It is my great honour to be at the Regional Launch of State of Humanitarian Systems (SOHS) Report in Bangkok. I thank ALNAP and I thank ADRRN. I thank all of you. The report is presented here by Juliet Parker with amazing clarity. And presented well to suite Asian reality of humanitarian action. So I need not add to it or expand on SOHS report. You may use a copy to get more details.

What I wish to do is to present how we at AIDMI have welcomed SOHS report with great enthusiasm and have started using it with and for affected population. When the findings of the global system wide and systematic research were met with the local complex reality of the work AIDMI does with the affected population, the following directions for utilisation came up.

I draw, with many thanks, from AIDMI work with WFP and Sphere India to what we call Strengthening Humanitarian System of India (SHSI) report which is so ably written by Dr. Dhar Chakrabarti and Vivek Coelho and managed by Dr. Heena Hejazi and Dr. Pradnya Paithankar. The draft is ready and will be out soon. SHSI is inspired by SOHS 2018 launch in Delhi and Lucknow in India. SHSI will be soon launched in India.

May I also say that what I present here is somewhat influenced by ongoing work on long term pandemic recovery and adaptation after the heat wave crisis in 2021.

AIDMI has welcomed and started using the SOHS report since its launch in Kenya by ALNAP with and for affected population and the following forward looking directions for utilisation have emerged.

1. For strengthening sufficiency direct funds to build and support local alliances of the vulnerable and affected population so that they can better demand, receive, mange, support, prepare and anticipate. Measure not how much money is pledged, or allocated, or used, but how much money is capitalised at the grassroots with local alliances of victim populations at local level, due to relief to recovery efforts. Lower the money goes, longer it helps with recovery, AIDMI has found in its work with affected populations. Cash transfer is one way. Stabilisation fund is another. Social Impact Funds is yet another example. Livelihood Resilience Fund is one more example. These examples have come up from the pandemic affected social enterprise leaders.
2. For consolidating relevance and appropriateness discussion on nature-based local humanitarian preparedness solutions and top-down solutions are important but lateral movement of local humanitarian solutions within the system is limited and must be made more direct and vibrant across the humanitarian initiatives and actions. AIDMI is busy conceptualising this idea to make it actionable in its work with UNICEF and hundreds of local schools to have lateral movement of pandemic recovery solutions.
3. For widening effectiveness as one heat wave victim addressing leaders from ten locations in city of Ahmedabad said, we do not want humanitarian relief or compensation or building back better, but we want relief that transforms us and our condition from vulnerability to strength, now and in future. Relief now must focus on transformation tomorrow. Put transformation on localisation agenda, encourage national and sub-national authorities in the system to pick up transformative capacities and skills and capabilities for humanitarian response.
4. For deepening coherence system must localise but also decentralise so that local centres of power—public, private, and other—do not bottleneck the relief and recovery being effective. This decentralisation must be democratic in process and structures, with focus not on the majority but the excluded minorities and groups. This direction of work has come up during review of humanitarian evaluation of recent flood relief in Gujarat by excellent Dalit groups.
5. For broader coverage the women victims of heat wave demanded to “Feminise” the Humanitarian System all the way down to local level and in all shelter to food to cash programmes. “Feminisation” should be as strong an agenda as localisation of humanitarian system in coming years, suggested the drought and flood affected group of women in a survey for GRRIPP partners in South Asia.
6. For diverse coverage Women farmers and farm labour are least visible in humanitarian system activities and programmes in Asia Pacific and their role must be bigger in the system and be mentioned in the excluded or left out groups of the system. This direction come up from the farmers of Asia underlying better coverage.
7. For suitable complementarity affected members of social enterprise for agriculture all humanitarian actions must lead to building inclusive and sustainable victim driven Green Economies, and not perpetuate the economy that is on its way out, that pollutes air and heats our cities faster than shares fruits of prosperity.
8. For expanding sufficiency universal and flexible social protection to all victims be a first step after all relief and as a full component of all recovery programmes. Not only cover to protect life but also protection to livelihood, shelter, education, health, connectivity, and finance.
9. For strengthening connectedness far more recognition is needed of the local ongoing adaptation to resilience and recovery efforts within humanitarian action, as are made in heat wave crisis this year. Victims adapt and these adaptations need to be funded and supported, not ignored or side-stepped in humanitarian recovery. This direction is emerging with affected population in family farms in three states of India.
10. For advancing relevance and appropriateness find system wide ways to track and support long term impact (unfolding) for example of the pandemic as COVID-19 fourth wave unfolds in Europe and India but also unfolding aspect such as weak lungs or slow kidney performance. In other words, system must track long term health impact of the pandemic and other humanitarian crisis and action. One way to do so is to underline lessons learned exercise across sectors and events but also develop “long-term impact lessons learned” as an additional lessons learned track. This direction has emerged from the pandemic victims and their families.
11. For accelerating localisation, so far local leadership of affected population is taken for granted and SOHS points this out well and ways must be found so that the system recognises and invests in the local leaders before, after, and during the crisis. At least half the funds must be managed and used by local affected population leaders for wider, common, and public purpose within the system to be more effective.

Thanks to Alice Obrecht, Sophia Swithern and Jennifer Doherty for such useful SOHS report. The above elven are AIDMI directions for utilisation of the State of Humanitarian System (SOHS) Report by ALNAP that is coming out of AIDMI work with and for the affected population and this is what I think will find resonance with the Asia Pacific individuals and organisations engaged in humanitarian action and learning here. And should there be any need AIDMI is always available to think through the SOHS utilisation with your project, programme, or organisation. AIDMI is utilising SOHS report in policy shaping, capacity building, pilot project design, evaluation and learning assignments and generating more and new knowledge around our humanitarian action. AIDMI with ALNAP is organising a similar launch of SOHS report in India in coming months.

* Mihir R. Bhatt presented at Launch of State of Humanitarian Systems Report (ALNAP) at Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week 2022, Bangkok, December 9, 2022.