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United States

Ranking: 16

Score: 4.39

Detailed information

The United States occupies 16th place overall in this year’s Index. Its performance across the five pillars is uneven, with its second place in pillar 5 encompassing learning and accountability, balanced against the worst performance of any country in pillar 4, on implementing international guiding principles.

It stellar performance in pillar 5 is based on an excellent perception in the field that the U.S. supports accountability in humanitarian action and encourages regular evaluations. This is strongly supported by the hard data, with high rankings on membership, attendance of, and funding to the main accountability initiatives, and the number of joint and individual evaluations performed.

The U.S. ranks 16th in the first pillar. It has some of the lowest rankings for perceptions of its respect for basic humanitarian principles: alleviation of suffering, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. On the other hand, it does rather well in distributing its funding relative to identified needs, and to priority sectors within CAPs and ECHO’s vulnerability index.

In pillar 2, the US receives overall endorsement by the field for consultation with beneficiaries on monitoring and evaluation, strengthening preparedness for emergencies, and supporting rapid recovery of sustainable livelihoods, all suggesting a solid performance in support of civil society initiatives. This is underpinned by a good ranking for promoting the role of NGOs in pillar 3.

Across the other pillars, three other points stand out. First, it receives high ranks for donor preparedness in implementing humanitarian action and in facilitating safe humanitarian access, both possible reflections of the international clout of the U.S. Second, the U.S. performs poorly on flexibility of funding indicators, for example, for earmarking funding and for a low share of cash in total funding. Finally, it does not operate naturally as a multilateralist, appearing somewhat stingy in its funding to these mechanisms, for example, to IFRC and ICRC Appeals, and to the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals.