Independent Review of Individual Donor Assessments in Humanitarian Operations

At the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, humanitarian organizations and some of their largest donors signed the so-called Grand Bargain, a comprehensive agreement that aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian action. Commitment 4.5 specifically seeks to increase “the proportion of funding used for the direct benefit of affected people.” Toward this end, signatories agreed to “reduce individual donor assessments.”

This report summarizes the results of an independent review that collected evidence on and analyzed the effects of donor assessments conducted between 2016 and 2019 across five humanitarian organizations: OCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, and the ICRC (hereafter referred to as “agencies”).1 Assessments conducted or commissioned by donors include: 1) financial audits and verifications; 2) assessments and reviews of governance structures, systems and processes as well as comprehensive performance assessments; and 3) programmatic evaluations and monitoring exercises.