Listening is not enough: People demand transformational change in humanitarian assistance

“Our accountability to [affected people] is paramount and must be acted upon. It is non-negotiable, at all times.” This pledge reiterates prior commitments to accountability to affected people (AAP), such as those made in the Grand Bargain and the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Humanity. In light of renewed pledges to being accountable to affected people, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) commissioned Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) to provide a multi-country analysis that explores the recent perceptions of people in ten crisis contexts – Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, and Ukraine – with the aim to provide a snapshot of aid quality from the perspective of affected people, as well as recommendations for action that can address critical, systemic shortcomings.