This document provides guidance for international humanitarian organisations (UN agencies and INGOs) which partner with local and national organisations on the issue of overheads. Overheads, or indirect costs, refer to costs that are not related directly to a specific project, but that support the efficient, effective, and safe running of an organisation. This guidance provides recommendations for how to improve current policy and practice to ensure that local and national partners can access overhead funding.
The short guidance document is structured around actions for UN agencies and INGOs, actions for donors and actions for wider systemic change. The accompanying research report provides more detail on the policy context and background, the current practices of individual organisations, and findings from interviews with 26 local and national NGOs and 18 international actors around the barriers and opportunities for change and examples of good practice.
The guidance draws on research carried out by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Results Group (RG) 5 on Humanitarian Financing.
