How much is spent on humanitarian assistance? Is it enough? Where does it go? How does it get there and what is it spent on? Knowing who is spending what, where, and how is an essential first step in ensuring that resources can best meet the needs of people living in crises – yet this information is often hard to access.
To answer these questions, the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2014 uses unique methodologies to gather and analyse data to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive picture of global humanitarian financing. We have produced this report annually since 2000, to provide a shared and independent evidence base for anyone engaged in providing, using and understanding assistance in crisis settings.
The report looks back on an extraordinary year – in terms of both the scale of high-level crises and in the levels of response – and sets it in the context of trends in humanitarian assistance. 2013 was marked by high-profile crises in Syria, the Philippines and the Central African Republic, as well as high levels of need both on and off the international radar including in South Sudan, Yemen and the Sahel.
You can find a summary of our key findings on page 3 of the report and also download the summary infographic. These include:
- The level of international humanitarian response rose to a record US$22 billion in 2013. Government donors accounted for three quarters of this, contributing US$16.4 billion – a rise of 24% from 2012. Private sources provided an estimated US$5.6 billion – a 35% increase from 2012)
- Despite this, over a third of estimated humanitarian needs went unmet: UN-coordinated appeals targeted 78 million people for assistance in 2013 and called for US$13.2 billion in funding. 65% of this funding appeal was met
- 78% of humanitarian spending from OECD DAC donors went to protracted emergencies in long- and medium-term recipient countries. Most long-term assistance is also spent in countries with high levels of poverty and low levels of government spending.
As well as more detail on this and other core analyses, this year’s report also introduces new sections on critical areas including:
- The timeliness and duration of funding – examining the data on both the speed of response to new or escalating crises as well as funding to protracted crises
- Detail on the resources, humanitarian and beyond, that touch the lives of crisis-affected people –including development assistance, government revenues and remittances
- The need for better data, both on resources and the impact of crises on different groups of people.
We are always pleased to hear from you, so do share with us your feedback and ideas for how we can get better data or make it more useful. You can also join the discussion on twitter #2014 GHA and @GHA_org.
INTERACTIVE FEATURES
The GHA Report 2014 includes interactive features to help you navigate the report and access further information to use and share. We recommend that you view this document as a PDF rather than in a web browser, to allow you to keep your place in the document after viewing charts/infographics on the website.
Navigating the report
- Contents – go straight to any chapter or section from the contents list
- Home – go back to the contents list from any page by clicking the home icon
- See more – go straight to recommended pages by clicking links (eg ‘See Chapter 9) shown in different coloured text
- Bookmarks – open the bookmarks pane in your PDF viewer to enable easy browsing via a static contents list
Further information
- Notes – open notes boxes by positioning your cursor over the coloured circles in the text (notes are also listed from page 135)
- External links* – click web addresses to go straight to the websites
- Download charts and data* – go to the chart page on the GHA website by clicking the download icon
*Note you need to be connected to the internet to use these online features.
DOWNLOADS
You can download chapter-by-chapter data and PDFs, charts, infographics and ‘In focus’ sections
- Executive summary text and infographic – PDF
- Executive summary in French – PDF
- Executive summary in Arabic – PDF
- Chapter 1 – Who was affected? Data PDF
- Chapter 2 – How much was given and was it enough? Data PDF
- Chapter 3 – Where does it come from? Data PDF
- Chapter 4 – Where does it go? Data PDF
- Chapter 5 – How does it get there? Data PDF
- Chapter 6 – What is it spent on? Data PDF
- Chapter 7 – How quickly and for how long? Data PDF
- Chapter 8 – What other resources are important? Data PDF
- Chapter 9 – Better information for better response PDF
- Chapter 10 – Data & guides Data PDF
You can view and download individual infographics and charts in our tools section
In focus sections highlight areas of particular interest:
