What is humanitarian aid and why is it important?

Concern is dedicated to creating a world where no one lives in poverty, fear, or oppression. Broadly speaking, our work falls into two categories: humanitarian aid and development. Those terms may sound interchangeable, but they each serve specific purposes. Many nonprofit organisations and NGOs will focus on just one or the other. But as a dual-mandate organisation, Concern does both. 

In this explainer, we look at what humanitarian aid or assistance means, why it's important, and the specific guidelines that hold all humanitarian work to the highest standard.

Humanitarian aid is used to relieve suffering during emergencies, such as conflict, an earthquake, or a drought. On the other hand, development aid goes to addressing ongoing issues that contribute to human suffering. 

Humanitarian aid usually goes directly to people. It includes the emergency supply kits that are distributed to people displaced by a hurricane; the care offered by health workers as they screen and treat children for malnutrition living in a refugee camp; and the cash assistance provided to people displaced by conflict. By contrast, development aid is often used to improve structures and systems that in turn benefit entire communities, such as educational training and support in underserved areas. 

Sometimes, the priorities for humanitarian and development aid can complement one another. Following a natural disaster such as an earthquake, flooding or drought, Concern will distribute frontline necessities like shelter kits or hygiene kits and emergency cash assistance to people who have lost their homes and livelihoods. After the initial response, development aid can help fund programmes to help us work with communities to build long-term solutions and be better prepared in the future. 

Everyone has the right to receive humanitarian aid if they need it, regardless of their race, class, politics, ethnicity, gender, or any other identifying factors. Humanitarian emergencies tend to hit hardest for people who are already in vulnerable situations, but they also don't discriminate. 

In Syria, for example, many middle-income families who lived comfortable lives lost everything either through escaping one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history, or while still living in their home country as infrastructure and resources disappeared. The same is true for people living on the frontline in Ukraine and whose lives have been disrupted by conflict.

Without humanitarian aid, many families, communities, and even entire countries may fall deep into a cycle of poverty that can last for generations. Humanitarian aid offsets the immediate effects of a crisis to reduce this risk.

Humanitarian aid is guided by a rigorous framework of international laws, principles, and codes of conduct that organisations like Concern adhere to. They help to ensure that our priorities are in the right place, and they help many organisations - big and small, local and international - to work together towards a common cause with a shared goal.

The golden rule for humanitarians is what is known as the humanitarian imperative. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent’s Code of Conduct defines the humanitarian imperative partly as: 'The right to receive humanitarian assistance, and to offer it…wherever it is needed.' 

At Concern, we complement this with a focus on maintaining dignity during and in the aftermath of disasters, and strengthening communities to be prepared for future disasters. 

There are several other guidelines for humanitarian aid, including the United Nations’ four principles. These play another key part in guiding our work:

The principle of humanity means that we must seek to address human suffering wherever it is found, paying particular attention to those who are most vulnerable.

Our responses must be provided solely on the basis of identified need, without discrimination between or within affected populations. This is the basis of all 'needs-based' programming. It requires us to assess the impact of disasters and to design programmes to support those left most in need in their wake. 

We must ensure that our responses don’t favour any side in a conflict, or engage at any time in any political, racial, religious, or ideological controversies. This is perhaps the most challenging of these four principles. 

The sole purpose of humanitarian activities and assistance is the relief and prevention of suffering caused by a crisis. This means we must respond in a manner that is not influenced by political, economic, or military objectives. Humanitarian organisations create and implement policies independent of government policies or actions, hence the term NGO, or 'non-governmental organisation'. 

The traditional definition of a humanitarian crisis is an event, or series of events, that threatens the health, safety and well-being of a community or large group of people. This can be specific to one group, such as the Rohingya crisis, or to anyone living in a certain area or country, such as the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. In these cases, the basic approach to humanitarian aid has been to focus on the most pressing needs in the immediate aftermath, while also working to offset risk from future disasters.

But over the past few decades, emergencies have become more protracted and harder to address. The longer an emergency lasts, the more complex it can become. In some cases, government services also break down and are unable to meet demand. We call these situations complex emergencies. 

Complex emergencies mean humanitarian organisations are missing their most important partner, and people often can’t access the help they need to recover. Organisations also have to dig deeper to find what and where the needs are, and often struggle to find willing donors as crises drag on. Sadly, this is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

Humanitarian emergencies are increasing across the world, driven by conflict, the impact of climate change and economic instability. Globally, 239 million people urgently require humanitarian assistance. But at the same time, drastic funding cuts by major donor countries are forcing vital emergency response programmes to close. The impact is being felt most severely in fragile and conflict-affected countries, such as Yemen, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions of families depend on humanitarian aid for survival.

Humanitarian aid is ultimately about protecting lives and preserving dignity when people face a crisis. Whether responding to conflict, natural disasters, hunger or displacement, humanitarian organisations such as Concern work to ensure that support reaches those most in need, guided by the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. Yet as crises become more frequent, complex and underfunded, delivering that essential assistance is becoming increasingly difficult.

The UK government has cut humanitarian aid by 40%. When aid is cut, people who are most vulnerable to crises feel it most.  We believe the UK must not turn its back on them. Add your name to our petition calling on the UK government to reverse its cuts to life-saving humanitarian aid.