Humanitarian Financing

The provision of adequate, flexible, timely and predictable funding remains central to the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) agenda.

Over the past two years, the GHD initiative has provided a forum for discussing new financing instruments, and more recently for trying to identify practical strategies to support needs-based resource allocation.

Planning for the future of humanitarian financing: GHD and IASC debate

On 20th July 2007, the GHD group met with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and members of the wider humanitarian community to discuss the future of humanitarian financing. There was agreement that ways need to be found to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of humanitarian financing, and to improve the overall coherence of different approaches. It was agreed that the GHD group and the IASC would continue to work individually and together to identify ways forward. For more information please follow this link.

Practical strategies to promote needs-based resource allocation

Promoting practical strategies to needs based resource allocation was a key element of the GHD agenda in 2006-07. An initial discussion on this issue at the 2006 GHD meeting identified a range of activities which the group would undertake. Many of these ideas drew upon a background paper commissioned by Ireland on the topic.

Earmarking and Visibility in Humanitarian Assistance

A key assumption underpinning debates around donorship has been that reduced earmarking leads to more efficient and effective aid. While intuitively right this assumption has not been fully tested. With reduced earmarking comes reduced visibility, which can be a problem for donors. This report prepared by Development Initiatives explores these issues.

New Financing Tools

In recent years there has been a wave of innovation in creating new financing instruments for humanitarian action. GHD has provided a key platform for inter donor discussion on these issues. These new financing tools ensure a rapid and coordinated response in the initial phase of emergencies, provide a central pot to support humanitarian action in a particular country and allow Humanitarian Coordinators access to finance to fill gaps in funding.

UN-NGO partnerships

• NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project: Key Messages on Humanitarian reform and funding
• Enhancing UN-NGO humanitarian financing partnerships to contribute to effective humanitarian response

Last updated: 15 July 2009

Back to top