Diversity in Donorship - The Changing Landscape of Official Humanitarian Aid

More and more governments are becoming involved in the response to complex crises and natural disasters. In the mid-1990s, 16 donor governments officially pledged their support in response to the humanitarian crisis in Bosnia. A decade later, after the Indian Ocean tsunami, an unprecedented 92 countries responded with pledges of support.
This growth in the number of official donors presents the humanitarian community with significant opportunities, not least in challenging perceptions that the countries of the industrialised West are the only providers of assistance to the developing world. These changes signal a growing pluralism in the foundations of official giving.
The engagement of a wider range of donors in humanitarian action also presents significant challenges to the way in which the international humanitarian system is financed, managed and coordinated. Historically, a small number of primarily Western governments have provided the bulk of the funding for humanitarian action and, through membership of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, have tended to dominate public debates about the direction, purpose, principles and methodology of relief.