News: 19 February 2021
TFV Publishes Its Management Brief Q4 2020 (October – December)
The Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is pleased to announce the publication of the quarterly TFV Management Brief Q4 2020 from the TFV Secretariat to the Board of Directors, covering activities and milestones from October to December last year. The French version of this document will be available soon.
During the reporting period, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect field based activities, impacting the lives of beneficiary communities as well as the operations of TFV staff and implementing partners. Conflict and insecurity further affect operations, particularly in the Central African Republic, Mali, and in the DRC.
In reparations, victim identification and verification activities have had to adapt to public health and security conditions, in consultation with legal representatives. In Lubanga, a major contract with a consortium concerning the implementation of collective service based awards is in the final negotiation stage; the selection of the implementing partner for symbolic awards is ongoing through a competitive bidding procedure. In Al Mahdi, the four selected implementing partners, including UNESCO, are scheduled to start activities from January onwards. The Trust Fund continued to participate in pre-order reparations proceedings in Ntaganda.
In assistance, programmes are firmly in place in Uganda, DRC, Central African Republic and Côte d’Ivoire. New programmes have been decided for Georgia, Kenya and Mali.
By 31 December 2020, the TFV concluded a total of 16 contracts with implementing partners to run projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (10), Central African Republic (1), Côte d’Ivoire (3) and in Mali (2). It launched its assistance programmes in DRC and Côte d’Ivoire and the pilot programme in the Central African Republic. The total number of TFV projects, including the 5 projects in Uganda, by 31 December 2020 was 21. An additional 8 contracts, concerning activities in Mali (2), the DRC (1) and the Central African Republic (5), were brought to the final stage of contract negotiation by December 2020 and are pending signatures.
During the reporting period, the TFV Board of Directors held 8 remote sessions. Based on a preliminary assessment prepared by the Secretariat, the Board engaged on an initial discussion of the report of the independent expert review (IER), issuing a statement on 13 October. The Board issued decisions on the launch of new assistance programmes in Georgia, Kenya and Mali. The Board also decided on the use of the Incidental Programme Cost (IPC) provision of the Fund’s extra-budgetary resources, including in relation to fundraising and visibility, monitoring and independent evaluations, centralised audit of implementing partners and support to new programmes.
By the end of the reporting period, the Trust Fund’s active investment portfolio – contracted activities – had a value of Euro 4,290,6641, against total available resources of over Euro 19.5 million. The complete (with 29 projects), multi-annual investment portfolio of the Trust Fund for Victims is valued at over Euro 46 million.
Notwithstanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly affecting travel, the implementation rate of the Trust Fund’s Secretariat’s regular budget, funded from assessed contributions, reached 92.1% in 2020.
In resource development, the Trust Fund recorded a significant volume of revenue from voluntary contributions in the reporting period, to a total of Euro 2.5 million. In total, the TFV has received from 26 States Parties voluntary contributions of close to €2,8 million in 2020 (an increase of over €65,000 compared to 2019), and private donations (€14,527) from individuals and institutions.
Board members, management and staff of the Trust Fund actively participated in the Assembly of States Parties in December 2020, which also featured three well-attended side events on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, the late Board Chair Dr Felipe Michelini and on the status and outlook of the Trust Fund for Victims. A major surge in social media presence and output, especially via Twitter, combined with a revision of the TFV’s website (in process of finalization), contributed to a significantly increased visibility of the TFV in the public domain.
The TFV has also previously published the Management Brief of Q3 2020 (July – September), which can be accessed here.
For more information about the Trust Fund for Victims, please contact: trustfundforvictims@icc-cpi.int or visit: www.trustfundforvictims.org