Background to GHD

In the development field, donors have worked together since the 1960s to define good practice and promote aid coordination. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has provided one of the main forums for this work. Humanitarian aid, however, did not form part of these debates.

In the mid-1990s, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the Red Cross and United Nations (UN) agencies involved in humanitarian assistance decided to create their own specific guidelines. They undertook the important work of defining their responsibilities under international law, and setting standards against which they could be accountable. The outcomes of this work included theCode of Conduct for Disaster Relief and theSphere Project (2000). The pivotal role of donors in providing effective and accountable humanitarian assistance remained outside the scope of this work.

The Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative seeks to define the principles that should inform donors' practice.

GHD was launched in Stockholm in 2003, with further meetings in Ottawa in 2004,  New York in 2005 and Geneva in 2006. and Geneva in 2007

 Meetings are held annually to review progress and decide on priorities for the year ahead.

Last updated: 10 July 2006

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