What does the humanitarian system look like today?

[This article was updated on 3 February 2016]

Released in London on 1 October 2015, the third State of the Humanitarian System (SOHS) is available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. 

The report is the result of a comprehensive effort that included the analysis of over 350 evaluation documents, 340 interviews, surveys of 1,271 aid practitioners and of 1,181 aid recipients as well as four in-depth case studies of humanitarian responses during 2012-2014.

“Despite being larger than ever before, with many billions of US dollars and hundreds of thousands of sector workers, the system is still struggling to meet this increased volume of global humanitarian needs,” the authors of the report say.

A “sobering assessment,” the report “unpacks the different functions of the humanitarian system and evaluates its performance in each of them. Overall, it notes a decline in the system’s sufficiency/coverage and mixed or no progress on the other key evaluative criteria. It also acknowledges new calls for more far-reaching reform and looks at some of the options being explored to help create a system more fit for its purpose”.

The State of the Humanitarian System report 2015 edition was commissioned by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) and authored by Humanitarian Outcomes.

In addition to the major London launch, a series of smaller events to present the report are taking place in Geneva, Nairobi and Paris among other cities to be confirmed. In Geneva, the launch will take place at the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) on 7 October (9:30-11:00).