Global humanitarian assistance: crisis, funding and need
Four interactive charts let you explore global levels of crisis, vulnerability and need, the largest donors of international humanitarian assistance and how humanitarian financing is delivered.
Use these interactive charts to view and compare recent data on:
- Who is most at risk.
- The scale and type of crisis countries are experiencing.
- The size of country and regional response plans, and how well funded these are.
- The amount of humanitarian assistance (both globally, and by specific countries).
- How this assistance is channelled.
Read more on how humanitarian assistance is allocated in this year’s Global Humanitarian Assistance Report.
In the face of escalating food insecurity, the compounding impacts of climate change and the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine, many more people, in more countries, are affected by humanitarian crises than before. On the interactive map below, you will find data related to the following dimensions:
- The status of crisis: Whether a county is experiencing crisis, entering protracted crisis, or in protracted crisis.
- Climate vulnerability: A country's level of vulnerability to an extreme weather event using a scale with six values (Very low to Very high, or not assessed).
- Food insecurity: The number of people in urgent need of assistance due to food insecurity.
- People in need: The number of people facing humanitarian crisis as measured under a United Nations appeal or assessed by ACAPS.
See how people are affected by humanitarian crisis
Select a filter, and click on a country to see how well-funded its appeal is
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The controls above the map allow you to view the different dimensions of data. You can then hover over a country to see more details, or click to view data on the country’s national and regional humanitarian response plans.
You can zoom in and out of the map using the buttons at the top of the chart, and return to the default view using the “Reset” button below the map.
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About the data in this chart
Source: The data for ‘Crisis state’ is for 2022, from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC), INFORM Index for Risk Management, ACAPS, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The data for ‘Climate vulnerability’ is for 2021, from Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN). Countries are ranked by quintile from ‘Very low’ to ‘Very high’ vulnerability. The data for food insecurity is for 2022/3, from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), supplemented with data from UN humanitarian needs assessments. The figures show the country-level IPC phase or equivalent. The data for people in need is for 2022, from UN humanitarian needs assessments and supplemented with data from INFORM Index for Risk Management and ACAPS Crisis Overview. The figures show the number of people who are in need of humanitarian assistance covered by UN-appeals or assessed by INFORM and ACAPS.
Notes: This map does not imply expression by DI concerning the legal status or reality of borders or territories.
Who gives international humanitarian assistance?
The main source of international humanitarian assistance is individual government donors. Over the past 10 years, the amount given by these donors has increased from US$15.7 billion in 2013 to US$38.1 billion in 2022, and the majority of this (97%) has been provided by the largest 20 donors.
However, the volumes given by individual governments have fluctuated over time. In 2022, the three largest donors (the US, Germany and EU institutions) accounted for 64%.
How is this assistance provided?
Individual government donors provide humanitarian funding in different ways. Most funding is provided as bilateral contributions, with donors broadly or strictly specifying where and what their funding is spent on by implementing organisations, such as UN agencies and international NGOs.
Public donors also provide multilateral contributions for humanitarian responses in the form of core funding for multilateral institutions, such as the UN.
Compare volumes of international humanitarian assistance from donors and how it was allocated, 2013–2022
Select and compare specific donors, and toggle how their aid is measured
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The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View individual donors or compare two donors using the drop-down menu ‘Select donors’
- View the data as volumes, proportions, or %GNI using the drop-down menu ‘Display data as’.
Proportions can be more helpful when comparing donors of different sizes.
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About the data in this chart
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Service (FTS) and UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) data.
Notes: Years with blanks for volumes or proportions indicate zero funding. Some years are missing estimates of %GNI. Figures for 2022 data are preliminary. Data is in constant 2021 prices. Contributions of current and former EU member states to EU institutions’ international humanitarian assistance is shown separately. Preliminary 2022 figures for Denmark have only been partially reported and are likely to be revised upwards in final reporting at the end of 2023. 2021 figures differ from the GHA Report 2022 due to final reported international humanitarian assistance data. For more information, visit our online ‘Methodology and definitions’ for the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2023.
How is international humanitarian assistance delivered?
Over the last 10 years, much of the international humanitarian assistance from individual government donors has been channelled through multilateral organisations, such as UN agencies, with a smaller proportion going to NGOs. However, there are some differences between donors.
This chart shows the first-level recipients of assistance. Funding is often passed on to further intermediaries before reaching the final recipient, However, there is a lack of comprehensive data on how funding is channelled through the transaction chain.
Compare how public donors channelled international humanitarian assistance, 2013–2022
Select and compare specific donors to see the initial recipients of their aid
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The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View individual donors or compare two donors using the drop-down menu ‘Select donors’.
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About the data in this chart
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC CRS, UN OCHA FTS and UN CERF data.
Notes: NGO = non-governmental organisation; RCRC = International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Data is in constant 2021 prices. OECD DAC CRS codes ‘other’, ‘public–private partnerships’, ‘private sector institutions’ and ‘teaching institutions, research institutes or think tanks’ are merged to ‘other’.
Which countries receive international humanitarian assistance, from which donors and to which types of organisation?
Over time, a small number of large-scale crises have absorbed the majority of country-allocable international humanitarian assistance. There was little change in the group of largest recipient countries between 2017–2021, with the largest cumulative amount of funding channelled to Yemen (US$17.8 billion) and Syria (US$13.8 billion) over this period. However, in 2022, Ukraine received the largest amount of humanitarian assistance (US$4.4 billion), appearing in the largest recipients for the first time.
Most humanitarian assistance is targeted at countries experiencing protracted crisis. Levels of funding to different crises have fluctuated over time.
The types of organisations to which assistance is delivered in countries also varies between crises.
Explore funding to the largest country recipients of international humanitarian assistance, their leading donors and the types of recipient organisations, 2013–2022
Select and compare specific recipients, and see the breakdown of their aid
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The controls above the chart allow you to manipulate different views of the data. You can then hover your cursor over (if on a desktop) or tap (if on a tablet) the bars to view more details. Use this chart to:
- View recipient countries using the drop-down menu ‘Select recipient’
- Break down the volumes of assistance to each recipient country by the largest donors to the crisis or by type of recipient organisation, selecting either option from the drop-down menu.
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About the data in this chart
Source: Development Initiatives based on UN OCHA FTS.
Notes: DRC = Democratic Republic of Congo; NGO = non-governmental organisation; RCRC = International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Data is in constant 2021 prices.
Dataset title: Donor governments, recipient countries and channel of delivery for international humanitarian assistance
Author: Development Initiatives
Source: Development Initiatives based on OECD DAC, UN OCHA FTS, UN CERF data
Timeframe: 2013–2022
Geography: Global
License: Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license
Citation: Development Initiatives, 2023. International humanitarian assistance: Donors, channels and recipients. Available at: https://devinit.org/data/international-humanitarian-assistance-donors-channels-and-recipients
These charts build on the analysis presented in the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2023 and allow users to investigate specific donors and crises. Development Initiatives’ Global Humanitarian Assistance programme regularly produces briefings and outputs related to humanitarian finance. You can find more content on our resources page and sign up to our ‘Humanitarian crisis’ topic updates via our mailing list for information on future outputs and events.
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