Funding of International Relief

The global international community responds to disasters worldwide through humanitarian funding assistance aimed at saving lives and alleviating suffering in times of crisis. The international humanitarian system, which is constructed of key funding mechanisms and [Page 233]actors, is facing challenges, but emerging trends and best practices are promising.

There has been a rise in disaster incidences and consequent loss of life and assets. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), in its Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2008, provides the numbers and trends of disasters worldwide. The number of reported disasters rose from a total of 172 in 1989, to 354 in 2008. In 2008, a total of 214 million people worldwide were killed or affected by disaster events. Disasters can and do cause severe impacts on economies of developing economies, and can reverse or stop the progress made by the international community in meeting millennium development goals (MDGs), as established by the United Nations.

The total amount of funding provided internationally to respond to disaster events has increased significantly, although the rate is slowing. Humanitarian aid grew at a much higher average annual rate during 2000–03 (55 percent growth rate) than it did in the following three years, 2004–06 (11 percent growth rate). Still, in 2005, an estimated $18 billion was raised by the international community for humanitarian assistance. The United States is by far the largest humanitarian donor, followed by other developed economies such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, and Norway. Most of the humanitarian assistance is largely spent in specific locations. Six countries received over 50 percent of total international humanitarian assistance in 2004: Iraq (16 percent), Sudan (11 percent), Palestine (8 percent), Ethiopia (6 percent), Afghanistan (6 percent), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4 percent), with the remaining humanitarian assistance shared among 148 other countries.