EARLY RECOVERY POLICY FORUM IN COPENHAGEN 3 OCTOBER 2008: JOINT ACTION FOR STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO EARLY RECOVERY

The participant based their deliberations on a common interest to improve the lives of people affected by crisis, and on lessons learned and needs identified from the country level, keeping in mind the ultimate goal of sustainable development.

They expressed their renewed commitment to work together, through appropriate processes and institutional mechanisms, to support national recovery efforts and implement the agreed objectives below. They also agreed to meet again in one year to review progress.  

Read the final statement below.


Joint Action for Strengthening International Support to Early Recovery

TOWARDS BETTER EARLY RECOVERY STRATEGIES

Agreed objectives

1. Early strategy development, priority setting and programming must promote the highest and widest possible levels of national and local engagement and ownership, including involvement of displaced and affected communities. National engagement at all levels will increase over time as basic functions of the state and civil society are strengthened.

2. Strategic frameworks and priorities for early recovery must be informed by joint assessments, which are based on a sound analysis of the crisis/risk dynamics using all existing knowledge and expertise, national and local capacities and gaps. Assessments should be light, iterative and progressively informed by a shared understanding of the country context. Existing assessment tools should be tailored for use in early recovery contexts.

3. Strategic planning for early recovery needs to be initiated at the earliest stages of a crisis. In the case of post-conflict situations, this planning should be linked to the evolving peace process, integrating political, security, human rights, humanitarian and development objectives. Objectives of gender equality and environmental sustainability need to underpin the planning process.

4. The initial framework for strategic action, which is adapted to the urgency of early recovery, should address priority foundational activities of the national and international system's response and evolve into a broader and more comprehensive strategy over time. Strategies and programmes must build on emergency and crisis activities which have been undertaken. All relevant partners shall work closely together on strategic planning and the transition to longer-term mechanisms.

5. Full commitment is given to align early recovery efforts with national priorities and to support national actors in strategic planning and coordination of early recovery. Such support should be rendered through effective co-ordination and the broadest possible partnership between national actors, UN Missions, UN Country Teams, the World Bank, regional organisations, bilateral donors, NGOs, CSOs and, as appropriate, the private sector.

6. High quality senior UN leadership at the country level is of utmost importance to fulfil the UN’s role in early recovery. To this end selection processes, training, deployment, and early recovery coordination and implementation mechanisms must be strengthened.

7. In line with the Paris Declaration principles on alignment and harmonization, joint real-time evaluations and other learning mechanisms of early recovery efforts should be supported and finding need to be fed back into programming.


TOWARDS STRONGER EARLY RECOVERY CAPACITIES

Agreed objectives:

8. Existing national capacities and networks should be identified through capacity assessments, and fully integrated into programming and early capacity development efforts. Where capacity gaps exist, the strengthening of national capacities following a crisis needs to be supported as soon as possible. Appropriate strategies to address national and local capacity gaps are required to ensure that such efforts are adequately planned and funded.

9. When national capacity has been severely challenged by the crisis, the imperative to act in early recovery might require recourse to supplementary (external) capacity. This can include the use and strengthening of existing implementation capacities of operational actors on the ground, and, where appropriate and requested, the use of stand-by pools of civilian experts for deployment at short notice, in order to augment national capacity to the extent possible and following realistic assessments of actual human resources. External capacity will work with and build national and local capacity wherever possible and should be informed by a strong understanding of structures, capacities and programmes that were in operation and effective prior to and during the crisis.

10. Appropriate expertise identified through South-South and regional cooperation should be the preferred mechanism for deployment of civilian expertise wherever possible, and should be supplemented by other international civilian expertise wherever necessary.

11. The UN’s recovery coordination capacity should be strengthened on a predictable basis tailored to country-specific needs. Existing coordination mechanisms led by the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General/Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator should be the starting point in this regard.

12. Fragility, crisis prevention, strategic planning, and recovery expertise within the multilateral and bilateral organisations and NGOs should be increased.

13. There is a need to coordinate and share information on common codes of conduct and standards for international civilian crisis response capacity to ensure optimal use of existing and evolving capacities such as (i) deployable bilateral capacities (ii) deployable bilateral capacities serving multilateral needs; and (iii) multilateral civilian capacity.

14. A coordinated approach to recruitment and remuneration by international actors of local staff is needed to ensure that national capacities are not depleted. Also, temporary funding of civil service salaries and modernization of the civil service should be supported as necessary.


TOWARDS IMPROVED EARLY RECOVERY FINANCING

Agreed objectives

15. In post-disaster and conflict contexts, provide fast, flexible and predictable funding for early recovery planning and programmes that bridge humanitarian, recovery and longer-term development financing; and in addition for post-conflict settings, provides early support to stabilisation and inclusive peace building. Explore avenues to assure additional funding where it is needed.

a. Seek opportunities to use and strengthen existing funding mechanisms to see how they may be adapted to respond better to early recovery needs.
b. Consider ensuring that a minimum amount of funds can be drawn on when and as needed by UN country teams in countries facing a crisis to be used for 1) essential staff for ER assessment, coordination and planning; 2) extending implementation capacity and presence outside of the capital; and 3) catalytic ER programming for natural disasters and conflict.
c. To increase speed and reduce transaction costs, promote the use of common pooled funds, Memorandum of Understandings and Letters of Agreement between operational agencies and donors.

16. Introduce greater flexibility in bilateral and multilateral development funding to make development funds available earlier to support early recovery. The mapping of external resource flows serves as a useful tool to assist early recovery strategic planning and programming.

17. In the case of natural disasters, routinely include funding for disaster risk reduction when funding early recovery and reconstruction efforts.

18. Invest in priority sectors in which the initial early recovery analysis indicates potential for significant longer-term gains, such as support for durable solutions for displaced populations, agriculture, livelihoods, and security and justice sector reform.

19. There can be a need for multi-donor trust fund mechanisms at country level as important mechanisms for recovery funding. They must be specifically designed to assure they are adapted for early recovery engagement and accessible to all relevant stakeholders.


OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTION

• OECD/DAC Accra follow-up, including on Financing of Early Recovery and the October brainstorming on DAC Network on Conflict, Peace and Development (CPDC)/Fragile States Group (FSG) merger.
• The initiative on Focus countries for Early Recovery.
• Strengthened NGO contributions to international processes on Early Recovery.
• The IASC Working Group session on recovery and transition in November 2008 (UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)).
• Ongoing work of the CWGER and the UNDG/ECHA Working Group on Transitions.
• The Secretary-General’s report then May 2009 Security Council debate (called for by the 20 May 2008 Presidential Statement of the Security Council on post-conflict peace building).
• Review of the Peace Building Fund.
• Follow-up to the Workshop on Durable Solutions for IDPs within the Early Recovery Context.
• Revision of the IASC’s guidance, “When Displacement Ends – A Framework for Durable Solutions.”
• Policy Committee decisions on “Delivering on Recovery and Peace Dividends” of 23 July 2008. (BCPR-PBSO).
• Follow up through the 2009 International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and the International Recovery Platform (IRP) on national-level preparedness for recovery.
• Development of a (DPKO) Rapidly Deployable Rule of Law Capacity, to complement the Standing Police Capacity and immediately identify national capacities and undertake early strategic planning in post-conflict settings.