Impact before instruments: Thinking impact before instruments in humanitarian disaster risk financing

The Impact Before Instruments series of technical discussion papers has been produced through a partnership of the Start Network, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The series responds to the increasing interest in the use of disaster risk financing (DRF) systems and instruments by humanitarian actors. DRF, as originally conceived, aimed to strengthen the financial resilience of governments to respond to disasters. In recent years, understanding has emerged of the advantages DRF approaches might bring to humanitarian action – the potential for faster and more predictable funding, incentivising pre-planning and preparedness. However, for these humanitarian impacts to be achieved within different crisis timeframes, the design of DRF systems will need to be adjusted and looked at through a different lens.

This short series of papers outlines why a more human-impact driven approach approach is needed; sets out the challenges of this new design lens for all humanitarian actors; and suggests ways in which change could potentially be implemented, building on the practical experience of the Start Network and IFRC which have already begun operationally engaging in this space. The series aims to develop systems that are coordinated between multiple actors, and have the technical and financial capabilities to scale nationally, globally and across all windows within a disaster management timeline.