GAHI explores future pathways as funding and hosting arrangement expires

After two years of hosting the GAHI initiative to enable its set up, Elrha will cease to be its host as of 31 May 2019. We wish GAHI well for the future and continue to believe in the need for a neutral convener to work on behalf of humanitarian innovation actors, as called for by the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016.

On 19 March 2019, GAHI released the following statement:

GAHI was created to increase the impact of ethical humanitarian innovation. Over the last few months, GAHI has delivered three major pieces of work, in close consultation with its members:

1. Untangling the many pathways to scale – a report that outlines the four factors critical for innovations to reach scale in the humanitarian system;
2. Innovation 3.0 – a paper that outlines how to build an innovation ecosystem to deliver impact against the complex challenges that humanitarians face;
3. Distributed Ledger Technologies &; Humanitarian Assistance: Next Steps – a policy brief that draws on the GAHI-commissioned, ODI/HPG report, Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in the humanitarian sector to outline how the sector can leverage DLT to achieve greater impact.

These efforts, along with our work on data ethics, have established the need for a system-wide convenor and facilitator. We are deeply grateful for the support of our Members in this process.

The wider fundraising landscape remains challenging, and GAHI is working hard to explore options for its continued operations.

GAHI’s initial host after the World Humanitarian Summit was Elrha. This relationship will end, by mutual consent, on 31^st May in line with the end of the current funding contracts. Rahul Chandran, Executive Director of GAHI notes “We are deeply grateful to Elrha for their efforts in supporting the genesis of GAHI – and to our founding donors, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the UK Department for International Development. We remain hopeful that GAHI will find its pathway to continued operations, but recognize that we are in rough seas.”

Jess Camburn, CEO of Elrha comments: “As an organisation we take informed, calculated risks where we believe the potential outcome is justified and can help bring about change. Our decision to host the GAHI for its first two years was in response to the call to action at the World Humanitarian Summit for a neutral convener, working on behalf of humanitarian innovation actors. We passionately believe in the value of collective action within the humanitarian system, and its potential to achieve better outcomes. We wish GAHI well for the future.”

For further inquiries, please contact Kate O’Reilly ([email protected])."