The “Empowering Communities” Global Humanitarian Overview: In an era of ruthless prioritisation, whose priorities count?
The 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) - launched last Wednesday - makes for grim reading. 305 million people globally are in need of humanitarian assistance in a “world on fire”. Of that number, the humanitarian community hopes to reach less than two thirds - 189 million - with lifesaving assistance, at a cost of $47.4 billion. Even this is a long shot. This year, despite cutting the appeals down to their bare bones, the global appeal has received less than 47% of the funding needed. For the second year running this is a global humanitarian appeal of ruthless prioritisation. But whose priorities will drive these tough decisions? In an era of more needs and fewer resources, how can we ensure that every dollar has the greatest possible impact on supporting people in crisis?
It is great to see that this GHO is focused on “Strengthening Global Solidarity and Empowering Local Communities”, with efficient local response and enhanced accountability to affected people mentioned as top priorities. But collectively we struggled to get these things right even in more prosperous times. If the humanitarian system is to be effective and relevant through the polycrisis we have to go much, much further than the nice words and elaborate frameworks that have so far failed to move the needle on putting communities at the centre. If crisis affected communities are not calling the shots on aid allocation - if their priorities and most pressing needs are not at the heart of every decision - we will waste scarce resources and put lives and livelihoods at risk. If we allow prioritisation to be driven by supply, agency politics, the realities of Geneva and New York - and not community demand, we are failing in our basic duty.
Communities we work with tell us every day that the assistance they receive isn’t meeting their needs. They are not consulted on what is needed, what communities are already doing and what their priorities are.
In DRC a man in Kabare, South Kivu told us: "The needs we express are not considered. For instance, developing infrastructure for rural agriculture, supporting income generating activities and small-scale farming, providing animal microcredits, and our children’s education – they have not addressed any of these. Yet, to our surprise, they gave us mosquito nets. We didn’t need them; we still had nets from their last intervention."
44% of people Ground Truth Solutions spoke with in Chad had sold aid they received to cover other priority needs.
“We received red millet and spaghetti. Horses, camels and sheep eat red millet here, so we sell it to get rice and other foods,” a man in Wadi Fira told us.
“ We are hungry, but we are given buckets, mosquito nets, stoves and soap. We sell the soaps to feed our children instead.”
And in Gaza, amid rising desperation, just 46% of people say the aid they received met their most pressing needs. A man from Deir al Balah urged aid organisations to “spare us from canned goods,” while others saw the aid they received as a kind of currency to be exchanged - at a significant loss - for the things they needed.
“The unimportant things that arrive are sold so that we can buy the important alternatives.”
In Bangladesh we heard from communities on the front lines of the climate crisis that longer-term solutions are not a nice-to-have as their homes and farmlands are gradually lost to rising sea levels.
“The support they provide doesn’t help much at all. People don’t want any more rice and lentils. There is no more land to live on. We need better support. ”
In Burkina Faso, only 18% of people we spoke to felt that humanitarian aid was helping them plan for the future. People expressed the desire for better support to help them become less dependent on aid.
“May the help not make us slaves but assist us in rebuilding our lives and the future of our children.”
What does community-led prioritisation look like in practice? We call on humanitarian actors to put commitments into action, including:
Use community data to drive response planning exercises - start from a community-driven picture of needs and priorities to mobilise the resources and responses needed.
Don’t ignore communities after a needs assessment. Once national consensus on needs has been reached to enable allocation decisions, get more granular. Involve communities in decisions, not just consultations, so that necessary trade-offs are made with those affected, not miles away from them.
Make community influence a non-negotiable in every project funded - if it’s not being driven by people’s own needs and preferences, it doesn’t qualify for scarce humanitarian funding.
Where communities are prioritising longer-term support, move this from the ‘too hard’ to the ‘what is possible?’ basket. Crowd in development actors or reassess the possibilities of flexible aid modalities like cash, rather than delivering short term aid anyway.
Ensure that communities and not just agencies are the arbiters of how response efforts are faring. There is no other way to know if programmes are veering closer to community priorities or not.
