In the past decade, there have been significant changes in the international humanitarian aid architecture, both in how the system is financed and in the way it is organised to respond to humanitarian crises. Today, there are more actors and more diverse sources of financing than ever before. HPG has played a substantial role in documenting these trends and in informing international responses to them. The work of this cluster (both programmatic and commissioned) focuses on a number of key themes:

          The politics of humanitarian action
          Donor policies and financing
          Aid and security policy coherence
          Institutional change and reform
          Regional and national capacities

In 2006/07, the Group will maintain this focus with ongoing and new research topics. The 2005/6 Monitoring Trends review focuses on the apparent trend towards greater engagement by the commercial sector in humanitarian action, involving both an examination of the growing diversity of for-profit enterprises engaged in service delivery in crisis-affected countries, and the impact on humanitarian financing of increased direct and indirect for-profit support.

We will also continue the strand of research on donor diversity and the growing role of donors such as China, India and the Gulf States in the humanitarian system by examining non-DAC donor practices in operational settings (Diversity in donorship – field lessons). A focus on the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative will be maintained through the dissemination of the 2005/06 project.

Related to these studies on donorship is proposed work on analysing the implementation of various strands of the humanitarian reform agenda in the field, including UN/Inter-Agency Standing Committee-led and donor-led initiatives aimed at improving the timeliness, appropriateness and equity of crisis response (Operational consequences of reform). We also intend to look at the role and capacities of governments in crisis-affected states (the role of affected states in humanitarian action). This will consider the relationship between international and national responses, mapping the capacity of the affected state to respond, and examining the way in which national governmental capacity is factored into the planning of international responses.

Humanitarian actors continue to face difficult challenges related to changes in the security environment in which they work. HPG’s review of trends in the sector, published in March 2006, examines the implications of changes in the role of international military forces in humanitarian crises. Another recent report looks at the challenges facing agencies operating in insecure environments. This work was undertaken in partnership with the Center on International Cooperation at NYU and was published in September 2006.

Current and planned work in 2006/07
	Monitoring trends: privatisation of humanitarian action
	Diversity of donorship
	Operational consequences of humanitarian reform
	The role of the affected states in humanitarian action