New report highlights need to improve tracking of investment in humanitarian research and innovation

Our latest report, 'Who funds what? Humanitarian research and innovation funding landscape analysis', launched today, is the first attempt at a rigorous process to track humanitarian research and innovation funding allocations through the available financial databases. Assessing the volume and coverage of humanitarian research and innovation investments can help us understand the impact of these investments on the humanitarian system’s performance.

This is why the funding flows analysis is a critical and strategic initiative. This analysis is one part of the Global Prioritisation Exercise (GPE), a mapping exercise to understand the scope of the funding landscape for humanitarian research and innovation.

Tracking research and innovation investments through the humanitarian databases has been extraordinarily challenging. We know that sectors that consistently invest in research and development are more productive and adaptive than those that do not. Our research demonstrates that the humanitarian system is investing in research and innovation. However, our knowledge of where this investment is going and what difference it is making remains patchy at best.

The report finds that:

• The complexity and diversity of the funding mechanism for research and innovation in the humanitarian sector requires better reporting tools to understand how much is being spent.
• There is an urgent need to improve our knowledge about the destination of humanitarian research and innovation funding. This will enable better coordination at all levels of the system to ensure that resources are targeted to areas and populations with the most pressing needs.
• There is a remarkable disparity between the locations of funding recipients compared to the geographical focus of the research and innovation activities themselves; with most of the research and innovation resources both provided and received by actors in high-income countries.

[.slimline-cta-box][.slimline-cta_heading]Download the report [.slimline-cta_heading][.slimline-cta_paragraph]Download the report: ‘Who funds what? Humanitarian research and innovation funding landscape analysis’.[.slimline-cta_paragraph][.slimline-cta-box]