Hello and welcome. My name is Mulham and I'm the communication officer with the global protection cluster today's webcast We're going to be talking about localization and I have here with me Marie Emily. She is the protection coordinator with IRC Hello Marie, and thank you for being with us today Hi Mulham. Thank you so much for having me. I'm gonna start right away and ask you very basic questions About localization. I want to ask you what is localization and what does localization mean for coordination? Well, thanks. Thanks a lot for the question. I think as you know in 2016 the the one who my turn summit looked at at the Challenger that Humane system was facing in in meeting very unprecedented and growing in my humane turn needs and Donor aid aid agencies and geos have signed up to them What was called the grand bargain which looked at not only addressing the the question of funding but More generally looking at how the international humanity and system is working and how to make this system more more efficient more effective more fit for purpose and And given the the increasing Frequency and the intensity and intensity of natural disaster and and the complexity of conflicts localization really became a priority issue and it was seen I think both as As a major challenge, but also as an opportunity for all of us to To take stock and to and to rethink the way the system works so the objective of Of the localization agenda was to make Principal humane turn action as local as possible and as international as necessary And this is a sentence we've heard a lot But I think it was quite interesting to look at in the localization agenda one of the commitments of the grand bargain was around coordination and the donors as well as humane turn agencies have committed to Support and to complement national coordination mechanisms when they existed and Also to better include local and national responders in International coordination mechanisms like the cluster system whenever it was appropriate and and also in keeping in mind with the humane turn principles And I think this is an interesting commitment That was maybe a little bit overlooked In the work that has been done around the the localization agenda There's been a lot of work a lot of thinking that has already been done on On localization, but more from the perspective of how do we engage with partners for programming? What our partnership models look like or what kind of capacity needs to be strengthened? And this was a little bit the dominant approach. I think of the of the localization agenda More looking at localization from a problematic aspect rather than looking at localization as a as a model to rethink a little bit the system as a whole and so What has been interesting in in what in the GPC initiative around localization was really that We we had a strong belief that to make the localization agenda a reality the coordination groups like the global clusters and the field clusters also had It is represented for for them an opportunity to to impulse a System-wide shift because of their collaboration with local actors If you look at how protection coordination group work They work very closely with hundreds of local governments and civil society actors So if you look at the membership of the of the clusters in the field you would see that Generally up to 75% of the coordination group members are local actors and the rationale be behind Including local actors in in the cluster system is that they are usually the first and the last responders when an emergency it and And they bring to the table a wealth of information of understanding Of the context because they have this It's better not better knowledge of the cultural historical Context they also have Greater credibility. I think because they have access to local networks. They have better access to affected communities And so all of this can Significantly contribute to them to the relevance of the humanitarian response Because of of this understanding of the context and because of the sensitivity That that they bring to the discussion So I think the coordination groups really can draw on these local networks to improve Protection analysis to improve coordination to document and to disseminate lessons learned and Also to encourage good practices to be to be taken to skill I Think we also need to acknowledge like that protection coordinate coordination groups are leading the development of humanitarian protection response at a national level with with usually with governments and they They really can help governments donors proof and managers to decide When and where to invest their resources in terms of advocacy in terms of funding in terms of capacity strengthening So the coordination groups have both this obligation to promote the localization agenda because there's been a global commitment on that but it's also an opportunity for for them to support agencies to To advance this localization agenda to take successful localization pilot to scale to mobilize resources and to Rethink a little bit the the structure and the way the system works and this would Ultimately be beginning to Strengthening them the humanitarian response and the protection response in particular thank you for that and moving on in 2017 and 2018 the child protection AOR and the IRC IRC Have been piloting a localization initiative on behalf of the GBC Now the result of that initiative was a learning paper that was published recently That learning paper contained a developed conceptual framework on what localization means Emily you yourself wrote a co-wrote that learning paper along with the child protection AOR and You conducted several Country visits to to produce it could you expand on some of the lesson learned from those missions shared And maybe share some of the learning Yes, sure. Um, so as you said, we've we've been working closely with the child protection AOR and we've done Over the last two years some desk reviews surveys with local partners As well as country country visit and a lot of consultation with with cluster coordinators and local partners to better understand What were the obstacles and the challenges? That they were facing when they wanted to engage with the cluster system and we've seen Honestly some very encouraging practices that are showing that I think that as a as a community We are gradually moving towards this commitment on localization But we also find some some challenges remaining challenges Maybe one of them the first lessons is around as I said that the membership of the protection coordination groups, which is Nowadays really composed of a large number of national actors. You usually see a lot of government counterparts national and local and NGOs in attending meetings custom meetings and regularly participating in those meetings local actors have been Recognizing the the benefits that the cluster system can bring to their organizations. So we did a survey a scoping survey that show that Local partners see the cluster system as being a great way to be informed about Practices about standards It's a it's a forum for them to engage In joint advocacy to enhance their partnership with international actors They also see the cluster system as a great way to network and to to just share information and good practices and So the membership of the the protection coordination groups has gradually been more open for local local actors and Local actors have also been playing an important role in contacting protection assessment in collecting data Providing information about protection needs and and delivering protection programming So that was yeah one of the first I would say positive lessons learn the second is around the governance structure of the Protection coordination group, which is more and more reflecting the