Humanitarian Response Index

Humanitarian Response Index

Author	DARA (international organization)
Language	English
Publisher	DARA (international organization)
Published	2007 – 2011
Media type	Print (paperback)

The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) is an independent civil society initiative to annually assess and rank wealthy countries against their commitment to improve the quality and effectiveness of their humanitarian assistance. Developed by DARA (international organization), the HRI's intended purpose is to assist the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) donor governments ensure that their humanitarian assistance has the greatest impact on beneficiaries. The HRI's aim is to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid, and promote greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government donors. The first edition was published in 2007, followed by subsequent editions in 2008, 2009,, 2010 and 2011.

Context

As the principal providers of humanitarian assistance, the OECD/DAC donor governments agreed to a set of Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) Principles, according to the Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative started in 2003.

Objectives

DARA created the HRI to complement other initiatives in the sector. The main aims of the HRI are to contribute to ongoing efforts to improve the quality of humanitarian aid and ensure that it is used to assist those most in need in the most effective way possible, and with the greatest possible impact.

Specifically, the HRI objectives are:

• To measure and benchmark the quality and effectiveness of donor governments’ humanitarian assistance
• To contribute to greater transparency and accountability in donors’ policies and practices
• To support a better contextual understanding of the policy and operational barriers that affect effective implementation of good donor practice in humanitarian action
• To promote informed public debate and decision-making on humanitarian issues

Methodology

To develop the donor rankings, DARA compiles data from different sources, including donors, the OECD, the World Bank and UN agencies. DARA teams also conduct field research on the ground in countries that experience crises in the year of study. Interviews are undertaken with representatives of humanitarian organizations operating in these countries. This quantitative and qualitative information is combined, and the performance of each donor country according to 35 indicators that aim to capture the essence of the GHD Principles. These indicators are grouped into five pillars of good practice to measure the quality, effectiveness and impact of humanitarian action – (i) Responding to needs; (ii) Prevention, risk reduction and recovery; (iii) Working with humanitarian partners; (iv) Protection and international law; and (v) Learning and accountability.

Field missions have been conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Georgia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Niger, occupied Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Humanitarian Response Index 2011: Addressing the Gender Challenge

The HRI 2011 addresses the challenge of incorporating gender more effectively into programming, and the role donors can play to better incorporate those issues. Its data analyzed the way in which donor governments address gender in their policies and funding, and provide field actors’ perspectives of donor commitment to gender. The HRI 2011 included the work of the IASC Sub-Working Group on Gender in Humanitarian Action, a study by Tufts University on the importance of sex and age disaggregated data, and evaluations sponsored by UN Women, UNICEF and OCHA on gender outcomes in responses to different crises.

The HRI 2011 analyzed 9 crisis areas: Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan. It also ranked and analyzed 23 OECD-DAC nations.

Overall OECD/DAC Donor Rankings

Overall OECD/DAC Donor Rank in 2010

DONOR	#
Denmark	1
Ireland	2
New Zealand	3
Norway	4
Sweden	5
European Commission	6
Switzerland	7
United Kingdom	8
Netherlands	9
Luxembourg	10
Finland	11
Canada	12
Australia	13
Germany	14
France	15
Japan	16
Spain	17
Belgium	18
United States	19
Italy	20
Portugal	21
Greece	22
Austria	23

Overall OECD/DAC Donor Rank in 2009

DONOR	#
Norway	1
Sweden	2
Ireland	3
Denmark	4
European Commission	5
Netherlands	6
Luxembourg	7
Switzerland	8
United Kingdom	9
Australia	10
New Zealand	11
Finland	12
Canada	13
United States	14
Spain	15
Germany	16
Belgium	17
Austria	18
Japan	19
France	20
Italy	21
Greece	22
Portugal	23

Overall OECD/DAC Donor Rank in 2008

DONOR	#
Sweden	1
Norway	2
Denmark	3
Ireland	4
European Commission	5
Netherlands	6
Luxembourg	7
United Kingdom	8
Switzerland	9
Canada	10
Australia	11
Finland	12
New Zealand	13
Belgium	14
United States	15
Spain	16
Germany	17
Japan	18
Italy	19
France	20
Austria	21
Portugal	22
Greece	23

Related Documents

• Humanitarian Response Index 2010: The problems of politicisation
• Humanitarian Response Index 2009: Whose crisis? Clarifying Donor´s priorities
• Humanitarian Response Index 2008: Donor accountability in humanitarian action
• Humanitarian Response Index 2007

External links

• Humanitarian Response Index
• DARA
• Good Humanitarian Donorship
• OECD