We - organisations working with communities on the front lines of the polycrisis every day - urge you to put community leadership at the very heart of every decision you make on aid allocation and delivery. Frameworks and lip service are not enough. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. In these stretched times of brutal prioritisation, make sure it’s communities’ priorities that count.
This statement is endorsed by the following organisations. If you want to get in touch and discuss how we can do better together, please feel free to get in touch with us at GTS.
Meg Sattler, CEO, Ground Truth Solutions, Austria
Kadeoua Yaloho Ives Adolphe, Directeur Général, NAZAN Consulting, Burkina Faso
Lee Rasheed, Director, Salma Consulting, Afghanistan
Junior Habimana, Victim’s Hope, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Inoussa Baguian, Directeur Général, Fama Films, Burkina Faso
Nader Said-Foqahaa, Founder and Team Leader, Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), occupied Palestinian territories
Pascal Kouladoum Peurngar Neneck Allah-Kauis, Senior Researcher, Centre de Recherche en Anthropologie et Sciences Humaines, Chad
Noura Mahmoud Ahmed, Research Manager, Raagsan, Somalia
Fadi Krdarabo, Programs & Partnership manager, Sened, Syria
Nchanji Derick Nformi, National coordinator, African Relief Service, Central African Republic
Léonce Zatao, National coordinator, Humanitarian Data Support, Central African Republic
Nils Carstensen, Senior advisor, On behalf of: Local2Global Protection, Denmark/Global
Localisation Programme Coordinator, On behalf of: oPt Community-Led Initiative Working Group (CLI WG), occupied Palestinian territories
Localisation Programme Coordinator, On behalf of: Survivor and Community Led Response (sclr) MENA Hub, occupied Palestinian territories
Haneen Zeidan, General Director, Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS), occupied Palestinian territories
Olga Bieliaieva, Cash and Voucher Assistance Officer, NGO Responsible citizens, Ukraine
Riyad Al Najem, CEO, Child Guardians, Syria
Migulia Levgen, Director, Memory 86, Ukraine
Dmytro Dresvianykov, Director, I am Mariupol, Ukraine
Anna Kuleva, Director, Anika, Ukraine
Marvin Parvez, Regional representative, Community World Service Asia, Pakistan
Md. Lutfor Rahman, Research Officer, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Bangladesh
Dr. Shafqat Munir Ahmad, Deputy Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan
Winny Ouma, Executive Director, ICA Foundation Kenya, Kenya
Abdullah Ahmed, Senior Safeguarding Officer, Building Foundation for Development (BFD), Yemen
Svitoslav Surma, Administrator, Community Foundation "Ridnya", Ukraine
Majeda Alsaqqa, General Director, Culture and Free Thought Association, Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territories
Abdi Omar, Director, Sheekadeena, Somalia
Dr Maimon Farah, Executive Director, Puntland Minority Women, Development Organization (PMWDO), Somalia
Amal Syam, WAC’s Director, Women’s Affairs Center, Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territories
Yusuf Mussa, Director, New Access International Somalia, Somalia
Galina Donsca, Director, CF “ICF “V YEDNOSTI NASHA SYLA”, Ukraine
Ivanov Oleksandr, Director, Charitable foundation “Everything will be fine - Ukraine”, Ukraine
Sviatoslav Surma, Development and Innovation Coordinator, Community Foundation Ridnya, Ukraine
Anastasiia Khodishchenko, CVA Expert, Caritas Ukraine, Ukraine
Nataliya Lisafina, Director, Trostianka District Organization of Persons with Disabilities (TROI), Ukraine
Kingsley Okpabi, Program Manager, Jireh Doo Foundation, Nigeria
Amara Nwankpa, Director, Partnerships and Development, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation, Nigeria
Afanasieva Olena, Coordination and Reporting Manager, Charitable Foundation Angels of Salvation, Ukraine
Md Fahad Hossain, Programme Coordinator, LDC Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC)/ International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Bangladesh