presence of national actors So some of them are holding a leadership position, for example in the humane country team or in Strategic advisory group or as a cluster Lead or co-lead. This is an emerging practice That we've seen in several of the countries that we have visited. So for example in Myanmar the HCT has extended its membership to four national NGOs As well as in DRC you have One seat that is assigned for a national NGO in the HCT In other countries like in South Sudan or in DRC local partners are present in in the sag of the protection cluster and several national partners are co-leading protection cluster GBV and child protection subcrusters at the at the sub national level in terms of funding we've seen Or so that country-based proof and are more and more accessible for for national NGOs So again in Myanmar in in the DRC in South Sudan the the pool fund has been increasing their direct funding to local NGOs and in those three countries The total funding that is going directly to national NGOs is about between 23 and to 25 percent Which is a good practice for national access to more easily access direct funding All right. Thank you for that Emily now. I'm gonna I want to move on to the to the challenges What are the main challenges that local partners face when engaging with the cluster system? So as I said, yeah, there are there are remaining challenges, of course and In terms of if if we've seen of course that the membership of the protection coordination group is now composed of More and more local partners who are being part of the of the custom meetings and being part of the discussion There is still like no presence of smaller local NGOs community-based organization the diaspora or the private sector so local actors that are participating in the cluster It's usually only government counterpart and I would say big national NGOs And this is mainly due to the fact that the coordination groups are still mainly used for sharing information about funding and partnership opportunities So the engagement of I think we still have work to do in Engaging with smaller local NGOs and community-based organization who who seem to have difficulties in Joining the cluster system as well as the diaspora and the private sector that we've been ignoring a little bit and Another another challenges is we've seen that local actors have really the significant role in collecting Protection data and conducting assessment on the ground In responding to protection needs in providing services, but despite this very active Operational role they usually are not very much engaged in decision-making processes So they feel that they are not involved in the in the analysis and the validation of those data or in any of the strategic planning process such as the HNO and the HRP for example In terms of governance we've seen that there are some good practices like I've mentioned before but it does remain still limited and From what we have heard with the consultation with local partners through those different field missions We understood that for them the international coordination system is not an Enabling environment for local partners They mentioned some obstacles like question of language because the majority of meetings usually take place in English Or and not in the in the local language They have also mentioned the excessive use of humanitarian jargon acronyms and more generally just very complex Humanitarian planning processes that they don't always understand or grasp properly some local partners Mainly smaller NGO NGOs a smaller organization face also logistic Obstacles for some of them who are not based for example in the capital city and cannot attend or come to them to the capital to attend the meetings And other smaller organization who do not have the the resources like the time and the staff to to attend a very high number of meetings in This scoping survey that we conducted with more than a hundred local organization One of the main constraint that was raised by local actors was being unaware of the date of the cluster meeting Which in a way is a little bit concerning But it's also something I think we can very concretely and easily act upon So there are some very concrete steps that we can take to foster this culture of inclusivity within within the cluster system It's very concrete action such as making sure that we translate for example the main documents of the cluster into Local language that we held meetings in in the local language that we provide trainings orientation on those complex planning processes like the H&O and the HRP or for example in South Sudan we The coordination team had we saw an interesting practice where the coordination team has a dedicated person to support the engagement of National partners. I think one of the other challenges that that is linked to this It's really around the capacity of national NGOs to meaningfully engage with the cluster system Which seems to remain a little bit challenging because most of them don't have like Unrestricted funding to cover their core costs. They don't have the resources the long-term funding that participation in the humanitarian system requires and In addition to that they all our capacity strengthening efforts over the last few years have Generally very much focused on the technical areas of protection. So we've been providing trainings on protection standards on protection monitoring on case management on protection mainstream which is of course extremely important, but the institutional capacity strengthening remains very limited and If we want national partners to be meaningfully engaging with the cluster system We also need to be supporting the sustainability of the organization to ensure that they can effectively participate in in those Coordination act. Finally, I think it's it's worth mentioning that there are some specific challenges to localizing protection There's really a growing recognition that local and national actors can make very significant contribution to the humanitarian response But their leadership in protection in the protection sector remains a little bit subject to quotient There's been several research studies that shows that Sometimes local leadership might in some instances undermine protection outcomes or the quality of the protection response some research and study Show that there are sometimes some doubts about the ability of Local and national actors to implement impartial and independence maintenance response Others have pointed out the difference of approaches to protection Programming and sometimes the disconnect of understanding of what protection means for a national actor Versus an international actors actor and I think we need to acknowledge all of those challenges that are very specific to protection Okay, thank you so much Emily. I Would like to ask you then now What are some of the recommendations and what do you think the way forward is? Well, I just to build upon a little bit the challenges that I just mentioned that are also very specific to the protection Sector, I think this is where coordination structure is so important and particularly for us in the protection sector The cluster in general and the cluster coordinators have have a role to play in in assessing What is the appropriate balance of? Contributions between local and international actors I think that we've been looking at the the localization agenda and we've understood it Sometimes as the obligation to go a hundred percent local And I think this is not this is not a correct approach as I was saying in the introduction the objective of the localization commitment is to make principle imagine action as local as possible and as international as necessary and and the coordination group Can play this role in assessing and finding this appropriate