Will a “grand bargain” solve the humanitarian funding crisis?

The aptly titled report, Too important to fail from the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing was launched in Dubai yesterday. Does it offer viable solutions to the widening gap between humanitarian needs and available resources? Is the “grand bargain” it offers enough to transform a struggling aid system?

All eyes are on humanitarian financing in 2016. The World Humanitarian Summitin May is fast approaching and the launch of the report comes against a backdrop of the displacement of millions of people in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Iraq and other disaster and conflict-affected countries. Their suffering reminds us of the need to get this right fast.

The report contains many good ideas; the strongest and most exciting are those that speak to audiences beyond the usual humanitarian crowd. For example, giving middle-income countries access to grants and low-income loans to finance large-scale refugee hosting, working with the insurance industry to adapt its risk-financing strategies to humanitarian situations, and tapping into the billions of dollars generated each year through Islamic social finance.