Coordinating Decision-Making: Meeting Needs

1. Donor decision-making on the allocation of available humanitarian resources is not coordinated at the global level. This means that donors make individual (and potentially less effective) funding decisions

2. Donors state decision-making on ‘where’ to fund is primarily associated with responding to needs, yet a range of other factors are in play

3. At the global level, there is some degree of overlap between the countries prioritised by the largest number of donors in policy documents and those receiving the largest proportion of funding, particularly with regard to longer-term crises

4. However, policy documents are not generally indicative of donor practice and preferences for funding to different countries/crises

5. Policy priorities and spending patterns show a similar deprioritisation of allocation to ‘forgotten states’

6. At the regional level, donor behaviour is more predictable

7. There is a predominant focus in donor policy on disaster risk reduction (DRR), preparedness, and resilience, which is part of a wider effort to link humanitarian assistance and development