balance of all configuration of What needs to be local and what needs to be international? And this should not be like a one-time evaluation, but rather a continuous process that Seeks to find this this right balance in the protection sector the degree to which Response is going to be locally led and the degree to which international support is Is necessary will be changing depending on local conditions local capacity and of course on the protection context And I think coordinators are well placed to to bring the sector to this consensus on on how do you maintain response should be best configured in In the protection sector finding this this right balance between local and international contribution is as I said is Even more critical and it should always be guided by the the humanitarian principles By having a right-based approach to protection and it should also be supported by a capacity building on on the substance of What is humanitarian protection? So in terms of recommendation and way forward there is We have taken into consideration what we've learned over the last two years from local partners and from cluster coordinators And we need to support and to continue training local NGOs for this meaningful engagement with Coordination groups whenever whenever it is relevant and whenever it is appropriate To make sure that we foster a better understanding of the what are the benefits and what are the processes of coordination and That we take very practical step to address some of the the obstacles and challenges that that I just mentioned to to this meaningful participation of local actors Thank you so much Marie. Is there anything else you want to add? Well, thanks. Thanks really a lot for for having me and I just wanted to mention that in the learning paper They are at the end of the learning paper in the annexes you will find Some tools specific tools that have been developed to To respond to some of those challenges that we've just discussed together and and you will find training materials self-assessment tools to to look at how how coordination groups are Advancing this this localization agenda within within the cluster system So I would I would recommend if you are interested by the subject to to have a look at this learning paper Which has more information and then very concrete tools and resources that you can use Perfect. Thank you so much, Marie. Thank you And now we're going to turn to the field and we are going to hear from I guess from the Iraq welcome from the Iraq operation My name is Mohammed Khan from the National Protection Cluster here We've been asked to speak briefly on our experiences with localization in this context drawing on the world humanitarian summit commitments with respect to localization and how they've materialized in practice here looking at specifically you know the main five Dimensions of localization and coordination governance decision-making decision and influence Partnerships funding and then capacity strengthening. So maybe In the interest of time, I'll just jump directly into it since we have a short Period of time let a lot of per presenter. So with respect to governance and decision-making in in the Iraq context with the protection cluster in particular We have made a concert effort particularly in 2018 on word to invite local NGOs to participate in the national protection cluster sector advisory group And you know, we we held you know discussions with local partners to see who those who are interested because there are a few local partners that were already sort of active in the protection cluster generally So we held discussions with them to tell them what, you know, the function of the SAG is and how they could potentially contribute and why, you know, we would seek to have a sort of equitable representation both by international NGOs and national NGOs as well as UN agencies and And so we were ultimately able to select two NGOs looking at factors of sort of overall geographic distribution across the country their level of experience both with, you know Because we have four sub clusters in Iraq. So we want to have a breadth of experience That encompasses at least one or two sub clusters as well as general protection activity And ultimately we ended up selecting two particular NGOs And the challenges that we had though And we continue to have with their ongoing participation in the SAG have been around sort of capacity to contribute to the discussions because the discussions are very sort of high level Polycystin oriented often very technical in nature So we're reviewing sort of position papers or documents produced by protection cluster Or we're talking about, you know, the humanitarian program cycle in particular the HNO and the HRP And so it's often, you know When we're having discussions there there hasn't been a lot of input from some of our national NGO partners in the discussions perhaps because they're Haven't had as much experience with some of these issues. And so it's the first time they're, you know, being exposed to these type of discussions Where the conversations tend to be dominated more by the larger international NGOs and the And the UN agencies who participate who obviously have quite a lot of experience with Some of the issues that we discuss They're One of the NGOs simply stopped attending altogether And the other one Made a concrete effort to reach out to us to say why they were struggling with it. And and so then we, you know, try to engage with them and provide them with the sort of What is important in terms of ensuring that they have all the reading material as well as advance so that it can come well prepared I'm trying to have, you know, an overall, you know, the IDP handbook In English and Arabic so that they can Sort of familiarize with themselves with certain topics that may be coming up for discussion Sending out regular meeting reminders to them and often in their case also calling them in advance to confirm their participation So those are sort of some of the initiatives that we like to try to Give a little bit of extra support To the national NGOs that that are participating It hasn't it still has been a bit of a struggle because, you know, You know, the same issues that that that the topics that are under discussion um often tend to be uh very sort of technical and our and national NGOs come with a very specific set of uh sort of operational expertise at the front lines Um, and so there there it hasn't necessarily it hasn't been an You know the issues that we've discussed haven't been the types of issues that that they felt that they could uh add a valuable contribution to the session also, you know I mean we continue to struggle with ongoing participation, but then on the other hand there are You know our child protection subcluster has had regular active participation of local NGOs on their bag And our GBB subcluster has also made an active effort To engage local NGOs on their steering advisor group as well and in the absence of Like at the national protection cluster level You know the one sort of fallback We also have the NCCI which is a national coordination committee for iraq which is an umbrella organization for uh, both the international and national NGOs who sit as a regular member of the national protection cluster sag And you know represent the interests of both national and international NGOs so I mean as a as Given the the challenges that we're facing often we we call upon NCCI to sort of represent the interests or canvas the interests of the NGO national NGO partners and and and represent those in the sag meetings In terms of governance beyond the national protection cluster sag there's all and the subcluster sag there's also you know the the HCT meetings and again at the HCT meetings it's They're they're open