Listening is not enough: People demand transformational change in humanitarian assistance - Global analysis report | November 2022

Executive summary

It is indisputable that people should be ‘at the centre’ of humanitarian assistance. It is equally indisputable that they are not. Despite widespread efforts to include crisisaffected communities and align with their needs, people impacted by crisis feel disempowered and think aid is missing the mark. “To [humanitarians], our needs can be summed up by their needs assessment surveys conducted on what we eat during the day and how we live. But asking us what our basic needs are, they don’t do that. So next time, when organisations want to help us, they should approach us and ask us what our real needs are,” said an elderly, female host community member in Bangui, Central African Republic. She underscores that deeply extractive assessments have little impact on the lives of the people who give their time to answer lengthy and intrusive questionnaires. The same can be said of attempts to involve communities – however genuine the intention – if the humanitarian system is simply not designed to adapt to what people need. Rhetoric abounds, but feedback from thousands of people affected by crisis is clear: decision-making power has not shifted.