As world leaders gather for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) calls for urgent, strategic action to ensure that Official Development Assistance (ODA) does not leave communities at the intersection of conflict, climate vulnerability, and extreme poverty behind.
This Conference takes place against the backdrop of historic reductions in ODA, which have had especially severe repercussions in conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable communities.
Daphne Jayasinghe, IRC’s Senior Director for Policy and Solutions, said: “Against a dire funding backdrop, the FFD4 conference is a key opportunity to reaffirm the importance of supporting conflict-affected communities, to maintain progress with fewer resources: addressing great and growing humanitarian need and extreme poverty, supporting community resilience and providing a basis for longer term development.”
The IRC underscores three key priorities to ensure the promises of FFD4 translate into action:
- Direct Aid to Key Crisis Contexts
Nations like Afghanistan, Sudan and Yemen are disproportionately bearing the brunt of aid cuts despite escalating needs driven by conflict, climate shocks, and economic instability. The IRC calls for needs-based criteria to be applied to available ODA that guarantee a fair share for these high-need countries and reinforce equity as a guiding principle in development finance. - Deepen Partnerships with Local and Humanitarian Actors
The IRC encourages stakeholders taking part in the FFD4 to expand and strengthen their partnerships with civil society organisations and humanitarian agencies in shaping and delivering aid. These actors offer critical local insight, trust, and cost-effective implementation. Embedding them more deeply into funding decisions aligns with long-standing Grand Bargain commitments. - Scale What Works
With budgets under pressure, investing in proven, cost-effective interventions is essential to ensuring available funding sets the stage for development- this includes cash assistance, anticipatory action to predictable climate crises, vaccinations and community health. To this end, IRC has endorsed the Grand Bargain Caucus on Scaling Up Anticipatory Action.
To action the FFD4 commitments on the role of development finance in crisis contexts, the IRC has announced the initiative: “Scaling pre-arranged finance to build resilience and safeguard education in fragile and conflict-affected contexts,” as part of the Sevilla Platform for Action. This initiative builds on the IRC’s Climate Resilient Education Systems Trial (CREST) in Kenya and uses innovative finance mechanisms to make education more shock-responsive in crisis settings and protect children’s essential services in emergencies.
The IRC also joins the UK, Barbados and partners in calling for an overall scale up of pre-arranged finance - a critical step toward making early, risk-informed responses the global norm.