to sort of you know the the executive leadership of all the NGO community so the country directors and and It's not often that you have national NGOs participating but there are At least one or two national NGOs that do participate on a regular basis And that do are very vocal in representing national NGO interests And in addition as with the case of the NPC sag We also have NCCI represented at the HCT level so When there are sort of Leadership oriented decisions that need to be made by the humanitarian leadership on the overall humanitarian response on engagement with government if or on you know the overall policy direction needs analysis and and strategic direction of the Humanitarian response and they do have an opportunity to participate at the HCT level The second sort of Dimension is in relation to participation and influence And as I was saying there are challenges with participation often languages a barrier And as I was mentioning we you know share our you know IDP IDP guiding principles and all of these types of technical materials that are produced at the global level with Our NGO partners who are seeking to participate in the selection process or sag Nonetheless the meetings are actually conducted in English And so there is often you know and the meetings obviously are on topics that are very technical in nature So I am certain that you know that that are part of our struggle The national partners often struggle with being able to participate and contribute to the meetings in a meaningful manner given the language barrier There are capacity issues as well you know All the different NGOs with membership And UN agency membership within the protection cluster You know there are different levels of capacity Including our national NGOs some are seasoned national NGOs who have been involved with the crisis since 2014 Others are relatively new others have never worked in protection before And are seeking to pivot towards protection work. So there's a wide spectrum of experience and capacity And and so that influences the the types of contributions that can be made by national NGOs in particular in the in the various forums whether that's You know the open national protection cluster meetings that happen once a month or whether that's that meeting There's also sort of concerns around the provision of assistance by some national NGOs which can at times be You know not impartial And in accordance with humanitarian principles So it would be and those these tend to be national NGOs that are say for example the Verzani charity foundation which focuses on you know, KRI the Kurdish region And and you know has been a society that has been working on charitable activities with Kurdish speaking communities and and then After the start conflict in 2014 here in Iraq, they also started assisting IDPs as well But there were also concerns about whether assistance was being delivered in an impartial manner initially and those concerns were you know things that were discussed with the NGO and You know brought to their attention and and you know, they have made concerted efforts on their part to to try to Ensure that there is equitable And impartial assistance being provided across the board Now the The protection cluster every year when we're working on You know the the HNO and the HRP we hold Consultative workshops across the country and all of the different Governments and invite You know and participate in those discussions where we're largely Taking the data from the mcna the need and validating the needs that are there But also having a discussion on prioritization of the response modalities What are the approaches that we want to take or the activities that we want to undertake? and Those discussions are where both national and international NGOs participate and You know are able to provide their their inputs And often that means that we you know end up particularly in the post-conflict period We have had to make a transition From conflict oriented emergency response to integrating more sort of recovery and resilience oriented interventions peaceful coexistence activities for instance you know supporting youth through community-based protection mechanisms including peer support groups including You know working with men and boys on gbb Risk awareness and prevention mitigation measures etc. So there have been opportunities for shifting the focus of our Interventions and our strategy and our approach in the post-conflict period that have been influenced by the experiences brought to bear In those discussions from both national and international NGOs So then i'm going to move on to the third dimension, which is around partnerships so You know with when it comes to partnerships there there have been Specifically there have been Both challenges and and some learning happening as a result of those challenges Different UN agencies that are part of the protection cluster whether that's UNHCR UNSF UNFPA habitat UNMAS etc have partnership agreements with local NGOs UNHCR in particular in 2019 Uh of the partnership projects in the iraq operation the ratio was about 12 percent with government 13 percent with national NGOs and 74 percent Or 75 percent with international NGOs and when it came to protection projects specifically It was roughly around three percent with national with government officials or government authorities about 19 percent with national NGOs and Around 78 percent with international NGOs So they're they are receiving funds and they are engaging in partnerships with UN agencies UN agencies they're also receiving funds and engaging in partnerships with the iraq humanitarian fund the pool fund mechanism And in particular in the First allocation for 2019 Uh from the from the pool fund There was around 32 projects that were funded including for six UN agencies 25 NGOs and 11 national NGOs And eight government authorities eight local government authorities And often the case was that 17 many of these projects were consortium based Given that we had a you know allocation for roughly around 40 million Dollars and we had this was coming the decisions were being made at the end of 2018 In anticipation that there would be a funding shortfall in early 2019 before You know donors started allocating their funds, which usually happened at the end of the first quarter Nonetheless, there were around 17 Projects which was consortium based and 11 of these involved partnerships with national NGOs So we have made significant progress on on Both partnerships and funding in this operation but there's sort of a overall sort of Risk aversion on the part of both International NGOs when it comes to engaging in consortiums There's a risk aversion on the part of IHF and other donors as well be given that you know, there have been You know previous audits that have been done that have led That have raised some cause for concern in the way the funds were used by Both national and international NGOs, but particularly by national NGOs So in terms of taking these fiduciary responsibilities into account You know there they're There have been Concerns in the past, but there also have been efforts concerted efforts made including by IHF and and by You know the large UN agencies to You know put in place measures to address the risks Including capacity building etc But those perhaps need to be scaled up And so specifically when we're talking about capacity building, which is the last of the the localization dimension, you know National NGOs receive Equal opportunity to participate in the capacity building initiatives that are delivered through the protection cluster, whether that is you know capacity building on Corp protection programming Child protection GBV etc all the different types of training that we offer What they have requested instead to