Guidance Note for Coding and Tracking Funding against UNICEF 2015 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) Appeals
The figures for the 2015 UNICEF Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal are now available.The overall ask for all the countries is USD 3.04 billion. For tracking purposes all contributions received after 15 December2014 will be recorded against the 2015 HAC appeals.
The purpose of the emergency coding system in VISION is threefold:
- To ensure that, as per UNICEF Budget Policy, all budgets received for a humanitarian crisis are linked to an authorizing ‘appeal’ document;
- To strengthen resource mobilization efforts for emergency response by monitoring funds received against the appeal targets;
- To enable monitoring and reporting of humanitarian funding against the approved emergency appeals. This includes reporting to donors through OCHA’s FTS reporting system.
In order to facilitate tracking of funding against UNICEF's HAC, all emergency grants (i.e. SM/KM) received against the appeal targets must be tagged with two codes in VISION: the Emergency Appeal Reference Code and the Humanitarian Response Code. Both codes are mandatory and must be applied to all grants. The coding will form the basis of the humanitarian financing information systems that will feed into VISION and inSight for reporting and monitoring. In addition to the EAR and HR codes, all emergency contributions must have a sponsored programmein order to specify the recipient of the funds.The sponsored programme is particularly useful when recording contributions against regional chapters or sub regional appeals.
- Emergency Appeal Reference (EAR) Code:The EAR code is directly linked to a HAC appeal and its emergency target. The emergency targets provide authorization for the use of issuance and use of other resources emergency (ORE) budgets to achieve humanitarian results. All ORE grants received for humanitarian response must be coded with an EAR code, which will be valid for the duration of the appeal. Once ORE budget is issued the emergency target is reduced by the amount of the grant.
- Humanitarian Response (HR) Code: For each humanitarian appeal there may be one or many different crisis either in a given country (South Sudan refugees in Sudan) or in a region or sub-region (Ebola). The HR code is an additional code that records all the specific emergency response activities that are on-going in a particular country or region/sub-regional for given period. This code provides an additional level of detail that is required for monitoring and reporting on humanitarian financing.
Example: A donor provides fundingspecifically for South Sudan refugeesin Sudan. The grant must be coded as follows: HAC-15-Sudan;HR-15-South Sudan refugees; Sponsored Programme (Sudan - 4020A00000)
- How to code
The 2015 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) 2015 appeal has a total of 35 chapters including seven regional chapters and two sub-regional appeals (see Annex 1). The 2015 EAR/HR codes have been set up in SAP to ensure that all emergency contributions received on or after December 15 2014 are recorded against the 2015 HACs.
1. New ORE funding for 2015 appeals:All newemergency contributionsreceived in the last two weeks of 2014 and in 2015 must be coded with the new 2015 EAR/HR codes.
Example: A new ORE contribution is received for achievement of humanitarian results for the Ethiopia in 2015. The funds will be received against the 2015 HAC appeal for Ethiopia. The grant must be coded as follows: HAC-2015-Ethiopia;HR-15-Ethiopia;Sponsored Programme (Ethiopia - 1410A00000)
2."Top-Ups" on existing emergency grants: For amendments to ongoing agreements against prior year appeals, a new grant must be created to ensure that the 'top-up' funding is recorded against the current i.e. 2015 appeal.
Example: ECHO wishes to provide additional funding againstan existing 2014 grant e.g. SM140001. A new grant must be created against the 2015 appeal in order to ensure that the funds are accepted against a current valid appeal. Note: This might require checking with the donor to ensure that it is OK to receive multiple financial statements for the same agreement.
3. Multi-year grants within the same agreement: If a donor wishes to provide multi-year fundingfor a 1 year appeal that cuts across calendar years, then year 1 and year 2 of the funding will be received against different appeals
Example: DFID release year 1 of funding for the Syria crisis in November 2014 against the 2014 appeal. In November 2015, DFID wishes to release year 2 funding. A new grant must be created against the 2015 appeal for the year 2 funding.
