VOICE General Assembly 2021

On 27 May VOICE held its annual General Assembly. It was a pleasure to see so many members connected and actively engaged during the 4-hour online gathering.

VOICE is really proud to welcome 5 new members to the network:  Jesuit Refugee Service, CARE Norway, CARE Denmark, Caritas Czech Republic, and Oxfam Italy. The total number of members is now 86. 

We also want to congratulate the new Board member Annelies Claessens for her election and  Dominic Crowley for his second mandate as VOICE President 
 
Another big outcome of this year's GA was the adoption of the policy resolution ‘Grand Bargain 2.0: let’s make it a turning point in the global humanitarian aid system’ where VOICE calls on the EU and its Member States (MS) to make tangible progress in the next years on the following set of recommendations: 

• Harmonisation and simplification: 

- Standardise donor proposal and reporting requirements. 

- Increase cross-reliance on existing donor ex-ante assessments and audits.

• Localisation: 

- Develop an EU localisation policy that leads the way for other donors on capacity building and risk management. 

• Quality funding: 

- Ensure flexible, predictable and timely funding.

- Move from piloting to implementing structural changes.