Standby Partnership Network

What is a Standby Partner?

The Standby Partnership Programme mechanism (SBP mechanism) provides surge capacity support to UN Agencies responding to humanitarian emergencies through the secondment of gratis/in-kind “experts on mission” by external partner organisations. The SBP mechanism functions through a series of bilateral agreements between participating UN Agencies, UNOCHA and a number of surge providers (Standby Partners) that are composed of a diverse group of NGOs, donors, private sectors, foundations and government agencies.

​

The SBP mechanism began during the first Iraq war in 1991, when the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and MSB Sweden responded to a request for surge personnel from UNHCR.

​

Over the last 29 years since, the SBP mechanism has expanded considerably by gaining new participating UN Agencies, UNOCHA and Standby Partners that covers over 400 expert profiles. Currently, there are 15 participating UN Agencies, along with 54 Standby Partners that share a Memorandum of Understanding. In 2019 alone, the Standby Partners contributed to 657 deployments to 79 countries in response to over 1000 requests from 13 UN Agencies providing a value in excess of US$60 million dollars.

Standby Partnership Matrix