Risk Sharing in Humanitarian Action (Discussion Paper)

Risk is inherent to humanitarian action given the environments in which it is carried out. In recent years, donors and humanitarian organisations have made significant investments in risk management systems and tools and the issue of risk has come up in various consultations and discussions, including the Grand Bargain. During the Grand Bargain High Level Meeting in September 2018, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the ICRC agreed to take this discussion forward and focus on the idea of risk sharing between donors and organisations. Since then, both have engaged in consultations on this topic, including with the Grand Bargain Facilitation Group and the co-convenors. To have an informed discussion during the 2020 Grand Bargain Annual Meeting on how to work towards better sharing of risks in the humanitarian sector, the Netherlands MFA and the ICRC commissioned research with the aim to map recent or ongoing initiatives to address risk in the humanitarian sector and identify the outcomes/recommendations that could benefit from a collective discussion in a multilateral forum such as the Grand Bargain.