Ground Truth Solutions’ Post

Exciting leadership update! We are beyond thrilled to announce that Sophie Tholstrup has joined our leadership team as Director of Policy and Climate. Sophie's passion for people-centred systems that just *make sense* has been honed over many years of driving positive reform, having spent the last 15 years in policy leadership roles with donors, UN, the CALP network and the Tony Blair Institute. She's spent the last couple of years helping organisations navigate humanitarian response in the climate crisis, with clients including GiveDirectly, ODI, IFRC, the UN Climate Crisis Coordinator's Office, and the Ukraine Humanitarian Country Team.   Sophie will be working with a huge network of allies to give our policy and climate work a push as we enter our next phase. Don't be fooled by this very mindful, very demure image - we're ready to roll up our sleeves.

What do people in Gaza want you to know?      In July, we spoke with over 1,200 people in Gaza.      Many feel forgotten by the world, seeing the international community as a silent witness to their suffering. For them, relief and recovery is inseparable from justice and accountability.     Amid unimaginable grief and loss, they ask for one thing: to be seen — not as victims or heroes, but as human beings with rights.     Watch the video & read the full report. 🔗tinyurl.com/9k29e58u   In 🤝 with Arab World for Research & Development - AWRAD. 

Must read: New report from Gaza. “We do not want aid from the world. We want to stop the war.” In Gaza, the delivery of humanitarian assistance is still an uphill battle. With Arab World for Research & Development - AWRAD, we have been engaging with people in Gaza since last November to understand their priorities and allow them to simply share what they want to share while living through the war. This second report brings urgent insight from more than a thousand people in Gaza. It is a must-read for humanitarian responders, policymakers, advocates, and funders. Here’s what people told us: 🔴 People in Gaza want to remind us all that they are human. Not victims, not superheroes. Many feel dehumanised and abandoned by the international community. 🔴 10 months into the war, survival is a daily battle. People are exhausted, constantly on the move, and gripped with fear. Half of those we spoke with have now been forced to move four times or more. 🔴 People desperately need food and clean water. Every person we spoke to said these are top priorities, and many repeated the plea for food and water at the end of interviews. 🔴 Communities are banding together, but mutual aid is reaching its limits as resources dwindle. One in four people we spoke to said they had been forced to send children to work. 🔴 Almost everyone is now reliant on aid, but its distribution is considered unsafe and unfair. People say that corruption and favouritism are rampant. 🔴 Access to financial resources is crumbling as exorbitant market prices are draining people’s remaining savings.   Read the full report and help us spread the word by sharing it 🔗tinyurl.com/9k29e58u Thank you to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy for making this work possible.

Last week, the GTS team returned to the Central African Republic, supported by UNICEF, to facilitate workshops with partners from various clusters. We tackled the challenges for more meaningful community engagement in the design, implementation, and evaluation of humanitarian activities and identified priority actions. Workshop participants developed minimum accountability standards tailored to the #CAR context.   Curious to learn more about our work in CAR? 🔗 tinyurl.com/bde2z693

📢 New report: ‘I can’t even imagine it’  Community perceptions of sexual exploitation and abuse.    In Ukraine, most people find it hard to believe that humanitarian workers could be involved in sexual exploitation and abuse. Identifying potential victims is a challenge, as many believe no one is vulnerable to such risks.    💡 Despite these perceptions, proper safeguarding measures must be in place to protect people. Community suggestions include more on-site supervision at distribution sites and having more women in field teams.     💡 People also believe that the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse starts from within organisations. They urge organisations to strengthen recruitment policies and foster a culture that prevents misconduct among humanitarian workers.    Want to learn more about people’s perceptions of sexual exploitation and abuse in #Ukraine? Read the full report in English🔗tinyurl.com/7ada25yv or Ukrainian🔗tinyurl.com/mupv4t7j   In 🤝 with International Rescue Committee, World Vision, NGO Girls and Fama - Custom Research Agency.

Don't miss out! Tomorrow, we will join our partner, Fact Foundation, discussing our latest report on community perceptions of cash assistance and resilience in northeast Nigeria. Thank you, CALP Network, for hosting us. 📝 Register now: tinyurl.com/5yyu9hwp

📢 What did we get up to in 2023?   🌍 We spoke to people affected by crises in #Afghanistan, #Bangladesh, #BurkinaFaso, #CentralAfricanRepublic, #Chad, #DemocraticRepublicofCongo, #Moldova, #Nigeria, #NorthwestSyria, #Palestine, #Poland, #Romania, #Somalia, #Türkiye and #Ukraine. The year was a whirlwind of inspiration for GTS! We built amazing partnerships that challenged our status quo. Our data echoed from Geneva rooftops and fueled advocacy for change behind closed doors in Bangladesh. But it also brought moments of frustration, self-criticism, and deep reflection. Our research remained critical, but dialogue occupied most of our time. We introduced work that spotlighted community decision-making, mutual aid, and self-reliance, trying to slowly turn the humanitarian hero narrative on its head. We seized chances to support local communities to define and shape their own accountability paths. In some ways, our work just keeps getting harder – so much more community influence and dialogue is needed, the system is becoming more and more tightly controlled, there’s less money and more pressure than ever from some corners for aid to ‘get back to basics’. But the challenges keep us fired up to do better.   Read more about our work last year in our 2023 annual report 🔗 tinyurl.com/5fn47c7x