Sort of build confidence of the donor community and the pool fund is capacity building specific and mentorship specifically on You know funding on grants management, etc Because those are the things that will get them in the door in terms of donors potentially You know funding their activities directly or Indirectly through a consortium opposed or a twinning approach, etc And that's where sort of the the what we we as protection clusters said, you know, that's beyond our remit and beyond our capacity to be able to you know capacitate all of the NGO partners on You know fundraising and grants management, etc And you know application grants application procedures But that NCCI the national coordination committee for iraq would be best place to do so They have they agree that that that would be a you know a A contribution that they can make or an effort that they could potentially lead However, they don't they haven't received funding from donors specifically for this type of activity And so, um, you know, that was one of the things that was flagged so Recently in november of 2018. We had a Localization we had a mission to iraq from the localization work street and this mission essentially was, you know IFRC and the sdc Swiss Development Corporation that came to iraq spoke to a wide range of partners Both the national NGOs international NGOs donors And un agencies as well And came up with a broad list of recommendations On I mean their overall assessment was essentially that localization is progressing in iraq, but that it that it's relatively uneven Across different You know grand bargain and signatories And and that, you know local NGOs I mean that we need to recognize the local NGOs historically and the when the Conflict first started, you know, they were able to demonstrate a comparative advantage in terms of being present on the front line delivering assistance in Insecure areas where you know some of the international NGOs and UN agencies Were unable to access those areas, but now in in the what as we progress along And are now at the post-conflict stage of this con conflict You know, there's still a need to continue to Engage national NGOs Particularly as we start to speak about exit strategies and about handover And that's something that we have as protection cluster. We've started we've done that all along in all the four or five years Of the conflict every year. We've had we've articulated our in in the hrp response precisely that we're You know engaging national NGOs In delivering assistance to beneficiary As part of our overall exit strategy And they've been, you know, concerted efforts by the child protection subcluster by the gbb subcluster to engage both local NGOs And and then this year in particular child protection subcluster is very much focused on You know, ensuring that the local NGOs Are capacitated to handle complex child protection places and not just sort of the routine Case management That they that they were capacitated around earlier gbb subcluster is making concerted effort to You know, empower and support and and facilitate or capacity build with The director for combating violence against women and the ministry of labor and social affairs, etc So those efforts continue But there were of course, you know in the report of the mission the spci ifsrc mission there were Specific recommendations directed to institutional donors directed to un agencies directed to national NGOs On how we can do better, right? We we've It's not that we're starting from scratch We there there has been some progress made but at the same time there's a lot more that can be done And specifically, you know looking at Strategies for risk sharing and addressing fiduciary compliance For for the national NGOs that this was, you know, a one of the recommendations for the institutional donors Support and also for them to support consortium projects And also as I mentioned for them to increase funding for local and national actors to effectively manage funds Through their through the pool fund and potentially to increase multi-year investments and local NGOs and and most importantly from the local NGO You don't know most importantly but equally importantly To have a flexible simplified and harmonized reporting requirements when funds are allocated to NGOs to local NGOs given their sort of capacity limitations and and you know, they They don't have an entire ADC reporting officer or a dedicated grant team, etc So then it would be It becomes sometimes too onerous to be able to report against the requirements of some donors That we even international NGOs and UN agencies struggle with let let alone national NGOs who don't have a reporting officer or grants manager There were also recommendations for UN agencies To you know To lobby the donor community to accept the use of local partner risk assessments Conducted by the UN agencies and to create opportunities for local and national actors to demonstrate their trustworthiness To have to provide support but from UN agencies to NCCI on capacity building as I mentioned earlier And to initiate regular consultations with local NGOs as part of the sort of for instance, UNHCR and goes into annual NGO consultations but those one of the sub things could be around the grand bargain commitments and how how to ensure that those commitments are materialized in at the country level They were also And this is the interesting part of this report From from my perspective is that there were specific recommendations for local NGOs as well Which was to conduct consultations among themselves to explore the possibility of forming an alliance or a coalition that could guide You know their collective advocacy And their vision in relation to localization It could also include the other recommendations where around developing or strengthening their organizational development strategies and prioritizing capacity building to address issues around weaknesses in governance and systems and policies And also Lastly exploring opportunities and the feasibility to undertake local fundraising initiatives Either individually as one local NGO or collectively as local NGOs to support their work and to support their financial sustainability over time So there was a you know a really interesting set of recommendations that are directed to multiple stakeholders local NGOs UN agencies and donor community And you know this was done at the HCT for further discussion And you know now it's our role To take these conversations forward Throughout the course of the humanitarian program cycle And for donors to take it forward in in their prioritization In terms of funding for 2019 and beyond so Just as a sort of final Statement from our side, you know, we we're we are obviously in a period of transition in iraq. We are shipping from emergency response like a phase two post-conflict recovery and resilience and and In the has the you know the at the global level we've been provided with new templates for the HNO and the HRP going into 2020 We will obviously need to ensure that localization commitments and exit strategies and and particularly the handover to recovery and development actors as well articulated and that that you know, we ensure that local partners Whether that's local civil society organizations or NGOs or local authorities are You know our partners in in the effort to with respect to this transition So that's it from our side Thank you so much Muhammad for For your presentation. That was really interesting. I would like to turn I would like to turn to marie and see if she would like to ask a question here Thanks so much more of it was It's really interesting to have your perspective as a coordinator and from the field And I do was just wondering Because you had you mentioned some issues related to upholding the