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Historically,
donor governments took a hands-off approach
to the financing of humanitarian aid. Aid
departments were typically small, governments
relied on operational partners to deliver
assistance, management was light and monitoring
limited. |
Since the 1990s, this
relationship has changed fundamentally. Donors are
no longer willing to delegate responsibility to
their partners in the UN and Red Cross Movement
to determine the shape of humanitarian operations.
Driven by concerns regarding the accountability
and performance of humanitarian response, and by
the need to ensure a politically coherent and visible
response to major crises, donors are taking a much
more proactive approach to the management of official
humanitarian aid funds. |
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The Humanitarian Policy Group
has completed a major study examining the implications
of the apparent ‘biliateralisation’
of humanitarian response. This study examined how
donors are becoming closer to humanitarian decision-making
and operations.
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The
overall findings of the study are reported
in the following resources: |
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Joanna
Macrae et al.,
Uncertain power: the changing role of official
donors in humanitarian action, HPG Report
12, December 2002
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Joanna
Macrae, The
changing role of official donors in
humanitarian action: a review of trends
and issues, HPG Briefing Paper 5,
December 2002 |
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In addition,
more detailed reports and papers are
available on the following issues:
Changes in the
financing of humanitarian assistance
and in the systems that are used to
manage relations with implementing
partners. |
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Tasneem Mowjee
and Joanna Macrae, Accountability
and influence in the European Community
Humanitarian Aid Office, HPG Background
Paper,
December 2002 |
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Abby
Stoddard, The
US and the ‘bilateralisation’
of humanitarian response, HPG Background
Paper, December 2002 |
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Macrae,
Joanna. The 'bilateralisation' of humanitarian
response: trends in the financial, contractual
and managerial environment of official
humanitarian aid. An HPG
commissioned report for UNHCR (pre-publication
edition) |
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Changes
in the role of donors in the coordination
of humanitarian assistance, and in their
policies towards coordination. |
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Nicola
Reindorp and Anna Schmidt, Coordinating
humanitarian action: the changing
role of official donors, HPG Briefing
Paper 7,
December 2002 |
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Chris
Johnson and Jolyon Leslie, Coordination
structures in Afghanistan, HPG Background
Paper, December 2002 |
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The
evolution of the mechanisms by which
donors themselves are held accountable
for their role as humanitarian actors. |
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Sarah
Collinson and Margie Buchanan-Smith,
International humanitarian action
and the accountability of official
donors, HPG Briefing Paper 6,
December 2002 |
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Margie
Buchanan-Smith and Natalie Folster,
Canada’s
international humanitarian assistance
programme: policy oversight mechanisms,
HPG Background Paper, December 2002
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Margie
Buchanan-Smith and Ulrik Sørensen
Rohde, Danida’s
international humanitarian assistance
programme: a case study of accountability
mechanisms,
December 2002 |
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Sarah
Collinson, Donor
accountability in the UK, HPG Background
Paper, December
2002 |
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From bilateralisation to good donorship
The study concludes that donors have an important
and legitimate role to play as humanitarian actors.
However, it also notes that, in contrast to the
development aid sphere, there are no principles
or standards that relate to official humanitarian
donorship. Defining such standards would not only
buttress donors’ own accountability, but would
also provide a framework within which donors could
build best practice and seek to consolidate trust
with their operational partners.
HPG is providing technical support to the Swedish
government and others for an international working
meeting to examine the case
for establishing such standards and for agreeing
mechanisms by which they might be defined and monitored.
The meeting will take place in Autumn 2003, and
HPG is providing technical support to an organising
committee, which includes representatives from
donor
governments and operational agencies. |
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The future of Europe: speculations from a humanitarian
perspective, by Joanna Macrae
An ODI discussion, 8 October 2003
Download the presentation and speaker's notes
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There is a clear trend towards the bilateralisation
of humanitarian aid flows. However, the process
is complex and subtle, and appears to be driven
as much by a desire among donors for greater
visibility as by a quest for enhanced performance
and accountability. |
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is little evidence of donors routinely using
their significant financial leverage to impel
agencies to act in particular ways. However,
more bilateral ways of channelling aid are not
resulting in equitable distribution; funding
patterns reflect donors' domestic and foreign
policy priorities rather than demonstrated humanitarian
need. |
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process of 'bilateralisation' risks reducing
recipient organisations to public service contractors,
rather than independent advocates for the rights
and needs of beneficiaries. |
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| Efforts
to establish donor-led coordination mechanisms
at field level have met with mixed success,
and are not a substitute for other multilateral
coordination mechanisms. |
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donors have made strenuous efforts to enhance
the accountability of their operational partners,
they themselves are weakly accountable for their
decisions, both to domestic constituencies and
to the intended beneficiaries of their aid. |
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Quick downloads |
 Uncertain
Power: The Changing Role of Official Donors in
Humanitarian Action (Full Text) |
| Uncertain
Power: The Changing Role of Official Donors
in Humanitarian Action (Executive
Summary ) |
| The
changing role of official donors in humanitarian
action: a review of trends and issues |
| Donors
and Accountability |
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Joanna Macrae
is Coordinator of the Humanitarian Policy Group.
j.macrae@odi.org.uk
Margie Buchanan-Smith is an independent consultant.
She is a former Research Fellow at HPG.
Sarah Collinson
is an independent consultant. She is a former Research
Fellow at HPG.
Nicola Reindorp is head of Oxfam International's
New York office. She is a former Research Fellow
in HPG.
Anna
B. Schmidt is at the University of California
at Berkeley.
Tasneem Mowjee
is a doctoral student at the London School of Economics
and Political Science.
Abby Stoddard
is a Research Associate at the Centre on International
Cooperation (CIC), New York University. http://www.cic.nyu.edu
Adele Harmer
is a Research Fellow with the Humanitarian Policy
Group. a.harmer@odi.org.uk
Ulrik
Sørensen Rohde
is an independent consultant.
www.tbconsult.dk; tbconsult@tbconsult.dk
Peter
Raynard is
an independent consultant.
peter.raynard@fsnet.co.uk
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