Working Groups
About Working Groups
InterAction facilitates more than 20 working groups, from region-focused to sector-specific, which convene member staff to share information, organize advocacy, and promote ideas.
Civil Society Advocacy and Education
The Civil Society Advocacy and Education Working Group focuses on issues relating to the Foreign Agents Registration Act and other subjects.
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Climate Working Group
The Climate Working Group educates and advocates for climate change funding on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people. Its focus areas include international climate funding, the nexus between climate change and international development, and climate insurance. This group grew out of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) working group as a key area of interest.
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Communications Directors Working Group
Forum for senior-level communications staff to network, brainstorm and collaborate. This group also pulls together common messaging and activities around key development and humanitarian issues and campaigns affecting the InterAction community, including conflict or natural disasters.
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Disability Working Group
The Disability Working Group promotes inclusion of people with disabilities as a human rights issue and a critical component of effective development.
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Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Working Group
The DRR Working Group provides a forum to share practical international experiences and knowledge as well as works to improve coordination and raise risk reduction on the international policy and programming agenda.
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Evaluation and Program Effectiveness Working Group (EPEWG)
EPEWG builds the capacity of our members to measure and demonstrate their effectiveness, and to inform donor policies and practices on monitoring and evaluation. The EPEWG also promotes the exchange of information on tools, best and cutting-edge practices, and member experiences on topics of interest.
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Food Security and Agriculture Working Group
The InterAction Food Security & Agriculture Working Group seeks to support and strengthen U.S. NGOs that are active in advocacy and are implementing of field programs in international agricultural development and global food security. Through information sharing, learning and documentation of effective and cross-sectoral program approaches, the working group assists U.S. NGO staff in strengthening field programs and shaping the policies that guide agricultural development. The working group also maintains a dialogue with the U.S. government and multilateral institutions on strategies, mechanisms and program approaches to effective agricultural development, and focuses on Congressional advocacy to ensure that investments in international agricultural development and global food security are sustained and ideally increased and that U.S. policy on these issues remains strong and inclusive of U.S. NGO goals and expertise.
Join GroupFragility, Conflict, and Violence Working Group
The Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) Working Group is convened to focus on the challenges of development, peacebuilding and security in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. The FCV working group seeks to raise the level of analysis and policy outreach in complex conflict regions around the world. This working group initially grew out of member interest in the SDGs and Agenda 2030 in 2015. In 2017, it gained momentum as member organizations anticipated the de-prioritization of the fragility agenda by the current U.S. Administration coupled with a worrying spike in violent conflict around the world in the past decade.
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From Pledge to Action Working Group
The From Pledge to Action group is the central forum for member organizations to discuss and build consensus around effective approaches to enhance safeguarding and prevent sexual harassment and abuse. Together we seek to strengthen policies, procedures, reporting mechanisms and survivor support systems, share best practices, and build working cultures that allow staff and local communities to thrive.
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G7/G20 Advocacy Alliance
The G7/G20 Advocacy Alliance is a group of over 40 InterAction members and allies who work together to influence the annual G7 and G20 summits. The Alliance meets on an as-needed basis beginning eight to nine months before the summits, to select policy issues to advocate around, based on summit agendas. Recent issues have included anti-corruption and transparency, food security and nutrition, financial inclusion, financial transparency and tax fairness, G7/G20 accountability, jobs and employment, and trade. Alliance members form policy teams who draft short briefs used to advocate with the White House, USAID, Department of the treasury and other agencies. The Alliance has also worked on common messaging for media surrounding the summits.
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Great Lakes Working Group
Meets on an ad hoc basis to discuss operational concerns and to coordinate advocacy efforts. Open to InterAction members only.
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Horn of Africa Working Group
Meets regularly to share information and coordinate advocacy for the Horn of Africa region. Current priorities include humanitarian access, operational constraints and refugee/IDP issues . Open to members only.
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Iraq Working Group
Discusses operational challenges in Iraq and advocates for greater funding for continuing humanitarian needs as the response shifts to early recovery. The working group meets on a monthly basis with regular information sharing. Open to InterAction members only.
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Joint Famines Working Group
This is not an active working group. It only functions as an email list.
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Lake Chad Basin Working Group
Discusses programming needs and operational challenges in the Lake Chad Basin region including Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The group also coordinates advocacy for greater funding and humanitarian access. The working group meets on a monthly basis with regular information sharing.
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Myanmar/Bangladesh Working Group
This is not an active working group. It only functions as an email list.
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Pakistan/Afghanistan Working Group
Meets regularly to share information and to raise awareness about the current humanitarian situation. Open to InterAction members only.
