LONDON — The Global Peace Index puts the cost of current humanitarian conflicts on the world economy at $14.2 trillion and rising, with a growing funding gap of about $2 trillion per year. At the same time, the world’s biggest national donor, the United States, is weighing potential cuts of more than 30 percent. Thus many are increasingly looking to the private sector for help.
While it’s mathematically impossible to fill the huge gap with private donors and philanthropy alone, many in that sector are giving more and beginning to look into providing more nuanced, strategic resources, in addition to cash, development experts say. These evolving models of funding and cooperation offer potential new ways to provide humanitarian aid more effectively, and experts are watching them closely for their impact.
As mounting crises in Yemen, Syria, Northern Nigeria and elsewhere squeeze the budgets of humanitarian agencies, the 142 million euro, 30-staff philanthropic arm of the Swedish furniture company IKEA last year noticed that its nonprofit partner, Médecins Sans Frontière, was less and less able to afford the kind of advocacy and communications operations needed to raise the profile of its work. This was particularly true in the most fragile contexts where media attention was lacking.