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Reinventing Humanitarian Aid Procurement for the Age of AI

Giulio Coppi

Access Now (2026), 59 pp.

"Our research reveals that the organisational use of AI and algorithmic systems often happens through a process of unstructured integration rather than formal adoption. More precisely, cloud-based, algorithmic-enhanced functionalities and processes are making their way into humanitarian entitiesʼ t ... ech stack through updates and add-ons to preexisting products, slowly but inexorably seeping into most internal systems. A price-based procurement process designed around the static idea of digital asset purchase is inadequate to ensure adequate protection from hyperdynamic tech product development. This is especially evident looking at the growing power imbalances between private actors and nonprofits, and among nonprofits themselves. Digital technology is often heralded as key to democratise and equalise the playing field between humanitarian actors, by finally unlocking local actorsʼ access to resources traditionally reserved for international entities. But emerging trends seem to disprove such claims. The lack of adequate legal frameworks and safeguards, lagging investments in humanitarian funding for information and communication technology (ICT) resources and connectivity, and inadequate dedicated funding for digital programmes are thwarting these opportunities. More broadly, virtuous and responsible procurement practices are proving inadequate for protecting human rights alone, as tech companiesʼ commitments to human rights are replaced by defence-oriented pitches and the size of their human rights teams keeps shrinking. Preexisting digital divides are enhanced by several deep and subtle changes in traditional tech business models, resulting from the gradual cloudification of most common digital systems and the fast-paced, distributed nature of modern digital development. Even more worryingly, we are seeing new forms of digital divide well beyond the traditional gaps in digital capacity between local and small non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) or UN entities. Cloud-based companiesʼ takeover of generic coordination platforms creates a constantly broadening chasm between the few organisations that are digitally mature, those who are barely retrofitting their processes to fit the new reality, and the broad majority forced to access the promised land of digital humanitarianism through the predatory gates of algorithmic and cloud servicesʼ free tech licensing. Our findings highlight how organisation-led digital development, building on open-source systems (despite some “openwashing” practices) and trusted external providers, remains the best option for risk reduction when it comes to algorithmic systems. However, in the short to medium term, this might not be financially and technically feasible for the majority of humanitarian actors, especially considering the catastrophic funding environment. To fill this gap, we propose a toolkit in an appendix to this report. This is a foundational governance model for transforming digital procurement from a transactional into a strategic business function, integrated across key organisational departments. By doing so, protection-mandated aid groups could move from running purchase-centred processes, to adopting a dynamic, proactive, and rights-based approach to tech management. This report also contains a set of recommendations for states and donors, the humanitarian community, tech companies, local aid actors and communities, research centres, and cyber experts." (Executive summary, pages 2-3) more

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Effects of Fundraising Alliances on Charitable Donations

Robert J. Fisher, Oliver Rutz

Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, volume 38, issue 2 (2026), pp. 149-168

"Fundraising Alliances (FAs) are independent organizations that fundraise for two or more charities under a separate brand. High-profile examples of FAs include the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in the United Kingdom and the Humanitarian Coalition (HCC) in Canada. FAs are designed to reduce pr ... more

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The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises
Deep Insights

Mel Bunce, Beth Pearson

Deutsche Welle DW Akademie; International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM); UNESCO (2026), 17 pp.

"Economic return: Investigative journalism delivers strong returns. Every US$1 spent on journalism can result in more than $100 in savings to the public through reclaimed funds, improved public services and reduced corruption. Media freedom supports economic growth. A study of 97 countries has show ... more

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Step by Step: How SAFE AI contributes to trustworthy AI

CDAC Network; Alan Turing Institute; Humanitarian AI Advisory (2026), 8 pp.

"Based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework, the seven characteristics of trustworthy AI are: 1. Valid and Reliable: The AI system should perform as intended, delivering accurate results consistently across different situations. 2. Safe: The sy ... more

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SAFE AI: A Governance Framework for Humanitarians using AI. How to turn SAFE AI principles into practical action

Helen McElhinney, Anjali Mazumder, Michael Tjalve, Suzy Madigan, Sarah Spencer

CDAC Network; Alan Turing Institute; Humanitarian AI Advisory (2026), 93 pp.

