Executive Summary | Shifting Mindsets: Creating a more flexible humanitarian response

As humanitarian needs and situations change, and as our understanding of complex problems evolves, humanitarian agencies must be able to adapt.

Yet in recent years, international humanitarian agencies have struggled with flexibility when it comes to adapting to context, changing the type and quantity of support at the right time, or responding quickly and appropriately to unexpected crises or challenges. To date, the flexibility of modern humanitarian agencies, and the capacities needed for response level flexibility, has not been explored in depth for modern crises.

This is the executive summary of an ALNAP study that sought to address this gap by undertaking exploratory research on the support factors and barriers to flexibility and adaptation in contemporary humanitarian action.

For more on our work on flexibility please visit alnap.org/flexibility.