Migration Emergency Response Fund Research Piece

This research piece attempts to navigate the discussion and explore Start Network members’, donors’ and Start staff perceptions and experiences of the Start Network’s dedicated Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF), with a view to making practical recommendations in support of Start Network’s institutional engagement with mixed migration going forward.

Using a mixed methods approach involving literature review, online survey and key informant interviews (KIIs) the researchers received 52 survey responses and undertook 29 Skype, Zoom or telephone interviews. Respondents included staff from Start Network, member INGOs, national NGO partners and donors at country, regional and headquarters levels.

Using the lenses of effectiveness, impact, relevance and coherence, MERF is shown to be a highly effective and well-functioning fund achieving many of its objectives and enabling member agencies to respond rapidly in discrete migration emergency crises in its various geographical jurisdictions. However, the research also showed that MERF raises significant strategic and structural questions. Seventeen key findings were established through the analysis (Section 5 of this report) and are grouped here to pick out the following four strategic areas as outlined below, and in response to which eighteen recommendations are made in section 6 of this report.