Humanitarian response is complex and varied and not without its confusion. It involves a plethora of actors, international and national, large and small, organisations with complex global mandates and organisations that serve a community or a neighbourhood. There are actions undertaken by militaries and governments and those by families and individuals. There is preparedness for events, immediate response to them, the provision of basic needs and the first elements of recovery. There is also a continual blurring of lines between humanitarian aid, investments in disaster preparedness, recovery programming, and long-term development spending.
This myriad of interconnections is essentially what GHA Report 2010 attempts to track: the response to need, the provision of finance, the actors involved, the funding mechanisms used, and the countries and projects prioritised.