4. SC or SM grant?The framework against which a donor wishes to fund activities is the key factor in determining whether a contribution should be recorded as a development grant (SC) or an emergency grant (SM). It is important that the donor relations officer (i) confirm to the donor under which authorizing document the proposed activities take place, (ii) explain any reporting implication if any.
Example 1: The development arm of a donor i.e. DEVCO or USAID wishes to provide funding for the achievement of emergency results for Syrian Refugees. The donor relations officer must inform the donor that the emergency activities for Syrian Refugees are under the Syrian Refugees appeal and not the regular country programme. The purpose for which the funding will be used determines whether it will be recorded as an SC or SM grant. If the activities are included in the humanitarian appeal, then thehumanitarian appeal is used as the authorizing document and an SM grant is created. .
Note: SC by their nature are recorded only against regular programmes and therefore cannot also berecorded against humanitarian appeals
5. Sub-regional appeal:Coding for the two sub-regional appeals i.e. Syria Refugees and Ebola is fairly straightforward.
Example:A contribution in 2015 received for the Ebola crisis operations in Guinea must be coded as follows: HAC-14-Ebola;HR-14-Liberia Ebola; Sponsored Programme (Liberia - 2550A00000)
Note that the current 2014 Ebola codes are still valid since the appeal runs through June 30 2015.
This will allow us not only to track humanitarian funding for the Ebola crisis (as an aggregate) but also for the specific countries under the sub-regional chapter.
6. Regional Chapters: Each regional chapter in the 2015 HAC appeal includes references to emergency-related activities in specific countries. In some cases the donor will specify the countries within the regional chapter that will receive the funds, whilst in other cases the donor does not specify the intended recipient but leaves it to the regional office to do so. Below describes the coding methodology for each case.
(i) Donor specifies region only i.e. donor provides funding for emergency response in the East Asia and Pacific region. Coding must be selected as follows: HAC-15-EAPR; HR-HR-15-EAPRO Thailand; Sponsored programme (420RA00000)
(ii) Donor specifies region and country i.e. donor provides funding for emergencyresponse in China. Coding must be selected as follows: HAC-15-EAPR; HR-15-CHINA; Sponsored programme (0860A00000)
7. Countries with no humanitarian appeal:In rare cases, funding may be received for a country that has no current humanitarian appeal. In such cases the funds must be accepted against the respective regional chapter.
Note: For new ORE agreements and amendments for additional funds received between 15 December 2014 and 31 December 2014 that have a start date in 2014, kindly create SM14XXXX grants since you will still be booking 2014 revenue against 2014 agreements. Please make sure you use the relevant HAC 2015 appeal code when creating the SM14XXXX grants.
For grants with a start date in 2015 kindly create SM15YYYY grants as normal and use the HAC 2015 appeal code.
Addendum:
26 January 2015
- One agreement/multiple recipients
For sub-regional/regional agreements that have only one recipient i.e. donor provides funding for Lebanon under the Syria refugees appeal, the coding is straightforward - HAC-15-Syria Refugees/HR-15-Lebanon.
However, sometimes an agreement specifies multiple recipients for a sub-regional/regional appeal i.e. donor provides funding for Syria Refugees for Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. The current practice is to create 3 grants because there are 3 different HR codes (1 for each country). Based on feedback, we are amending this guidance as follows:
- If the donor requires one financial statement1 and also for better management of donor reports, one grant may be created as follows:
Emergency Response Code: HAC-15-Syria Refugees
HR Code: HR-15-Lebanon (select one HR code for any of the recipient countries – any one of the 3 is fine)
Sponsored Prorgamme: Lebanon AND Jordan AND Egypt (It is very important to include the sponsored programme for all three countries in the dimensions tab in SAP as this is the only way we can capture the data for all recipients)
Donor relations officers must ensure that they let DFAM Contributions Unit know if the donor require one financial statement.
If you have any questions regarding this guidance note please contact Rekiya Adamu-Atta () in the PPD Humanitarian Unit.
Annex 1:
1.Current list of 2015 HAC/HR codes (attached)
PPD Humanitarian unit / 1