SWAN (Save the Children, World Vision, Action Against Hunger, Norwegian Refugee Council): Provision of Essential Humanitarian Supplies of Health, WASH and ESNFIs Through Timely and Cost-Effective Procurement and Response Mechanism The proposed project will be led by Save the Children as part of a consortium with World Vision, Norwegian Refugee Council and Action Against Hunger (hereafter referred to as SWAN). The overall objective of the project is to contribute towards saving lives, reducing suffering and increasing human dignity for people affected by displacement in Ethiopia.
The consortium approach was pursued to facilitate a coordinated joint response, minimize beneficiary overlaps, standardize assistance packages and to reach affected populations at scale in targeted hot spot locations and future humanitarian crises. SWAN members are currently and have been working with one another for many years in different settings. With their history of collaboration, their combined strength and experience ensure strong capacity to deliver large-scale humanitarian response through NFI provision and cash programming. The long-established presence of the members throughout the country with 100+ offices (see Annex5-8: Operational Presence Map) certifies expertise and understanding of the local context, strong relationships with local government bodies and high community acceptability. In turn, this also guarantees effective coverage of needs, enhanced coordination between organizations and less transaction costs for the requested fund. Each of these agencies has highly trained staff and expertise which will be an added value for effective implementation of the project (see Annex 5 - – Capacity Statements).
The proposed project is a one-year intervention pilot and will provide immediate response and pre-position for ES/NFI (39% of total allocation) WASH (33%) and Health (28%) supplies, both through in-kind and cash modalities allocations per sector were based on Cluster guidance and current needs as deemed by SWAN. Immediate response will target priority locations in Benishangul, Wellegas, Dawa and Borena, of which SWAN members already have an existing presence. Pre-positioning will be available for further scale-up in those locations, as well as the ability to respond to displacement crises in any part of the country. 
SWAN’s design addresses a currently reactive and inadequate humanitarian supply pipeline management through the following approach and principles based on effectiveness and efficiency:
- Consortium members were selected based on comprehensive national coverage and current presence in priority locations (assigned organizational lead in each hot spot)
- Sector leads have been assigned from SWAN (SCI-Health, WV-WASH, NRC-ES/NFI) to ensure expertise is applied, including procurement experience/leveraging existing FWAs with preferred suppliers and adequate quality Supply Chain controls. (AAH will focus primarily on distribution as an additional sector lead was not needed and they are operating in distinct locations.) 
- Inclusion of strategic partners to enhance both procurement and distribution capacity:
1. Local Ethiopian Red Cross (ERC) for additional manpower across the country (47K+ volunteers, and AA and regional emergency response experts) and warehousing capacity and
2. UNOPS to decrease international procurement lead times and enhance overall logistical support. 
- Approach to roles and responsibilities (related to procurement, warehousing, transport/distribution, monitoring) and minimizing transfer of funds ensure maximum Value for Money and that more beneficiaries are reached
- SWAN Rapid Response Team will ensure an assessment team – composed of experts from SWAN – is always on standby to start collection of multisector data within a maximum of a week. 
- SWAN’s operational manual is in development but will ensure rapid decision-making among consortium members, so that information and issues are escalated to the Cluster in real time
Finally, support from relevant government Ministries, in particular the MoH and NDRMC have been assured to ease delivery and more importantly, to ensure government alignment and future sustainabilit