This review focuses on Zakat, a particular form of almsgiving within Islam. The value of Zakat is estimated to range from US$ 200 billion to US$ 1 trillion per annum across the world (Stirk, 2015) or around US$ 187 million among countries in the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (Shaikh, 2016). Therefore, interest in mobilising Zakat for poverty alleviation in Muslim ...» more
Humanitarian financing
Too important to fail: Addressing the humanitarian financing gap
This is the report of an expert panel on ways to reduce the estimated US$ 15 billion funding gap for humanitarian action. The panel makes recommendations under three themes. Shrink the needs: The most effective way to bring down the cost of humanitarian aid is to reduce the necessity to resort to it. The panel recommends: Reorienting official development assistance ...» more
Markets in crises: The conflict in Mali
Market analyses are key to informing decisions around transfer modalities (cash, voucher or in-kind).Traditionally this has focused on the availability and price of key commodities,but it has recently expanded to supply chain analysis, value chain analysis and pre-crisis market mapping. This study takes a more sociological perspective and, using Mali as a case study, asks ...» more
Doing cash differently: how cash transfers can transform humanitarian aid
The nature of humanitarian crises is changing. More people are in need and for longer. This report shows why giving aid directly in the form of cash is often a highly effective way to reduce suffering and to make limited humanitarian aid budgets go further. The report calls for shifts in how cash transfers are taken forward in order to take advantage of their full potential and ...» more
Global humanitarian assistance report 2015
The spotlight is on financing to address crisis, vulnerability and risk as never before. This report provides the evidence to better understand how to meet the urgent challenge of meeting rising humanitarian needs with limited resources, and to inform the number of global processes taking place in 2015 and 2016 including Financing for Development and the World Humanitarian ...» more
Remittances to Syria: What works, where and how
The opportunities for cash transfers to enable projects that will better meet emergency and post-emergency needs are of paramount importance where access is severely curtailed. This study seeks to explore the potential for cash transfer programming as a key modality for humanitarian actors to meet the needs of vulnerable populations inside Syria. It establishes that various ...» more
Influencing laws and guidelines on humanitarian assistance
International humanitarian law (IHL) and international disaster response laws, rules and principles (IDRL) set out rules and guidance on how to access affected populations, and how to deliver humanitarian assistance, during armed conflicts and disasters. This includes guidance on customs clearance and the taxation of relief, among other areas. IDRL is a fragmented collection of ...» more
Financing in Crisis? Making humanitarian finance fit for the future
This paper expands on the Future Humanitarian Financing initiative’s recommendations about how to close the humanitarian funding gap. It summarises good practices by DAC members and attempts to find solutions to common challenges: Predictable funding for predicable costs. Funding for longer-term – protracted – crises that helps boost the resilience of crisis-affected ...» more
An Act of Faith: Humanitarian Financing and Zakat
This report sheds some light on the purpose, scale and potential of Zakat for financing humanitarian response. It provides a basis on which to open up discussions around how that potential might be maximised – both by increasing the overall volume of Zakat collected and improving the mechanisms available to channel Zakat to the humanitarian response. The report draws on ...» more
The rising costs of Turkey’s Syrian quagmire
This report examines Turkey’s humanitarian efforts, the tension between its public’s sympathy for, and unease toward, Syrians, and the government’s changing role with regard to Syria’s political and military opposition. It highlights the need for Turkey to develop a more comprehensive legal framework that expands the April 2013 law on foreigners and immigration in order to ...» more
The shape and sustainability of Turkey’s booming humanitarian assistance
What do we know about Turkey’s rapidly increasing humanitarian engagement? This article analyses the most important foreign and domestic policy issues and actors influencing Turkish humanitarian assistance. It questions the sustainability and scalability of current aid levels and calls for a more informed approach to working with various Turkish actors. The paper draws on: ...» more
Counter-terrorism laws and regulations: what aid agencies need to know
What are the practical and legal consequences of counterterrorism laws for humanitarian action? This paper provides an overview of some of the most salient questions that humanitarian actors are grappling with in planning effective, principled, and lawful operations in high-risk environments. It highlights several factors which seem to indicate significant and possibly ...» more
Fragile Reforms: World Bank and Asian Development Bank financing in fragile and conflict-affected situations
Drawing from research into the delivery of five bank-financed projects covering infrastructure and other sectors, this study highlights a range of insights and opportunities to enhance how the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approach project financing in fragile and conflict-affected situations.The study documents how conflict-sensitive approaches are and are ...» more
Funding appeals for complex humanitarian emergencies
Key findings: It is possible to derive some key factors from the available literature: Needs-based allocation: This is a core principle of humanitarian assistance. All funders use needs assessments in their original funding allocations, and many changes to funding are preceded by needs assessments. Tipping points: Most protracted crises receive a steady and/or low level of ...» more
Financing Disaster Risk Reduction: A 20-year story of international aid
This report analyses financing for Disaster Risk Reduction over the past 20 years. It finds that overall volumes spent on disasters are a fraction of development aid, and within that the amount committed to reduce the risk of disasters is an even smaller proportion. Financing is heavily concentrated in a relatively small number of projects and in relatively few countries, with ...» more
Innovative aid instruments and flexible financing: providing better support to fragile states
This paper presents evidence, analysis and evaluation of the use of aid instruments in fragile states, based on a literature review and questionnaire responses from members of the OECD International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Working Group on Aid Instruments. It highlights the importance of factors including: a mix of aid instruments (based on context); aid ...» more
5-year evaluation of the central emergency response fund. Synthesis report: final draft
This evaluation provides an assessment of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) between 2006 and 2010. Intended to inform debates at the United Nations General Assembly on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the CERF, and provides recommendations at the policy and operational levels to improve its effectiveness. Data ...» more
Multi-Year Funding to Humanitarian Organisations in Protracted Crises
There has been growing consensus amongst donors that multi-year funding is a critical tool for improving the allocation and effectiveness of humanitarian aid to protracted crises. A number of donors have developed mechanisms to allocate funding in these contexts on a multi-year basis, channelling funding directly to NGOs, the UN and other multilateral agencies, and to ...» more
Diversity in Donorship: Field Lessons
Non-western governments, which are not members of the development assistance committee (DAC) of the OECD, accounted for 12% of humanitarian financing for any given year between 1999 and 2004. In this study, the Humanitarian Policy Group of the Overseas Development Institute examines how these donors operate in the field. The study examines three emergency responses: the South ...» more
Climate Financing and Development: Friends or Foes?
Will finance for climate change adaptation in developing countries compromise support for meeting the Millennium Development Goals? This study analyses country proposals for climate change funding put forward at recent UN-led climate change negotiations. It argues that while the aims of development and adaptation to climate change often overlap, additional funds are needed to ...» more
