50 years of humanitarian action: From best practice to best fit

The big question was about how to build a more differentiated international response system flexible enough to meet the kind of challenges that have been brought into stark relief by the crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries. John Ging told participants that the crisis in the Middle East required new thinking in the form of a ‘whole of crisis approach’. But what kind of business model can deliver a response that is longer term, context specific and also flexible and precise enough to deal with changing circumstances?
Of course, there is no one single business model of aid and ALNAP/ODI has been looking hard at how to identify different models of aid for different contexts. Our starting point was to recognise that responses are fundamentally shaped by existing national and state capacities and, on that basis, we have identified four models which have evolved over the last 50 years. They are not exclusive categories but they help us to understand the way in which the system addressed different circumstances and needs. They can also help explain why many responses have been found not to fit context: in such cases, the international humanitarian system has tended to default to a model that did not match actual national and state capacities.
The four models can be useful as a basis from which to improve key elements of both international and domestic response to ensure they are best fitted to context. This should make aid more effective.
We will be working more on these models and discussing them with donors and others later this year. I hope that in 2015 all ALNAP Member agencies can be brought together to look at them in more detail. We will keep you posted.