Donor Reporting Requirements Research

This report was commissioned by USAID/OFDA as part of its chairmanship of the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative (GHD). It reviews donors’ reporting requirements for NGOs and public international organizations (PIOs)1 receiving humanitarian financing. It focuses on implementation (i.e., post-award) reporting and summarizes the commonalities and diversity across seven elements: (1) financial and narrative reporting; (2) frequency of reporting; (3) format; (4) size of the grant; (5) reporting on donor-identified best practices; (6) due diligence; and (7) indicators. Its findings are based on desk-based research that included a document review and key informant interviews, and it encompassed information drawn from 19 of the 41 GHD donors: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

The research found that reporting requirements are far less onerous for PIOs than for non- governmental organizations (NGOs). This difference is because (1) donors do not play a role in the governance of NGOs and hence do not help shape their internal accountability mechanisms as happens with PIOs and (2) NGO funding is more frequently connected to specific projects (i.e., earmarked) and therefore is seen to require detailed, project-specific reporting to ensure accountability.