Chapter 6: Composition of the system – SOHS 2018

In 2017, the total combined field personnel of the humanitarian sector numbered approximately 570,000. This represents an increase of 27% from the last SOHS report (450,000 in 2013). Growing numbers of national humanitarian workers appeared to drive this increase, while the number of international (expatriate) staff remained stable. On average across humanitarian organisations, this growth in personnel did not keep pace with the overall rise in operational expenditure.

Downloads before April 2019 included the text 'The other giants among INGOs when measured by humanitarian expenditure are, in descending order, World Vision, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC – which for the first time featured among the top tier of humanitarian NGOs spending in excess of $400 million per year on humanitarian operations), Save the Children International and Catholic Relief Services. Together, these six organisations accounted for nearly a quarter of the combined humanitarian spend reported by NGOs' on page 104. This text has now been removed. Different sources provide different figures for the humanitarian expenditure of these NGOs, which would affect which NGOs appear in fifth and six places on the list. However, which ever figure is used, the overall finding (23% of funds to NGOs go to the sixth largest organisations / organisation families) is correct within 1%.