28 November 2017: The Agenda for Humanity, a platform managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported on progress on its five core responsibilities: prevent and end conflict; respect the rules of war; leave no one behind; work differently to end need; and invest in humanity. The annual synthesis report finds that collective efforts illustrate “evidence that change is underway,” but have not yet resulted in improved outcomes for people affected by crises.

The report reviews progress on 3,700 commitments made to advance the Agenda for Humanity at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Through its five core responsibilities and 24 transformations, the Agenda provides a vision and roadmap to better address humanitarian need, risk and vulnerability for those affected by or at risk from humanitarian crises. The report represents the first self-reports against these commitments by 142 stakeholders.

The report identifies several “clear areas of progress.” These are: traction in bridging the humanitarian-development divide, with stakeholders finding ways to overcome institutional divides and donors increasing humanitarian multi-year funding; commitments to new approaches to address and reduce displacement, with high-level commitments to scale up approaches to build resilience; support for local humanitarian action; and targeted funding towards reducing need, risk and vulnerability. The report makes suggestions on how to further advance progress and address challenges in each area.

Despite this progress, the authors caution that progress has been uneven, and parts of the change agenda “are being left behind.” The report recommends that all stakeholders lend political and financial support to the UN Secretary-General’s initiative to reform the UN development system, as well as the reforms to UN management and the peace and security pillar, to prioritize prevention in the UN’s work; and that Member States and the international financial institutions (IFIs) increase internal and external capacity for conflict prevention and sustaining peace.

Investment in resilience and reducing vulnerability could serve as a “major accelerator to the 2030 Agenda,” the report argues.

The report further recommends: pursuing efforts to enhance the protection of civilians in conflict, with urgency; placing internally displaced people (IDPs) higher on the agenda; increasing the reliability, accuracy and transparency of data, investing in building data-related capacity among both governments and humanitarian and development actors, and ensuring that data drives investment and decision-making; and making greater investments in resilience, including through a financing tools that are flexible enough to address the conflict and disaster risks present in the majority of crises. The report argues that such investments in resilience and anticipatory actions to reduce vulnerability could serve as a “major accelerator to the 2030 Agenda.”

Individual chapters address progress on each of the core responsibilities. On leave no one behind, for example, the report explains that stakeholders made nearly 400 commitments to address and reduce displacement, and 63 stakeholders reported steps towards this objective. The report also presents stakeholders’ reports on efforts to reduce and address displacement, address migration, end statelessness, empower women and girls, ensure education for all in crisis, enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation, and include the most vulnerable.

An online ‘Platform for Action, Commitments and Transformation’ houses the commitments and provides a hub for transparency, accountability and voluntary progress reporting. [Synthesis Report Website] [Publication: No Time to Retreat: Executive Summary]