IASC Transformative Agenda: A Review of Reviews and Their Follow-Up

The 2011 IASC Transformative Agenda was a major effort to reform the humanitarian system over the past five years. Our review shows that the effort has resulted in stronger leadership, more global coordination and faster deployment of senior humanitarian staff. The Transformative Agenda, however, has created many new processes that are leaving, in the view of many humanitarian professionals, less time for their real tasks: to save lives and alleviate suffering. Instead of launching a new top-down reform, humanitarians should reduce processes, focus on delivery, pay more attention to the opinions of aid recipients and give them cash wherever possible.