Why an HRI

Why an HRI

Every year around 350 million people’s lives are shattered by the effects of disaster, conflict and crisis. The HRI aims to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian aid by holding governments and intergovernmental organisations accountable for applying good practice in the way they fund and support disaster and conflict relief. As the main funders of humanitarian action, institutional donors provide around 8 billion USD in aid. This already small budget (less than 1% of their military expenditure) could drop by as much as a third due to the current financial crisis, further increasing the need for effective and efficient aid delivery.

“DARA performs a valuable service in publishing this index. It provides both a framework of accountability and a spur to improved performance. Donors of both development and humanitarian aid are concerned to ensure that aid has the highest possible impact. They have invested substantial effort in defining good performance and in benchmarking against each other. The special value of the HRI index is that it combines quantitative and qualitative information to provide a single overall assessment of donor quality.”
- Simon Maxwell
CBE Director, Overseas Development Institute

“Canada believes the DARA’s Humanitarian Response Index is useful for promoting good humanitarian practice.”
- Jo-Ann Purcell
Canadian International Development Agency

“The HRI is an enormously innovative tool for preparing for a world of greater humanitarian shock and urgent needs. We need to put humanitarian response on a greatly up scaled basis. The HRI will bring us much closer to this goal. The wellbeing and even survival of millions are at stake.”
- Jeffrey Sachs