Beyond Donorship: UK Foreign Policy and Humanitarian Action | Policy Brief

Key messages: 

• For much of the past half century, the UK has exerted its influence to help create the rules and standards that underpin the formal humanitarian system. As the world’s third largest humanitarian donor, it is well positioned to lead the humanitarian system through a period of rapid change. 
• The UK is facing increasingly complex crises impinging on its national security, particularly in the Middle East, and its impending departure from the European Union (EU) is creating new imperatives for trade. In this context, its reputation as a ‘good’ humanitarian actor and its role as a leader in the field is at risk if ‘aid in the national interest’ does not encompass a principled humanitarian approach. 
• The UK has the potential to develop a model of principled, smart humanitarian action that is both true to its values and in line with the UK’s role as a major global player with multiple, competing interests. 
• Making such changes requires a shift in approach and culture within the UK government when it comes to humanitarian principles and priorities, and open acknowledgement that supporting international humanitarian priorities in word and deed is in the UK’s longer-term national interest.