united principles in like the assistance provision and service delivery and there's been a couple of research at the global level that underline the particular challenge that Maybe there is in the protection sector to advance the location agenda compared to other sectors Those research was saying that in some context having local leadership in coordination Or in response my actually undermined section outcomes and I was wondering If you could give us your perspective on that and and maybe how you see the rule of a coordinator and finding Finding this this balance between what is the the appropriate contribution between international and national actor in a context like like the wrath which was and I just said a conflict conflict crisis and sexual crisis Yeah, so I mean we haven't come across this We've come across intensive isolated incidences Of specific NGOs that perhaps, you know, I mean they the historical who their so-called roots are that they worked with specific communities and they were formed At the as ethnic or sectarian sectarian lines And so it's more been a discussion with them around sort of opening up the the you know the the way that they or the The populations that they serve to encompass a broader spectrum of people not just specific people from specific ethnic or sectarian profiles, but others and they've largely been receptive to that. I mean we haven't had sort of resistance or or Anything of that nature they've largely been receptive because they they participated in You know the larger discussions that happen at the protection cluster level And and then the wider humanitarian community. So they're aware of humanitarian principles It's it's an exception to the rule that we've had that You know over the course of the five-year, uh, you know crisis a protection crisis In particular, um, you know certain NGOs that historically started out in a certain way In terms of specific population groups But have then Been able to pivot or reoriented their services and expand their own mission and their values to encompass uh impartial assistance delivery over the course of time and you know that that partly that Could be attributed To you know their commitment to why Your humanitarian principles that it could also be attributed to the fact that that's where you know, that's where the funding comes from Right. You're you're not being provided funding just to provide assistance to one specific target group You're being provided funding to provide assistance to anyone in need On the basis of relevant targeting criteria that don't take account Of ethnicity or or or religion or or sects, etc um, so it's you know, generally speaking the the Did the outcome of the discussions or the engagement with the local NGOs in the iraq context Has resulted in a positive shift in their overall orientation and a broader More encompassing an inclusive shift in their service delivery Thank you so much. Muhammad for your time. I know that You have a limited time today with us. So thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you for answering the question And I hope you have a nice afternoon Thank you so much. You've got to run to another meeting. I wanted to stay longer to chat, but Thanks, and I apologize that it took so long to to organize this No, thank you and thank you for your time again Now we are going to turn to pakistan and we will Talk with Muhammad. Hamza Malik. Muhammad is the chief executive officer at the Motivation Allahineeteria Management and Dale Smael Khan Hello, Muhammad and thank you for joining us Thank you. Malham for introducing me Greetings from pakistan. Hope you all are fine and doing well It is a great pleasure to represent pakistan in the webcast of the global production cluster Perfect I I would like to start with the first question. I want to ask about a specific challenges Local partners in pakistan encounter when engaging with the cluster system of coordination mechanism It seems that the funding is an issue as it's usually granted to national NGOs, which are quite big and It's It's also rare to see initiatives that build local partners organization organizational capacity allowing them to compete for funding Could you expand a bit on this on these two issues, please? Majority of the local organizations are having limited institutional capacity And they are working at grassroot level in their respective areas Mostly they do not have the access or knowledge about the ongoing cluster system or coordination mechanisms at provincial level Because there is a gap of information flow from national forums to provincial field forums Eventually their meaningful participation becomes a challenge in the cluster while focusing on the localization agenda Major issue which a local organization faces is winning the project against call for proposal The grant usually goes to national NGOs, which are having rich profiles Expertise and linkages to stay connected with the cluster systems and avail timely funding opportunities This makes it difficult for the organizations working at district level to compete because they have less experience and they lack human expertise And like I said limited organizational capacity of local partners Usually prevents to apply for a grant because they lack them to take Initiatives to fulfill the eligibility criteria set by the donor and even if they complete the initial requirement Their scoring counts less during evaluation through field assessment and review of the panel So the donor keeps working with limited active organizations in the loop who are awarded the grant and they do not get the chance To interact with other local partners who are very much interested to work and have the intro to provide humanitarian services in their relevant areas This eventually discourages the new local partners to apply for a new grant when advertised As you know that the sustainability and survival of local organization in their areas is usually based on funding Which keeps them active to provide services to the identified beneficiaries Mostly their income generation is from membership fees and local donations Which keep fluctuating with the passage of time and sometimes it is not sufficient to provide the services as planned So if they don't get a funded project from any respective donor and if they rely only on such sources that is membership fees and local donations Then it becomes difficult for the organization to survive Against their mission statement and to achieve their set vision The basic thing we should focus on is the organizational strength Where donors should prioritize building the capacities of local NGOs in the areas of grants Compliance monitoring and evaluation proposal development strengthening policies at the basis of need assessment need identified Only by doing this we can ensure that local organizations would come at a level to develop and implement projects in a systematic way Okay, thank you. And Can you think of uh, maybe do you want to mention or do you want to talk about a specific initiative? um That was done To build the local partners capacity Do you have anything in mind about that? No, there's no actually global protection clustered as not yet started such initiative In pakistan to provide such capacity programs through different projects to enhance their expertise and skills But yes In the past there my uh, there was uh different projects over the years Like very minimum which came to actually build the capacities of the local organization cso's to Yeah, actually survive and compete in this environment. So by the uh, I would suggest Global protection cluster to focus on this because we have the agenda to achieve into 2021 So it can be a very fruitful initiative in pakistan for local organization oh Okay, and um I also want to ask you about Well, the