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Direct funding to local and national responders shows slow progress - briefing

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Local and national actors are often the primary responders in a crisis yet only directly receive a small proportion of international humanitarian assistance funding. The Grand Bargain calls for a global target of 25% of humanitarian funding to go “as directly as possible” to local and national responders by 2020. Analysis from Development Initiatives’ Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2018 provides an indication of trends in direct funding to local and national responders.

Direct funding (from donor to local and national responders) represented 2.9% (US$603 million) of all international humanitarian assistance in 2017, an increase from 2% (US$458 million) in 2016, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Service (FTS) data. This 2.9% comprises: 2.5% (US$509 million) directly to local and national governments; 0.4% (US$85 million) directly to local and national NGOs; and 0.03% (US$6.8 million) directly to International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement National Societies.

Funding provided to local and national responders directly and through an intermediary provides an additional 0.7% of all international humanitarian assistance, raising ‘direct funding’ to 3.6% (US$736 million) of total international humanitarian assistance reported to FTS in 2017, up from 2.3% (US$535 million) in 2016.

Of all funding that can be traced as having been received by a first-level recipient, only 2.4% subsequently reached local and national responders (as second-level recipients) in 2017, up from 1.7% in 2016. Over three-quarters of this amount (76%) was given to NGOs in 2017.

Overall direct funding to all NGOs combined has decreased from 19% of total funding reported to FTS in 2016 to 15% in 2017. A greater share of funding was directed to international NGOs in 2017 than in 2016, accounting for 94% of all funding to NGOs, rising from 85% in 2016.

There was an increase in direct funding to national and local NGOs combined, from 1.7% of the total to NGOs in 2016 to 2.6% in 2017.

Local and national NGOs combined directly received 0.4% (US$85 million) of all international humanitarian assistance reported to UN OCHA FTS in 2017, a rise of 0.1%, or US$6 million, from 2016.

The proportional changes seen in 2017 from the previous year could be due to improvements in reporting, illustrated by the sharp decrease, from 11% to 1%, in funding categorised as ‘undefined’.