Since the establishment in 2003 of the Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative (GHDI), the world in which humanitarian donors seek to be ‘good’ has altered significantly: the nature of humanitarian challenges has changed; the demands on humanitarian donorship have escalated; the humanitarian coordination landscape has become more crowded; and yet the global respect for humanitarian norms and the geopolitical space for multilateral cooperation has diminished.
Arguably, in this context, the work of a group of donors committed to good humanitarian donorship is both more necessary and more difficult than it was 20 years ago. Although the initiative has proved highly successful in attracting a diverse group of members to sign up to the principles, and in establishing an important set of norms for donor behaviour, there is a widespread sense that it requires reinvigoration. Concerns about the relevance and vitality of the initiative are not new; indeed many were expressed in the 10-year review, commissioned by the GHDI in 2013. Now, as the GHDI marks its 20-year anniversary, the current co-chairs have commissioned this independent review to inform efforts to revitalise the initiative.
The present research revealed widespread demand for the GHDI to continue – but that this went hand-in-hand with demand for improvements to the clarity of its function, and the effectiveness of its working. The review also provided insights into the five interlinked areas below where the GHDI will need to agree its future niche, breadth, and depth of engagement. However, given the group’s diverse membership and wide stakeholder constituencies, there was little consensus on what should be done in any of these five areas. Discussion of our preliminary findings at the GHDI High-Level Meeting (HLM) in December 2023 also highlighted how the breadth of views combined with the informality of the group limit the extent to which the GHDI can achieve the more ambitious expectations of the initiative.