fact that pakistan has been transitioning from Uh protection cluster to local authorities I I would like to ask if you can talk about challenges or maybe lesson learned Uh about this this transitioning As you already know that unhcr was leading an irc was co-leading the protection cluster pakistan at provincial institution power To fdma fata disaster management authority through letter of understanding in 2017 And was decided that handing our process will complete by the end of march 2018 So fdma was totally leading the cluster after transition and initial meetings were good But with the passage of time fda environment got less and no such meetings were conducted in the future one of the reasons of deactivation of protection cluster can be The backing of human capacities or roles of responsibility in the organization Fdma situation is currently different because fata is merged with kheber pakhtunkhwa promise and will be considered as district And not agency in the future fdma situation will be different So there are few challenges faced uh or lessons learned after transition of protection cluster to local authorities which is fdma Starting from noc issues increased in protection projects. There are no funding opportunities due to non-active action cluster Protection means streaming decreased due to deactivation To build For The cluster meeting is stopped Flow of update In terms of protection activities attending the cluster meetings is discontinued Currently, there is no cluster of protection at national level provincial level and at district level to coordinate protection related concerns of the affected population That is idp's and refugees Hi, can I can I jump in maybe I I was quite interested to know mohammed how Um in the absence of of a cluster. How do local actors actually coordinate With each other and whether whether you have any any lessons learned you want to share on how How local partners have been coordinating in the absence of a of a formal coordination system I think that would be interesting For us to understand in in the transition process Uh, if we talk about starting from a district level there used there used to be a district coordination working go Where the local organizations and you and with government departments were used to have Meeting we established a referral mechanism of four double fabrics And they used to refer the cases of protection concerns like documentation issues or protection issues and Of with the passage of time when after transition and as you know in the Past coming years the funding decreased and the sector has been squeezed a lot So many of the potential local organizations stopped working due to non survival of non funding So the referral mechanism became is weak now and the activity of protection cluster is affected In the past when the cluster was activated I there used to be a district coordination working group in district direction by the hand in district venue and District what any bit of a shower it is Issues and concerns used to be highlighted and partly through the protection cluster for child protection and GBB concerns but after the transition and after the Decrees of funding many organizations Stop working or if you were remaining active and the mechanism became very weak and you can say that at the moment There's no such active referral mechanism or group going on in the district in our country in respect of protection concerns Okay, thank you very much Thank you so much Muhammad for being with us Yeah, thank you so much for your time and giving me the opportunity to be a part of this discussion and webcast Thank you so much Muhammad for your time Thank you again Thank you so much


Welcome to the Lowy Institute, it's great to have you here. Thanks mate, it's a pleasure. The first thing I wanted to do was thank you personally for the contributions you made to the interpreter earlier this year on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War. I got the sense at the time when we communicated by email that was hard to do for you. Those pieces were hard to write. Tell me why. Oh, incredibly so. Well I mean, all I've spent between six and seven years in Iraq. And that wasn't rotating in and out. That was 11 months a year back to back. And then I thought I would sprinkle that with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Russian invasion of Georgia. And then my network's reward for all of that was to assign me to cover the Mexican cartel drug wars. So the 10th anniversary of the war, like other certain events, it flushed a lot of stuff up. And like any of our diggers, like any of the 2.4 million Americans who've served at least one combat tour, like the Iraqis themselves who are now growing up into adulthood who have witnessed all those, it's a lot to come to terms with. So writing that piece wasn't something I went looking for, but it turned out to be a very useful and cathartic exercise. In the end I actually owe you one. Not at all. No, we owe you. So do the readers. Now, the two articles that you wrote looked at the origins of the insurgency in Iraq. But I imagine you've maintained some of the contacts that you established in Iraq at the time. And I wonder when you talk to people, when you talk to those people now, what do they say about the direction of Iraq now? Where is it going? Well, it's going where it's always been, almost immediately after the invasion. It's an extension of Iran. And in fact, this is actually the most salient topic in my view of the entire Iraq war. The two great elements of it is one that through the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu al-Musad al-Zaqawi, we saw a revolution within al-Qaeda of its own definition of itself. So effectively, the work of this al-Qaeda in Iraq leader has given us a new generation of al-Qaeda across the planet who are far more brutal, who are far more menacing and far less merciful than anything that Osama bin Laden himself intended.  So there's that revolution with al-Qaeda as our gift to the Iraq war. But the real outtake of the Iraq war is that Iran was the winner. Now there's not a single US ambassador who served in Baghdad who disagrees with that. There's certainly not a general who disagrees with that. Because what we didn't realise at the time in 2003, as those first coalition tanks pushed north across the Kuwaiti border and started charging towards Baghdad, with every success as they went further and further north, greater and greater was the vacuum left behind them. At the same time, coming from the east, there was between 30,000 to 50,000 Iraqis who had taken refuge in Iran, fleeing Saddam's regime, but who had been incorporated into the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. So effectively, as we push through, say, a town like Qut in the south, you then see the Iranian intel traffic that says, right, we are now in control of the town, the Brits have arrived, but we've got a new governor, we've got a new chief of police, we've got a new... So there was an Iranian invasion as well, a soft invasion. And while we try to operate on the dime principle, diplomacy, intelligence, economics, they did too, but they did it far more effectively than us. So while the, say, Americans sponsored a television channel and newspaper or two and a couple of others, the Iranians did it on mass, dozens of radio stations. Every university in the south was flooded with Iranian mullah. Women suddenly had to start covering up. It was both Shia and Sunni who brought extremist Islam to an Iraqi nation that was largely secular until we invaded. So at the end of the day, I mean, sadly they're the greatest outtakes from Iraq. And what people tell me now is that obviously with events in Syria, the Sunni fear has always been that Iran's intention was to complete what they called the Shia line of influence or the Shia circle between Iran through Iraq to Syria and to Lebanon to the Mediterranean. And now it's not too hard to argue that they have effectively achieved that. And a lot of that is the legacy of the Iraq war. And let me take you back to the first point about a, it seems a more, a fiercer al-Qaeda that cuts against the general narrative that you hear and even from the US president himself who says that al-Qaeda is in decline as far less of a threat today than it was. So how do you reconcile those two things? Well, I'm yet to encounter an American president who ever actually knew what was really going on in the ground anyway in Iraq. But with the greatest respect to the president, I mean, he's right and he's wrong. Okay, what have we done to al-Qaeda? All right, it was the invasion of Afghanistan. We forced them to displace. They no longer had their training camps, but that dispersed them. But let's not forget, al-Qaeda was waiting for that. What people I find tend to neglect is that September 11 did not begin on September 11. It began on September 9. