority, as discussed with NRC earlier; Sida appreciates however NRCs transparency and due diligence on these matters. - The 2022 Global report on internal displacement (GRID) has focused on the relationship between climate change and forced displacement. The 2023 GRID is focusing on food insecurity as a driver, impact and potential barrier to solutions for internal displacement. The economic impacts of displacement are explored and analysed highlighting the relationship between food security and internal displacement in efforts to identify development solutions for IDP's across the world. - NRC joined the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance in 2022, formalizing its investment in programe quality and accountability to affected populations, strengthened local capacities, and community participation. - To meet the commitment to generate evidence and collect good practices on risk sharing, NRC is actively engaged in the Risk-Sharing Platform and aims to engage in next steps with the Risk-Sharing Framework, in particular with Sida as a key interlocutor among the humanitarian donor community. Every country programmes offer interesting results to highlight.

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is Norway's largest international humanitarian organisation and widely recognized as a leading field-based displacement agency within the international humanitarian community. NRC is the INGO receiving the largest contribution from Sida's Humanitarian Unit to INGOs so far, based on experience of successful partnerships, NRC's capacities to respond at scale and its coverage of crises that Sida is prioritizing through the needs-based allocation approach. NRC receives approximately 8% of Sida's humanitarian unit's annual budget appropriation. The objectives of NRC can be summarized as follows: "To protect the rights of displaced and vulnerable people during crisis, to provide assistance meeting their immediate humanitarian needs, to prevent further displacement and to contribute to durable solutions, and to provide expertise as a strategic partner to humanitarian systems and actors." NRCs main activity is delivery of humanitarian assistance through programme activities in the field. NRC specializes in six areas of expertise, or "core competencies": shelter and settlements; livelihoods and food security; information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA); education; camp management; and water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH). Protection is lifted up as a new core competency of NRC since 2021. NRC engages closely with the affected populations to understand their needs and capacities, ensuring it tailors its assistance accordingly and involve them in the entire programme cycle, from design through implementation to evaluation. NRC advocates for respect for the rights of displaced and vulnerable people. In 2021, the NRC Board approved the Global Strategy 20222025. The strategy sets out four sub-objectives for areas that NRC will continue to strengthen and further institutionalize, namely, 1. assistance to hard-to-reach populations, 2. humanitarian policy, 3. protection, and 4. durable solutions. It also points to four areas of work that will be accelerated through expanded engagement and investments: i) advocacy, ii) climate and environment, iii) collaboration with local actors, and iv) quality programming. NRCs work is divided into three pillars: humanitarian assistance, advocacy and expert deployment. Sida's Humanitarian Unit funding will continue prioritizing mainly the first pillar through funding of the humanitarian country programmes in line with HRPs and the RRPs and through the RRM funding. To some extent, Sida will support as well the second pillar of advocacy which is integrated in the humanitarian country programmes and implemented by NRC's method, thematic and capacity development projects supported by Sida. Sida will provide NRC with only a punctual support to the third pillar, through funding to CashCap which is deploying experts to the field for invigorating cash assistance working groups (17 in 2020 to 16 countries). The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has applied for a renewed strategic partnership with Sida during 2021-2025. The interventions tentative total budget is 4 263 200 000 Norwegian krona (NOK), that the organisation is financing with Sidas funding in a proportion of 8% approximately. Other donors, like the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DG ECHO, UNHCR, etc. are the largest contributors, besides a dozen of other donors in agreement with NRC. Sida provides NRC with the opportunity to allocate resources flexibly within individual country programmes (Programme-Based Approach PBA). NRC was granted funding to carry out the Humanitarian Programme for 2022 in 24 humanitarian crisis settings: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Irak, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Moçambique, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Ukraina, Venezuela and Yemen. The grant includes provision of funding replenish the Rapid Response Mechanism funding instrument and four individual projects for method, capacity-building and coordination. Sida's assessment on performance and results Alike many other actors in the sector, NRC excels in reporting activities and outputs, but should be better in catching what changes and impacts its interventions have resulted to ultimately on assisted communities. The reporting of data and results does not provide necessarily an accurate and consolidated overview of what NRC has achieved. Sida has notified NRC that it should provide dis-aggregated data by age in targeting and reporting which is a norm. It is assumed that NRC will achieve its objectives in 2023 again, but the global stress on the current resource mobilisation system supporting humanitarian action may affect NRC as well, similarly to large humanitarian actors such as the ICRC.