"The SAFE AI Framework is designed to support humanitarian organisations on their AI journey, and navigate the risks raised. Organisations procuring AI systems or designing AI projects will benefit from each tool within this framework, which is intended as a practical approach to using, designing, p ... more

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Repair work, resistance and the invisible data labour of Lebanon’s digital humanitarian infrastructures

Jenna Imad Harb

Big Data & Society, issue January–March (2025), 13 pp.

"This article draws upon a multi-sited ethnography of everyday labour in Lebanon’s digital cash assistance for Syrian refugees. The datafication of humanitarian infrastructures generates technological breakdown, gaps in data and incredibly strict and cumbersome rules. In response to impediments re ... more

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The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2024
Deep Insights

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) (2025), 31 pp.

"To reflect the neglect faced by both displaced people and their host countries, NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) revised the report’s methodology this year to include refugee-hosting nations experiencing severe crises of their own. As a result, Iran, home to more than six million refugees, and Uga ... more

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Outsourcing accountability: Extractive data practice and inequities of power in humanitarian third-party monitoring

Stephanie Diepeveen, John Bryant, Wasuge Mahad

Big Data & Society, issue January–March (2025), 14 pp.

"Since the early 2010s, humanitarian donors have increasingly contracted private firms to monitor and evaluate humanitarian activities, accompanied by a promise of improving accountability through their data and data analytics. This article contributes to scholarship on data practices in the humanit ... more

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„Das größte lösbare Problem der Welt“: Die mediale Vernachlässigung des Globalen Hungers

Ladislaus Ludescher

Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg (2025), 293 pp.

"Hunger gehört zu den elementarsten menschlichen Erfahrungen. Etwa jeder zehnte Mensch auf der Welt hungert. Jeden Tag sterben etwa 24.000 Menschen an den Folgen von Hunger, etwa alle 13 Sekunden ein Kind unter 5 Jahren. Hunger ist aber keineswegs ein unabwendbares Schicksal. Das Welternährungspro ... more

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Walking the faultline of fear: How affect-inducing risk communication can help promote disaster preparedness

Caroline Rowe, Caroline Orchiston, Fabien Medvecky

Journal of Science Communication, volume 24, issue 6 (2025), 24 pp.

"This paper uses New Zealand’s AF8 [Alpine Fault Magnitude 8] program, designed to build resilience and preparedness for earthquakes, as a real-world example to explore how emotional appeals can affect preparedness intentions within the emergency management sector. Drawing on template analysis of ... more

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Model Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan for Media Institutions
Key Guides

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ed.)

Paris: UNESCO (2025), 17 pp.

"This tool is about transforming vulnerability into strength. It empowers the media to navigate the entire disaster management cycle with precision, from early warnings that pierce the noise to investigative stories that hold those who wield power accountable. It establishes minimum policies and sta ... more

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Care crisis report: Ten humanitarian crises that did not make the headlines in 2024
Deep Insights

London: Care International (2025), 26 pp.

"Humanitarian crises are challenges affecting millions of people. They are diverse and global – be they natural disasters, famine crises, conflicts or wars. However, the attention of the global public is usually focused on a few, particularly prominent crises. With this Crisis Report, which is bei ... more

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US Aid Frozen: A Real Humanitarian Crisis And Lives Will Be Lost

Thomas Byrnes

ICTworks (2025)

"The United States has long held the position of the world’s single largest donor to humanitarian aid, a fact clearly illustrated by data from the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS). In 2024, the US contributed a staggering $13.80 billion to humanitarian efforts globally, representing 43.04% ... more

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WorldCat (316)

Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful

Mirca Madianou

Cambridge: Polity Press (2025), vii, 248 pp.

"With over 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and with emergencies and climate disasters becoming ever more common, AI and big data are being championed as a force for good and as a solution to the complex challenges of the aid sector. This book argues, on the contrary, that digit ... more

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Humanitarian Crisis Coverage Report

Marius Dragomir

Tallinn; London: Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) (2025), 38 pp.

