Posted on 12 November 2020
The CID Collaboration Award is a new award introduced at the CID Annual Conference 2019. The award recognises and celebrates the importance of effective relationships and collaborative thinking within and across the sector to tackle difficult development challenges and global issues.
We accepted submissions from CID Members and Associate Members that successfully worked together on projects with a mix of organisations and individuals – for example, local entrepreneurs, governments, funders, private sector, consultants, academics or researchers.
Covid-19 and its impact has made this year especially challenging for people around the globe, including those working in the development sector and those who are impacted by the work we do.
This years, the Collaboration Award went to the organisations involved in the advocacy project "New Zealand Aid Agencies Call for Global Action on Pandemic", including Care, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, CWS, Council for International Development, Engineers Without Borders, Fairtrade Australia New Zealand, Family Planning New Zealand, Hagar New Zealand, Rotary World Service New Zealand, Oxfam New Zealand, Tearfund, Transparency International New Zealand, UnionAid, and World Vision.
The Collaboration Award was accepted by Jo Spratt, CEO of Oxfam, on behalf of these organisations at the CID AGM and Annual Dinner.
Project Summary:
As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world the desperate needs of people living in crisis situations quickly became apparent. The UN launched a funding appeal, including for a humanitarian response. We believed New Zealand had a responsibility to contribute funding to help people in crisis situations but it became apparent that the New Zealand government was not planning to do so. In response to this apparent inaction, we launched an Open Letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs asking for: NZ$25 million in new humanitarian funding to go to people already living in crisis situations, advocacy to cancel debt, and protection of the existing aid budget (the last two asks reflecting the recognition that development needs would also escalate with the pandemic). This Open Letter was complemented by over 200 individual emails to these Ministers from Oxfam supporters. The target was the 2020 Budget. The Open Letter was announced in a press release, gaining significant media attention. While no new funding was announced in the 2020 Budget on 11 May, aid was not cut (in fact, it was increased by $50 million). A week later it was announced that New Zealand would contribute NZ$7 million to the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (here). We followed-up with a congratulatory press release on the 20 May, signalling the end of this piece of work.