Humanitarian aid is coming under increasing pressure due to the dismantling of USAID, drastic budget cuts by traditional donors and the global rise of populist forces. The resulting disruptive change in the humanitarian system and its actors also opens up scope for change. As a humanitarian think tank, CHA is accompanying this upheaval from a policy- and practice-oriented perspective – and contributing new ideas and impetus.
The conceptual framework for this is ‘contestation’, which describes an ongoing debate on dominant ideas, institutions and practices and captures how different actors either defend or challenge existing normative orders. We apply this perspective to the humanitarian sector and consider actor-driven transformations, institutional shifts and normative realignments. Contestation is the leitmotif and cross-cutting theme of the 2025-2027 work plan, which focuses on three interrelated priority areas under the mega-theme of ‘Contested Aid’: power shifts, politicisation and prioritisation.
We want to find answers to the following questions:
- Aid antagonists: How do humanitarian actors position themselves in the face of populist public and political attacks that delegitimise international aid? Are antagonistic changes in donor countries accompanied by growing competition or new dynamics of cooperation among humanitarian actors? Which strategies for collective action prove to be sustainable – and what significance do collaborative leadership approaches have in this context?
- Donor Accountability: How can an adequate humanitarian engagement by donor governments be defined and justified? What are possible approaches for evidence-based ‘fair share’ models for public humanitarian budgets? What are the criteria and models for prioritisation processes in times of declining resources based on humanitarian principles versus geopolitical priorities?
- Towards local leadership: To what extent do intermediate financing mechanisms such as pooled funds enable and anchor local leadership? What can or should local leadership look like in such mechanisms? What implications do intermediary mechanisms which aim to structurally embed local leadership have for the broader humanitarian sector/system? Do they contribute to the transformation of the system or to its fragmentation?
Contact: Sonja Hövelmann, Ralf Südhoff & Goda Milašiūtė
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