"The central research question — to what extent media representation aligns with crisis severity — underpins an analysis of 78,667 news articles spanning 10 of the world's most urgent humanitarian crises, from Sudan and Ethiopia to Ukraine and Gaza. Drawing from English-language media in eight c ... ountries, the study is based mostly on Western sources and three non-Western outlets to offer a cross-sectional view of editorial priorities in the Anglophone information ecosystem. Key findings demonstrate that global humanitarian coverage is highly uneven. Crises in Gaza and Ukraine dominate international media attention, averaging 58.5 and 19.4 articles per day, respectively. Conversely, some of the world’s most devastating, yet protracted crises—including those in Chad (0.06 articles/day) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1.5 articles/day)—receive little sustained attention. This disproportionate focus does not correlate with humanitarian severity or affected populations. For example, the DRC, where over 21 million people need aid, garners a fraction of the visibility of Gaza, which affects 3.3 million people. These disparities are symptomatic of a broader hierarchy in global journalism. Crises with geopolitical resonance—such as those involving Western allies or adversaries—are amplified, while those centered in the Global South are often sidelined. The study identifies longstanding logics of newsworthiness at play, prioritizing conflict proximity, elite involvement, dramatic visuals, and ideological utility over humanitarian need. Event-driven spikes further distort coverage. Media interest surges during acute developments—such as the Taliban’s return in Afghanistan—but quickly subsides, perpetuating a feeling of “media fatigue.” This inconsistency undermines humanitarian advocacy that depends on sustained public and political engagement. The framing analysis of the Gaza and Ukraine crises conducted as part of this project reveals that the humanitarian lens is the most dominant across media coverage. Articles prioritize imagery of suffering civilians, refugee stories, and basic needs, registering higher average mentions (0.316 per article) than military (0.281) or geopolitical (0.267) frames. However, while framed empathetically, these narratives risk oversimplifying multidimensional conflicts and depoliticizing structural injustices." (Executive summary) more

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Support for Ukrainian Refugees Through Media: Summary of Project Achievements

Paris: UNESCO (2025), 10 pp.

"Through this project, UNESCO strengthened fact-based information exchange between refugees and host citizens as media audience. In doing so, it fostered social cohesion. The project assisted the media in their portrayal of the diversity of viewpoints, and governments in their response to the refuge ... more

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The Identity Work of Journalists and Humanitarians in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians Sites

Rebecca Sutton, Richard Stupart

Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, volume 18, issue 1 (2024), pp. 81-98

"This article interrogates the simplistic juxtaposition of protectors and protected in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, by asking: who was civilian in South Sudan, and how were civilians being protected? We present a civilian landscape that is much broader and more complex than t ... more

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Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience
Deep Insights

Lisa Bradley, Emma Heywood (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2024), xviii, 257 pp.

"Journalists have often been considered the "fourth emergency service". They are first on the scene, alongside paramedics, fi re and police, running towards danger rather than away, and providing independent, veritable and crucial information in the public interest. And yet, unlike frontline workers ... more

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The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2023

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) (2024), 19 pp.

"All crises featured in this year’s report are protracted and have been affecting the lives of communities for years, sometimes even decades. The calamity in Sudan is a stark warning of what happens when neglect deepens and the world turns its back on a crisis. In 2023 Sudan plunged into devastati ... ng warfare, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes and making Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. Despite the severity of the situation, the looming threat of famine and the immense needs, the country remains on this list, and the people of Sudan remain neglected. This year’s list represents a race to the bottom, with Burkina Faso maintaining its position as the world’s most neglected displacement crisis for the second year running. The country saw a record-breaking 707,000 new displacements and hundreds of thousands of people cut off from aid. Media coverage fell as access became more difficult for both journalists and humanitarian organisations. Meanwhile, the situation in the country worsened and needs rose at a rapid pace. Across the world, there was a record-breaking USD 32 billion shortfall in aid budgets, leaving 57 per cent of humanitarian needs unmet in 2023. The human cost of the growing funding gap is high, and it is life-shattering for millions across the world. Neglect has become so ingrained and normalised that the reality of this gap no longer elicits shock. In many of the countries on this list, the gap translates into people not having enough to eat, families fleeing over and over again in search of safety and resources, children unable to access education, and individuals losing their means of earning an income. The funding gap means humanitarian organisations struggling to reach those most in need, selective allocation of aid, and compounding crises. It means that when severe climate disasters hit, people will not be prepared to withstand potentially disastrous consequences. Neglect is also fuelling rising hunger levels across all countries on our 2023 list. Each country is now experiencing, or is predicted to experience, severe levels of hunger. Food insecurity is in turn compounded by cuts or suspension of humanitarian and development funding. Most of the countries are dealing with the effects of conflict both within and outside their borders. War in Sudan spills over into poverty-stricken Chad and South Sudan, while Cameroon grapples with mounting internal pressure amid a broader regional conflict. Protracted neglect has consequences that cross borders and create crises within crises. Society finds itself in a state of crisis fatigue. Travesty after travesty is splashed across news screens but distressing images no longer retain their shock value, and the page is simply swiped, flipped, or clicked away. Amidst this worrying desensitisation and the acceptance of record-breaking statistics from the world’s neglected displacement crises as the new normal, lies the danger of complacency. We must not give up hope and allow ourselves to become numbed by the ceaseless barrage of crises. We need a reboot of global compassion and a refocus on where needs are greatest." (Page 4) more

