Can the international aid system change?

aid worker south sudan

One year on, World Humanitarian Summit scorecards are due

16 June 2017

It’s report card time. The coming days will see a flurry of publications and announcements as the humanitarian community takes stock of commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit last May and assesses reforms. The diary includes a formal UN...

Analysis

Aid reform: Sticking points to localisation
27 March 2017
Last year, local aid agencies were promised a lot more cash. They’re still waiting. Why?
Analysis

The "New Way of Working": Bridging aid's funding divide
9 June 2017
Can humanitarian and development plans merge?
Analysis

Hunting for the Grand Bargain
22 March 2017
More than 40 donors and aid agencies have committed to fixing the aid system. But can they avoid getting bogged down by the details?
Interview

Will US aid change?
30 May 2016
A frank assessment from the world's largest humanitarian donor on everything from cash programming and the limits of ‘localisation’ to Obama's WHS no-show.
Opinion

Towards a blueprint for responding to urban displacement
14 April 2017
Following some basic principles can help guide humanitarians as they try to assist displaced people living in cities
Opinion

The trouble with localisation
8 August 2016
Does more cash for local NGOs have to mean nothing else has to change in humanitarian funding?
Interview

Q&A with Peter Maurer: Respect the rules of war or pay the price
27 May 2016
The World Humanitarian Summit failed to make real progress on respecting the rules of war, but the ICRC president is optimistic that the cost of...
Analysis

The World Humanitarian Summit: winners and losers
26 May 2016
Not sure what to take away from this week’s unwieldy World Humanitarian Summit? Here’s our summary of what was – and wasn’t – agreed.
Interview

The World Humanitarian Summit - in a few words
25 May 2016
How to describe the World Humanitarian Summit? Here's the verdict of some of the participants – in a single word.
Feature

Sweating the small stuff at the World Humanitarian Summit
24 May 2016
How about the small NGOs and private companies displaying their wares. What do they make of #ReShapeAid?
Analysis

Is the Grand Bargain a Big Deal?
24 May 2016
The “Grand Bargain” is the name for a package of reforms to humanitarian funding, launched at the World Humanitarian Summit. Thirty representatives of donors and...
Opinion

The World Humanitarian Summit: Decoded
20 May 2016
Decoding the summit. Here are a few things we’ll be watching out for at the sprawling crisis event of the decade.
Analysis

Shifting to the long term
20 May 2016
Increasingly protracted displacement crises are demanding new, longer-term responses. But can the humanitarian-development divide be bridged?
Opinion

The future: just "the same, except more"?
20 May 2016
Our columnist considers the World Humanitarian Summit and Back to the Future.
Opinion

The well-fed dead
18 May 2016
Syria advisor Jan Egeland makes the case for better protecting civilians.
Opinion

Why more money alone won’t improve crisis response
18 May 2016
European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva makes the case for a newly agreed "Grand Bargain" for aid efficiency.
News

EXCLUSIVE: Russia slams World Humanitarian Summit
10 May 2016
Russia throws a diplomatic bucket of cold water on the UN's upcoming humanitarian summit.
News

HAS VIDEO

EXCLUSIVE: MSF pulls out of World Humanitarian Summit
5 May 2016
The UN expects 6,000 people at a historic humanitarian conference in Istanbul later this month. But one prominent participant has dropped out.
Interview

Q&A with top UN officials
5 August 2015
In 2014, more than $23 billion was spent on crisis response. Yet in places like Syria and eastern Ukraine, the international emergency aid system is...
Opinion

A desert called reform
3 November 2015
'Inspired' by our recent interview with new UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien, IRIN columnist Paul Currion says he has lost faith in the World Humanitarian...
Opinion

The UN Secretary General’s vision for humanitarian reform
11 February 2016
The UN secretary-general is leading a global process to reform the way aid is delivered in crisis zones. IRIN’s Managing Editor Heba Aly reflects on...
Analysis

WHS: What's on - and off - the table
11 February 2016
Pressure is mounting for concrete proposals for aid reform in the lead-up to the first ever World Humanitarian Summit. Which are now rising to the...
Analysis

Aid finance panel urges ‘grand bargain’
18 January 2016
After seven months of research and deliberation, the UN secretary-general’s high-level panel has finally delivered its proposals for reforming humanitarian financing. The ideas are not...
Analysis

Aid reform: Turkeys won’t vote for Christmas
4 August 2015
Aid policy experts are talking about improving delivery and doing things better, finding new financing streams, and, most of all, localising response. But can you...
Analysis

The humanitarian one percent
1 July 2015
Charities and NGOs like to promote transparency and good governance in the countries they work, but how much do we really know about where and...
Maps and Graphics

Humanitarian Buzzword Bingo
13 October 2015
Words matter. In the business of saving lives, they should matter even more. A speaker at a recent aid conference talked about "capacitating actors". The...
Analysis

WHS: Talking shop or game changer?
25 February 2015
The build-up to the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul is gathering pace, but what guarantees are there that anything will actually be accomplished? The...
Opinion

Editor's take: What hope for reform?
5 August 2015
On the northern tip of Sri Lanka, amid the limestone and palmyra groves of Jaffna, lie the graves of New England missionaries – graduates of...
Analysis

Beyond box-ticking
28 July 2015
Aid agencies have no problem agreeing that gender-sensitive programming is a good idea, but few have come up with concrete methods for evaluating the impact...
Interview

System not 'broken': UN aid chief
16 October 2015
With record numbers of people in crisis around the world, the largest push in decades is under way to reform emergency aid, culminating in a...
Analysis

Gloves off between local & intl NGOs
22 October 2015
The debate over humanitarian reform is one of money, principles, and institutional change. But for many organisations involved, these boil down to one thing: power...
Analysis

Spotlight on humanitarian action
9 September 2014
The event itself is still nearly two years away, but already the "pre-summits" are in full swing. Concept notes have been written, regional consultations have...
Analysis

Bright ideas for better aid
17 August 2015
The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) is looking for bold, new ideas for improving the international response to crises. Here are some that caught our ear...
Analysis

The ethics of innovation
16 June 2015
Innovation has been a buzzword in aid for the last five years, but now experts say it is time to move beyond the hype and...
Analysis

What refugees think of aid agencies
5 March 2015
Aid agencies are partial, unaccountable and potentially corrupt, and they fail to meet refugees’ most pressing needs. These are just some of the criticisms emerging...
Analysis

Aid: it's complicated
13 July 2015
The humanitarian and development communities have long been the “frenemies” of international aid. But with a growing strain on resources, is it time to break...
Analysis

Amateur aid: Good intentions have limits
9 September 2015
The Hive Warehouse on the Kingsland Road in east London would normally be empty on a Sunday, but last weekend it was buzzing with activity...
Analysis

It's all about the money
1 July 2015
There are plenty of gripes about the humanitarian system, but most of them boil down to money. According to the UN’s emergency aid coordination body,...
Analysis

How flawed are current aid responses?
15 July 2014
Last week, international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a hard-hitting report Where is everyone? outlining a number of severe shortcomings in the...
Analysis

The new buzzword in aid
9 April 2015
“Urban” may be the new buzzword in humanitarian circles, but aid agencies have been slow to turn it into action. Conflict-ridden urban sprawl is increasingly...
Analysis

Aid's broken record
1 July 2015
A new report analysing the aid response to Cyclone Pam has once again found international agencies guilty of failing to co-ordinate effectively with local and...
Analysis

National NGOs excluded from funding
15 September 2014
With humanitarian aid effectiveness high on the agenda of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit , there is much talk of how to reform humanitarian financing...