ODI is Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.

Humanitarian Policy Group logoHumanitarian Policy Group

Dedicated to improving humanitarian policy and practice

The Humanitarian Policy Group is one of the world's leading teams of independent researchers and information professionals working on humanitarian issues. It is dedicated to improving humanitarian policy and practice through a combination of high-quality analysis, dialogue and debate. Our research focuses on six key areas, outlined below.

What we work on

Humanitarian principles

 

The humanitarian system

A young boy makes mud bricks in an IDP camp in Kabul, Afghanistan June 2008.	IRIN	© Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

The application of moral, legal and operational principles to the evolving humanitarian agenda.
 

Flags outside the UN Headquarters in New York	Flickr	Noah Bulgaria	http://flickr.com/photos/noahbulgaria/184427400/The architecture, functioning and financing of the international humanitarian aid system.

Livelihoods and food security

 

Transitional programming

Nepali farmer with his two bulls in a paddyfield	Flickr	flickr/32779408@N02	http://www.flickr.com/photos/32779408@N02/Livelihoods in conflict, food security and protracted crisis, including cash transfer programming.

 

Darfuri women and children rest in a school at Sirba town, ransacked during a recent government offensive to retake the area from Darfur rebels, near West Darfur's capital el-Geneina, February 21, 2008.	Reuters	REUTERS/Opheera McDoomThe challenges for policy-making, strategy and operations in crises: the context in which the substantial majority of humanitarian expenditure currently occurs.

Civilian insecurity and protection

 

Displacement, migration and urbanisation

Armed men from the Sudan Liberation Movement Army in Gereida town, south Darfur, Sudan, 24 February 2006.	IRIN	Derk Segaar The roles of military, political, human rights and humanitarian actors in civilian protection and the extent to which these are complementary.

 

Houses in Favela Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro	Flickr	Julio Aguiar	http://flickr.com/photos/julioaguiar/The changing dynamics of displacement with a particular focus on urbanisation, exploring the factors that affect forced migration, such as climate change.