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Public Policy Committee (PPC)
The Public Policy Committee (PPC) is the central working group for InterAction’s coalition-wide public policy work. It provides a venue for member organizations to come together twice a month to share information and to plan and coordinate joint education and advocacy work focused on U.S. government policy-makers in Congress and in the executive branch. The PPC also hosts a wide variety of speakers from the U.S. government, giving InterAction members a chance to share their views and ask questions of government officials in a more private setting. While the PPC focuses a great deal on budget and appropriations work, it is also a forum for information exchange and coordination on the full range of policy issues affecting our members.
Join GroupRefugee Policy Working Group
The InterAction Refugee Policy Working group provides a space for collective follow-up to the 2016 September Summits. The main objective of this group is to contribute to and inform the development of the Global Compact on Refugees-set to be adopted by Member States in 2018- through advocacy and policy recommendations that aim to strengthen refugee assistance and protection within the humanitarian system in the areas of root causes of mass movements, self-reliance, specifically education and livelihoods, climate change and environmental influencers, vulnerable populations, and durable solutions and resettlement.
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Security Working Group
The Security Advisory Group is comprised of personnel whose responsibilities include the safety and security of their staff. This group is open to those is any InterAction member organization who seek to increase their organization’s overall safety and security capacity. The SAG also serves as an information exchange between members on areas of concern ranging from particular countries to development of policies.
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Shelter and Settlements Working Group
Improving the collaboration, capacity and practice of organizations involved in the humanitarian Shelter and Settlements sector. The SSWG members work towards shared advocacy objectives to strengthen organizational capacity, practice and policy impacts. The SSWG serves as a link to the global and field-level efforts with the intent of increasing the contribution and impact of shelter stakeholders in natural disasters and conflicts. This group is open to non-members.
Join GroupSocial Media Working Group
InterAction’s Social Media Working Group is a collaborative space for social media and digital communicators at member organizations. Participants share social media campaign toolkits, news, and best practices. Webinars and networking events provide additional opportunities for members to connect and learn from each other.
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South Sudan/Sudan Working Group
Meets regularly to discuss programming needs in Sudan, South Sudan and the region, access and security issues for operational organizations, the current conflict, and topics dealing with political resolution to violence in the region. Open to InterAction members only.
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Strengthening Partnership Initiative
The mission of InterAction’s Strengthening Partnerships Initiative is to facilitate greater cooperation between the U.S. government and NGO implementing partners to provide for better program design, increased efficiencies, and to engage policymakers and legislators in their efforts to increase the impact of U.S. foreign assistance.
Join GroupSyria Response Working Group
Discusses operational challenges in the Syria region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and advocates for greater funding and humanitarian access. The working group meets on a monthly basis with regular information sharing. Open to InterAction members only.
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Together Project Working Group
The Together Project Working Group addresses common issues facing U.S- based NGOs by strengthening collective capacity, sharing best practices, and developing strategies to combat shrinking civil society space. Structured through five workstreams, InterAction members work collaboratively on topics such as bank de-risking, positive public image, and interfaith connections.
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UNHCR Partnerships Working Group
InterAction’s UNHCR Partnership working group comes together on an ad hoc basis primarily around UNHCR’s governance cycle and specific UNHCR-NGO Partnership Initiatives. This includes the UNHCR Standing Committee and Executive Committee meetings as well as the annual UNHCR-NGO Consultations. Previous workstreams included the UNHCR High Commissioner's Structured Dialogue with IFRC and the NGOs, partnership strengthening in the field, and snapshots of field-level partnership.
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Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Working Group
The WASH Working Group seeks to improve U.S. government policies related to WASH issues in order to increase sustainable access to these basic services in the developing world, improve the integration of WASH across development sectors and prioritize service access to communities most in need. The group also works hard to encourage partnerships among private, public and non-profit donors in the water sector.
Join GroupWest Bank/Gaza Working Group
Meets on an ad hoc basis to discuss operational concerns and to coordinate advocacy efforts. Open to InterAction members only.
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WFP Partnerships Working Group
The WFP Partnerships Working Group seeks to leverage the experience and voice of INGOs working with WFP to improve relations, as well as to promote greater programmatic input of INGOs in WFP strategy and programming. The group meets monthly and includes membership from a range of INGOs.
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Yemen Working Group
Meets regularly to facilitate exchange of information regarding operational challenges and to coordinate advocacy efforts. Main priorities include: raising awareness and profile of the humanitarian crisis, access and security issues. Open to InterAction members only.
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