The annual Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report comprehensively assesses international financing at work in humanitarian situations since 2000.
The GHA Report 2004 - 2005 presents the latest data on financial flows to humanitarian crises. But the key messages in the report are not only about money. Financing decisions affect behaviour and humanitarian architecture. They help determine the power of different groups, they influence policy priorities and capacity development.
Humanitarian assistance reaches new high
Total humanitarian assistance - aid for emergencies and relief - reached an all-time high in 2003 at $7.8 billion - a rise of more than $2 billion compared with the previous year.
In real terms (taking exchange rates and inflation into account), humanitarian assistance from the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members rose by 23% in 2003. For the previous four years, aid for humanitarian assistance had been steady at around $5.7 billion a year.
Humanitarian assistance has been growing faster than Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a whole. Humanitarian assistance was over 11% of total ODA in 2003 - an increased share of an increased cake. Even without the $839 million allocated to Iraq - the single largest recipient of relief in 2003 - humanitarian assistance for 2003 would still have been the highest ever recorded at $6.075 billion.
