Rethinking humanitarian principles? Consider community, context, and common sense

In 2022, Ground Truth Solutions and UNICEF launched a project in Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that aimed to ensure the people affected by the overlapping crises in each country could influence how they received assistance.1 Working with Victim’s Hope DRC and independent researchers in Chad, we conducted surveys, focus group discussions, individual interviews, and community dialogue sessions to understand how people felt about humanitarian assistance and how it could improve.

As the project nears conclusion, we wanted to share the insight gained, and to connect the voices and experiences of people impacted by crisis with salient policy discussions of humanitarian practice and principles. This article also includes insight from the following panellists in our recent lessons learned webinar: Yves Badesire, monitoring and evaluation expert for Victim’s Hope DRC; Audrey Hernandez, head of mission for Concern Worldwide in Chad; Charles-Antoine Hofmann, Accountability to Affected People lead at UNICEF’s global emergencies branch; and Karin Wendt, senior researcher at HERE-Geneva.