Increasing fragility is placing an unsustainable strain on humanitarian financing. As complex conflict and climate-related crises escalate, needs also persist in longstanding situations – including for the majority of refugees who, on average, find themselves displaced for 20 years.
Humanitarian aid is increasingly stretched to address long-term needs, as well as respond to immediate emergencies. The funding gap is widening, with shortfalls leaving many crisis-affected people without sufficient support.
Humanitarian Innovative Financing (HIF) is one important tool for bringing new resourcing for new solutions to these persistent, and growing, challenges. HIF can use grant funding to unlock larger and more sustainable sources of finance.
This briefing review is the first step in a proposed evidence-building programme on HIF. Its purpose is to establish the added value of HIF in fragile contexts, the models offering most potential for scale-up, and the lessons to be learned to support future scale-up.
