Small, flexible grants for experimentation, learning, and capacity strengthening can provide spillover effects and longer-term value. With recent aid cuts reshaping a smaller humanitarian system pushed to do more with less, certain conditions can determine that the effects of small grants are sustained.
The benefit of small grants lies less in the immediate output than in spillover effects: improved joint analysis and planning, clearer coordination, stronger relationships, and — in the strongest cases — uptake into systems that shape how risks are understood and acted on.
In the changing landscape of global development, small, flexible grants could be a casualty caught in the crossfire of prioritization and greater pressure to demonstrate value.
About the author
Kia Howson
Kia Howson is a researcher at Start Network with experience across the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. She leads research on locally led and conflict-focused anticipatory action, grounded in a commitment to social justice, with a background in inclusive and shock-responsive social protection.
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