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, knowing obviously what they were going to do in New York, realised that the first thing Americans do would come and invade Afghanistan. They knew that if for America to do that, they would have to look for anti-Taliban allies. And the only man left standing at that point, the only warlord, was Ahmad Shah Massoud. So two days before the 9-11 attacks, al-Qaeda assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud so that America wouldn't have that man to immediately turn to. Al-Qaeda knew it was going to disperse. It's a covert organisation that's compartmentalised and is built for loss. Their ability to regenerate at all levels. I mean, they've lost their leader himself. They've lost senior strategists, mid-ranking commanders, untold foot soldiers, and yet we still live with al-Qaeda. Now, could they do another 9-11? It's entirely possible. Do they have the same sanctuary that they once had that helped lead to 9-11? No. But look at North Africa. Look at the so-called Arab Spring.  I mean, with all these revolutions we're seeing through the Arab world and in North Africa, the greatest beneficiaries, again, have been the religious extremists. So it's not the same al-Qaeda it was when President George W. Bush commenced the so-called wars on terror. They don't pose the most immediate threat to America that perhaps they once did, but to think that they're gone is, again, is a falsehood. And just finally, Mick, given you're here today for the New Voices conference, I want to ask you what your advice is to young people who are thinking about embarking on a career in journalism, particularly who have maybe slightly romantic ideals about being a foreign correspondent. Oh, absolutely. Well, my simple advice would be, would be, don't do it.  And the media world in particular is both at the tip of that change, but it's also been crushed and rolled over by it. The way I look at it is, you know, it's like we're trying to invest in horse and buggies while Henry Ford is rolling out modern teas.  But those people can't do what you did. No, no, they can't. No, they can't. And there's a valuable role for citizen journalism. But equally, they retain perhaps even greater than foreign needs for professional journalists. But it's a never shrinking world day. Newspapers and print, as we know, is struggling for its very existence. And yet so far, no one yet has figured out how to properly commercialise the internet. So we are in one of the greatest crises in journalism, certainly in my two decades, I think, in several generations. I'm confident we'll find our way through all of this, and I'd like to believe we'll be better and stronger. But the journalism of the future, I think, will not resemble anything that we're currently familiar with now. Mick Williams, thanks for your time. Digger, pleasure. Good on you. Great.


Hi, my name is Rachel Cook and I'm a botanist with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Today I'm going to be showing you all the common early spring ferns of John B. Stephenson Memorial Forest, commonly called Anglin Falls. The John B. Stephenson Memorial Forest State Nature Preserve is a 123-acre wooded gorge in Rockcastle County that features Anglin Creek, a rich spring floral display, and the 75-foot-tall Anglin Falls. So this is probably our most common fern across Kentucky. You'll find it just like this kind of band out all along the ground. It's called Christmas Furn. Its Latin name is Polystichum Acrosticoides, don't ask me to spell that. And you can find it in a wide variety of habitats. You'll find it kind of like we are here in like a music lowland area, but you can find it especially in Eastern Kentucky up and down mountain sides. It's more of a habitat generalist and it is an easy one to tell. And if you look over here you can see it really cool. This is what a new leaf looks like unfurling and we call these fiddleheads. This is our sharp-lobed grape fern, it is a native fern that has overwintering leaves. This is one of the bigger specimens I've seen. Some notable features are its overall arrowhead shape. There are some lookalike species, none of which have overwintering leaves like this one. Its Latin name is Gritidium by Trinatum. They're some very closely related species that come out a little bit farther into the year, but this is the most common one. It's very easy to ID. So this is one of my personal favorite ferns. This is walking fern or Aspillinium rhizophyllum. So the coolest feature about this fern is it sends out these little runners and eventually they turn into all new plants. You can see right there those are baby plants. This is an incredibly distinct fern. You're not going to find very much like it even though the genus Aspillinium does like to hybridize. This one is, it's just so beautiful and unique. And as you can see here, you'll mostly find it on the sides of boulders and it likes moist boulders where you see like this moss kind of. And yeah, this one's one of my favorites. This is Southern bladder fern or Cystophorus patrusa.  It has a nice texture and you can kind of see these new leaves starting to unfurl. So these ferns are found in wetwoods all across Kentucky. So if you have moist soils, you will find these, they're kind of scattered throughout. You'll find them very close to rocks and sometimes on moss substrates.  They can be easily confused with woodsia which is another genus of fern and it's kind of hard to parse the two out. But once you get an eye for them, they are pretty easy and cute little guys. So this is one of our limestone loving species called rock polypodi or polypodium virginianum. So there are two species in this genus. There's this common one virginianum which is longer and more slender. And then there's Appalachiana which is shorter and stouter. And another really interesting thing that you can look at on the back of the fertile fronds is the sorai. And as you can tell, these are also older leaves. You can see some of the newer leaves coming up here. So this is a calcifile so you'll find it on rocky boulders in calcium rich areas. So this is marginal wood fern. It is a frequent flier across Kentucky. You'll find it in a lot of moist woods. They like hillsides. So this one has some very close relatives and the easiest way you can identify it versus its other relatives is if you look at the sorai, they're on the edge right there. That's why its latin name is Dryopterous Marginalis. And you often see it, these are kind of sad because they're again the winter leaves, but it's usually like up and arching. In the springtime now you'll see it kind of like the Christmas fern, it'll lay flat just like this.