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The humanitarian aid sector is at a turning point. It faces a crisis on several fronts: finance, policy, but also its very legitimacy, which is being called into question. Crises are multiplying and becoming long-term, while at the same time collective capacity to cope is diminishing with the downturn in financial resources for official development assistance. Concerns arising from both policy issues and the geopolitical situation are undermining the system, which is struggling to meet its commitments and responsibilities, i.e., its support for humanitarian and development aid and its principles, including the concept of localisation.
Adaptation is a matter of urgency and, furthermore, reinvention is needed: methods of intervention need rethinking, cooperation needs reinforcing, basic values need to be restated and preserved. Innovation, strategic frugality with resources and tighter networking appear to be the keys to the renewal that has become imperative.
This article summarises the exchanges that took place during the seminar, describing the multiple crises that international aid and development are going through, ways forward and directions that might be taken so that the sector can reinvent itself, as well as suggesting some of the possible answers to complex dilemmas.