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Published on 28 November 2011

The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2011 by Development Initiatives presents the very latest data on financial flows to humanitarian crises.

Chapters on the provenance, destination and journey of humanitarian funding, the forces which shape humanitarian assistance, and looking beyond humanitarian assistance to put it in the context of other resource flows, reveal the complexity of humanitarian response.

International governments have spent US$90 billion on humanitarian response over the past ten years, much of it in the same countries and going to the same people. What outcomes should we expect?

A reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the data is that more attention should be given to the range of results to which humanitarian assistance can, and should, contribute; these results include long-term and systemic issues, contributions to increased resilience and poverty reduction, reduced risks and protection of development gains.

In a world where humanitarian aid is being called upon to respond to multiple coexisting challenges, it is essential that decision makers have a transparent view of all funding flows and resources allocated. It is only in this way that we can determine whether the right choices are being made.