A new four-point plan to reform humanitarian aid
- October 8, 2021
- Posted by: Innovative Aid Strategy & Consulting
- Categories: Humanitarian, Innovation
From The New Humanitarian, published on 29 September 2021
View Original
‘The time is now for international actors to have a bit of rethink as to what their role should be.’
To meaningfully change the humanitarian sector, reforms must challenge its underlying architecture, the Center for Global Development argues in a new report that offers four ways that aid can better respond to the needs of people affected by crises.
The report, which summarises three years of research by the Washington, DC-based think tank, proposes changes to the way aid agencies are held accountable, coordinated, financed, and governed.
The case for an upgraded humanitarian system is by now all too familiar: needs are at an all-time high, humanitarian funding is not at pace with the rising humanitarian need, the system struggles to keep up with the demands. At the same time, the lack of meaningful inclusion with people on the receiving end of aid threatens its legitimacy and relevance.
Technocratic fixes that have characterised past humanitarian reforms have done little to change aid’s underlying structure or power dynamics, stubbornly leaving the system looking much the same as it always has – a supply-driven model that struggles to be truly accountable to the people it intends to support.
CGD suggests the humanitarian system move forward in four ways: reorienting to be more accountable to people it aims to serve; changing the current silo-ed and supply-driven coordination model to one that is geographically organised; making the financing flows more predictable and with fewer intermediaries; and promoting a governance structure that is truly representative of the places where humanitarians operate.
At an event last week summarising the recommendations, moderated by The New Humanitarian, CGD Senior Policy Fellow Patrick Saez acknowledged that the solutions presented are not “entirely new”.
However, by concretely tackling the flawed architecture and perverse incentives in the aid system, they go further than other calls for change. Here are the main takeaways of the new CGD proposal, with reactions from participants at the launch.
For more, watch the full event or listen to our podcast episode.
For more information, please visit https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/