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Aid and the news agenda: Examining the forces shaping NGO-produced humanitarian media

Michael Sunderland

Bournemouth University, Doctoral Thesis (2024), 268 pp.

"This study examines the external influences that shape NGO-produced news content concerning humanitarian crises in East, West and Central Africa. Employing a thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with humanitarian communicators and a content analysis of the humanitarian press rel ... eases of four major NGOs, it seeks to establish the types of content NGO communications staff consider most effective for achieving mainstream media coverage, how they access such content, and any forces influencing their eventual production of news. In line with notions of media logic (Altheide and Snow 1979; Cottle and Nolan 2007) and news cloning (Fenton 2010), it uncovers a reliance on hard-hitting humanitarian statistics and powerful first-person testimonies, which are considered essential for achieving news coverage. Statistics are found to be most often sourced from publicly available humanitarian datasets, often managed by the United Nations, and are considered susceptible to politicisation by authorities implicated in certain crises. First-person testimonies are usually gathered in-person by NGO staff and are affected by issues of physical access to crisis zones including monitoring by local authorities and demands for media sign-off. Additionally, a humanitarian NGO’s decision on whether to speak out publicly about a crisis is found to be often weighed up against threats to staff and programme safety. Examining these issues through a lens of agenda building theory (Cobb and Elder 1971), this study introduces the concept of agenda erosion, describing the phenomenon by which powerful actors, including host authorities and western governmental and intergovernmental donors, exert influence to undermine agenda building activities by NGOs in the context of humanitarian crises. Methods of agenda erosion might include demanding sign-off of media content, the control of physical access to crisis zones for communications staff, and the politicisation of humanitarian data. Unlike the traditional view of NGOs being producers of information subsidies (Gandy 1982), this concept recognises that, as news producers, NGOs also accept information subsidies, including humanitarian data, from other actors. These subsidies are used by NGOs to increase their own agenda building effectiveness but can also allow other, potentially conflicting, priorities to influence the media agenda too. NGOs are now widely regarded as important players in the production of international news (Cottle and Nolan, 2007; Cooper, 2011; Powers 2018) and these findings suggest agenda erosion is in-part responsible for the continuing adherence of aid organisations to established patterns of news construction (Cottle & Nolan 2007; Fenton 2010; Waisbord 2011; Powers 2018). Only crises with hard-hitting data or emotive personal stories are likely to achieve mainstream media coverage but exposure to such sources is often closely guarded by the most powerful actors in certain crises. As a result, some crises continue to go underreported and NGOs risk being silenced or, worse, used as proxy mouthpieces by powers implicated in the humanitarian context to which they are attempting to respond." (Abstract) more

The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises Deep Insights

The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2024 Deep Insights

Model Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan for Media Institutions Key Guides

Care crisis report: Ten humanitarian crises that did not make the headlines in 2024 Deep Insights

Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience Deep Insights

The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises
Deep Insights

The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2024
Deep Insights

Model Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan for Media Institutions
Key Guides

Care crisis report: Ten humanitarian crises that did not make the headlines in 2024
Deep Insights

Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience
Deep Insights