Resource mobilization of voluntary funds
In response to the unprecedented financial effects of COVID-19 on global civil aviation, in 2021, ICAO drafted and began to implement the ICAO COVID-19 Resource Mobilization (RM) Strategy. The Strategy’s objectives are to achieve sustainable voluntary contributions and to realize the Organization’s mission by assisting States with the restart and recovery of their civil aviation systems, during and after the pandemic.
The RM Strategy focuses on
Implementation Packages (iPacks), the
Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) and other ICAO programmes, as well as ICAO-wide, coordinated outreach to traditional donors, international financial institutions and multilateral development banks.
The Strategy has been met with signs of success given the strong interest of donors in financing iPacks, which could represent a new and complementary way to assist vulnerable States in reaching the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the ICAO
No Country Left Behind initiative.
Within nine months of the issuance of a State letter marking the beginning of the Strategy’s implementation, donors had already contributed close to CAD 900 000 for the implementation of iPacks, benefiting dozens of States globally and representing close to 10 per cent of the ICAO RM request of CAD 9.7 million put forth in the State letter.
In order to streamline this engagement, in 2021, the Project Review Committee for ICAO Voluntary Funds
(PRC-IVFs) approved a standard operating procedure (SOP) to govern all coordination and allocation of voluntary funds received for iPacks in a transparent and efficient manner, and a high-level annual report for iPacks was designed.
Funding from a multilateral development bank was received for the first time in 2021 through a scalable and sustainable funding mechanism. This was further testament to the Strategy’s success.
Financial and in-kind contributions received from States continued to be instrumental in supporting ICAO through the deployment of gratis personnel, including short- and long-term secondees, and the organization of conferences, events, summits, meetings and workshops.
ICAO continued to enhance tools and structures to support its RM efforts. The Resource Mobilization Network (RMN), which is aimed at strengthening RM capacity within ICAO, was instrumental in collectively coordinating efforts to identify and mature contribution leads. ICAO also further enhanced the Resource Mobilization Platform (RMP) to facilitate joint RM efforts across the Organization, as well as to demonstrate the transparent and efficient financial management of the contributions provided.
