Concerns over an “increasingly conservative” culture at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) have been highlighted in a new report by the umbrella organisation.
This week, DEC published its strategic review of 2019 to 2024, which also identified that it had “put resources towards some of the already best-funded crises” during the five-year period.
The organisation – whose members are 15 major aid charities including British Red Cross and Save the Children – said the past five years had been an “intense period” of transformation for itself and the wider humanitarian sector.
Its report highlighted key learning points such as DEC’s flexibility in funding, working with local partners and civil society groups, navigating ethical dilemmas, discussions around anti-racism and legacies of colonialism within traditional aid structures.
Meanwhile, DEC’s income fell from £215m the previous year to £32m for the year ending March 2024, according to its latest annual report.
Underfunded crises
DEC launched six appeals – Cyclone Idai, Coronavirus, Afghanistan Crisis, Ukraine Humanitarian, Pakistan Floods and Türkiye-Syria Earthquake – over the past five years, with programmes that took place across more than 15 countries and raised more than £500m.
The report says that that DEC’s appeals over the past five years had largely reflected global trends.
It states: “Aside from the Covid-19 appeals, during this strategic period, the DEC has put resources towards some of the already best-funded crises with the most media attention.
“Internally, the DEC recognises and regularly wrestles with this problem, with one interviewee calling it ‘painful’.
“Although goal four of the DEC strategy addresses this, DEC members noted the organisation could go further in educating the UK public about this disparity, capitalising on its very strong brand recognition and pointing out the disparities of aid globally.”
Risk-aversion concerns
The report says that some humanitarian directors felt that DEC’s internal culture had become “increasingly conservative and bureaucratic with complaints about the high level of questioning” when agencies submitted their proposals.
“This was felt by some to be disrespectful given the competencies and experience in member agencies,” the report states.
“However, procedures are likely to become even more rigorous because of the scale and very high levels of funding for the Ukraine crisis which have created higher expectations for accountable donorship and an increased need for scrutiny.
“As a result, the DEC has had to hire additional staff in the secretariat to cope with rising demand.
“Concerns about risk-aversion centred on perceived reluctance for the DEC to experiment with new ideas and innovation for fear of failure – although the new ambidextrous strategy may be a significant first step in raising the risk threshold.”
Strategy for the next five years
The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated inequality globally and led to a sharp increase of people in need by 2023, the report states.
It says that climate crises will be a leading driver of humanitarian needs in the future, and DEC needs to prepare in this area such as disaster risk reduction, financial safety nets, insurance and anticipatory actions.
“The DEC and its members may need to be creative in achieving this, and find partners better equipped to tackle these issues, given the short spending time frames,” the report states.
The umbrella organisation has also launched its next five-year strategy.
Madara Hettiarachchi, DEC’s director of programmes and accountability, said: “The emergencies we respond to are ever more complex and impacted by geopolitics and climate change, technology is advancing, media consumption is shifting, and new audience needs are emerging.
“The new strategy underpins our mission to raise as much money as possible to save, protect and rebuild the lives of people impacted by major disasters in countries without the ability to respond at scale.
“The DEC aims to ensure we remain a thriving, sustainable organisation, able to launch the right appeals at the right time, and build trust with our audiences.”
DEC’s monitoring process can be found here.
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