An end in sight: multi-year planning to meet and reduce humanitarian needs in protracted crises

OCHA Policy and Studies Series, no. 15, July 2015:

This brief addresses the question of whether the current direction of international humanitarian assistance, as articulated in its inter-agency appeals is fit for the diversity, length and specificity of needs and risks in different types of protracted crises. It proposes new collective approaches to outcome-oriented multi-year planning to meet needs, reduce vulnerabilities and pave the way for a reduction of humanitarian assistance over time, in favour of more sustainable solutions.

According to the paper, protracted crises are complex and do not easily fit generalizations. Chronic vulnerability and multidimensional poverty can undermine the societies ability to manage ongoing and future shocks and stresses. These crises fundamentally need development-oriented solutions that build resilience to a broad range of risks at all layers of a society, in line with the priorities set in the Rio+ 20 outcome document and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, among others.

The paper points out that a growing body of evidence shows that crises are mostly predictable, both in natural hazards and conflict situations. Risk modelling/analysis can enable a more anticipatory and foreseeable approach to humanitarian response. It highlights that despite an increasingly sophisticated and accessible understanding of risk, obstacles remain in integrating this knowledge into policies and programmes that have a concrete impact on people’s ability to effectively manage risk and withstand shocks and crises.