International humanitarian assistance: Donors, channels and recipients
This data tool lets you explore the largest donors of international humanitarian assistance and how they deliver assistance to recipients.
Use the three interactive charts to view and compare how much international humanitarian assistance donor countries give and through which channels, and how this varies between recipient countries.
This tool is useful for those who want to focus on the funding trends of specific donors or recipients over time or make comparisons within the two groups. Read more on how leading donors allocated humanitarian assistance to recipients in this year’s Global Humanitarian Assistance Report.
Who gives international humanitarian assistance?
Government donors are the main source of international humanitarian assistance. Over the past 10 years, the amount given by government donors has increased from US$12.2 billion in 2012 to US$24.9 billion in 2021, and the majority of this (97%) has been provided by the largest 20 donor countries.
However, the volumes given by individual governments have fluctuated over time. In 2021, the three largest donors (the US, Germany and the UK) accounted for 59% of all humanitarian assistance, yet there was a 40% reduction in funding from the UK.
How is this assistance provided?
Government donors provide humanitarian funding in different ways. Most funding is provided as bilateral contributions, with donors broadly or strictly specifying where and what their funding is spent on by implementing organisations, such as UN agencies and international NGOs. Public donors also provide multilateral contributions for humanitarian responses in the form of core funding for multilateral institutions, such as the EU and the UN. This distinction reflects the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s definitions of bilateral and multilateral official development assistance, applied to humanitarian assistance.
Compare volumes of international humanitarian assistance from donors and how it was allocated, 2012–2021
To view this interactive visualisation make sure JavaScript is available on your device.
To view this interactive visualisation use a device with a larger screen.
-
The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View individual donors or compare two donors using the drop-down menu ‘Select donors’
- View the data as volumes, proportions, or %GNI using the drop-down menu ‘Display data as’.
Proportions can be more helpful when comparing donors of different sizes.
Find out more about who provides humanitarian funding, and how much, in chapter three of DI's Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022.
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Service (FTS) and UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) data.
Notes: Years with blanks for volumes or proportions indicate zero funding. Some years are missing estimates of %GNI. Figures for 2021 are preliminary estimates. Data is in constant 2020 prices. EU institutions are shown as a separate donor for comparison but are not included in the calculation of all donors. This is because contributions by EU member states to the EU budget are imputed to their respective international humanitarian assistance. Preliminary 2021 figures for Denmark have only been partially reported to the OECD DAC and will be revised upwards in final reporting at the end of 2022. There is no comprehensive data available on multilateral assistance provided by non-DAC donors; only selected non-DAC donors shown. For more information, visit our online ‘Methodology and definitions’ for the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022.
How is international humanitarian assistance delivered?
Over the last 10 years, international humanitarian assistance from public donors has been delivered in largely the same way. Most of the funding provided bilaterally by public donors is channelled through multilateral organisations such as UN agencies, with a smaller proportion going to NGOs. However, there are some differences between donors.
This chart shows the first-level recipients of assistance. While funding is often passed on to further intermediaries before reaching the final recipient, there is a lack of comprehensive data on how funding is channelled through the transaction chain.
Compare how public donors channelled international humanitarian assistance, 2012–2021
To view this interactive visualisation make sure JavaScript is available on your device.
To view this interactive visualisation use a device with a larger screen.
-
The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View individual donors or compare two donors using the drop-down menu ‘Select donors’.
Find out more about how humanitarian funding is channelled for effectiveness in chapter four of DI's Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022.
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC CRS, UN OCHA FTS and UN CERF data.
Notes: NGO = non-governmental organisation; RCRC = International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Data is in constant 2020 prices. OECD DAC CRS codes ‘other’, ‘public–private partnerships’, ‘private sector institutions’ and ‘teaching institutions, research institutes or think tanks’ are merged to ‘other’.
Which countries receive international humanitarian assistance, from which donors and to which types of organisation?
Over time, a small number of large-scale crises have absorbed the majority of country-allocable international humanitarian assistance. There has been little change in the group of largest recipient countries over the past five years, with the largest amount of funding channelled to Yemen and Syria.
Most humanitarian assistance is targeted at countries experiencing protracted crisis. Levels of funding to different crises have fluctuated over time.
The types of organisations to which assistance is delivered in countries also varies between crises.
Explore funding to the largest country recipients of international humanitarian assistance, their leading donors and the types of recipient organisations, 2012–2021
To view this interactive visualisation make sure JavaScript is available on your device.
To view this interactive visualisation use a device with a larger screen.
-
The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View recipient countries using the drop-down menu ‘Select recipient’
- Break down the volumes of assistance to each recipient country by the largest donors to the crisis or by type of recipient organisation, selecting either option from the drop-down menu.
Find out more about who receives humanitarian funding, and how much, in chapter four of DI's Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022.
Source: Development Initiatives based on UN OCHA FTS.
Notes: DRC = Democratic Republic of Congo; NGO = non-governmental organisation; RCRC = International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Data is in constant 2020 prices.
Dataset title: Donor governments, recipient countries and channel of delivery for international humanitarian assistance
Author: Development Initiatives
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC, UN OCHA FTS, UN CERF data
Timeframe: 2012–2021
Geography: Global
License: Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license
Citation: Development Initiatives, 2022. International humanitarian assistance: Donors, channels and recipients. Available at: https://devinit.org/data/international-humanitarian-assistance-donors-channels-and-recipients
These charts build on the analysis presented in the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022 and allow users to investigate specific donors and crises. Development Initiatives’ Global Humanitarian Assistance programme regularly produces briefings and outputs related to humanitarian finance. You can find more content on our resources page and sign up to our ‘Humanitarian crisis’ topic updates via our mailing list for information on future outputs and events.
Share International humanitarian assistance: Donors, channels and recipients
Related content
Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022
The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022 provides a critical overview of the crisis financing landscape. Development Initiatives finds that total funding has plateaued despite historically high demand.
Recipients and delivery of humanitarian funding
Efforts to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of funding continued in 2021 but progress on the Grand Bargain is uneven as direct funding to local and national actors fell to its lowest level in five years.
Donors of humanitarian and wider crisis financing
A second large drop in UK funding contrasted with increases from the two largest donors, as multilateral development banks play an increasing role in countries experiencing crisis.