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Explore the latest news, stories, blog posts, and press releases from Ground Truth Solutions.
‘We are not getting the support we need to lead a better life’: Communities on the front lines of climate change don’t have a say in the help they receive
People on the front lines of the climate crisis in Bangladesh see the assistance they receive as unfair, insufficient and feel responders don’t listen to their views, reveals research released tomorrow by Ground Truth Solutions, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Modality preferences: Are uninformed choices leading us down the wrong road?
Cash and voucher assistance, or CVA, is a clumsy term. Cash can be spent on anything, while on a scale of choice, dignity and empowerment, community feedback shows that vouchers are far closer to in-kind assistance. Grand Bargain signatories agreed to increase the use of cash and “build an evidence base to assess the costs, benefits, impacts, and risks of cash relative to in-kind assistance and vouchers.” Several donor policy documents show a clear preference for unconditional cash over vouchers or in-kind aid. So why do so many people in crisis regions report preferring vouchers?
Systems change, inside and out
We have always thought that affected people’s opinions about aid should be the indicators of its quality. For ten years, Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) has asked people to share their perceptions of humanitarian assistance, aiming to understand how people view the quality of the aid they receive and helping them influence efforts undertaken on their behalf. We communicate this feedback to policymakers and aid providers with the goal to make affected people’s perceptions a key driver of humanitarian effectiveness, aiming to champion the views of people affected by crisis wherever decisions about aid are made.
‘It is not easy, but one cannot give up’
When it comes to climate change adaptation in affected communities, top-down approaches where international- and national-level decision-makers drive interventions do not work. In recognition of this, efforts to promote locally led adaptation (LLA) have been growing steadily and in August 2022, over 100 organisations endorsed eight core principles to strengthen the movement.
A decade in the trenches of accountability – and so much still to accomplish
Relinquishing the leadership of Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) to Meg Sattler got me thinking about what we have achieved in trying to forge a humanitarian system that is more responsive to the real needs of people it’s meant to benefit.
Accountability is about leadership, not mechanisms. Why we need to stop ‘doing’ AAP
There is a lot of talk about accountability to affected people and a profusion of mechanisms supposed to make it happen, yet there is little evidence of meaningful improvement. After more than a decade of effort, why have we failed to make accountability happen?
Partners not participants: reflections on capacity-strengthening projects in Afghanistan
Reflecting on lessons learned from implementing capacity-strengthening projects with national non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan, Mohammad Rateb Shaheed and Isabella Leyh argue for a significant shift in the ways in which such projects are conceptualised and implemented, recommending a focus on sustainability and a recognition that national NGOs are teachers as well as learners.
Everyone’s doing stuff but nobody’s accountable – will Grand Bargain 2.0 set us right?
The international humanitarian community is gearing up for a reset of the Grand Bargain. The review is on cue. Over the past couple of decades, new humanitarian reform initiatives have succeeded one another every five years or so.
Trumanitarian podcast: Humanitarian Sci Fi
In this episode Meg Sattler of Ground Truth Solutions talks to Paula Gil Baizan from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Humanitarian Innovation and what fundamental reform looks like within the sector.
The case for letting go of humanitarian reform
For all the earnest talk about reforming the humanitarian system, there is little to show for it. This collective inaction problem is entrenched but there is a pathway to change – if we are prepared to adopt a less prescriptive approach.
Trumanitarian podcast: The Customer is King
No activity is complete without its own dedicated podcast. Lars Peter Nissen, who directs ACAPS, is at the origin of many original ideas on humanitarian affairs and his new podcast, the Trumanitarian, is his foray into this space.
Polls are not a substitute for dialogue with your constituents: what can we learn from the US elections?
Pollsters are struggling to explain why they were so off the mark in what they predicted would be a convincing victory for now President-Elect Joe Biden.
Ten things we’ve learned about tracking perceptions
Back in the early days of Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), the field director of an international relief agency was incredulous when told that our work entailed tracking how people affected by humanitarian crises perceive the provision of aid. ‘Why should I care about the perceptions of affected people?’, he asked.
Accountability to affected people is not a solo act
More often than not, I bristle when asked whether Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) makes a difference in improving the lives of crisis-affected people. The implication seems to be that we have failed to deliver if our efforts have not yet put them in the driver’s seat of humanitarian action.
COVID-19: Listening will mean life or death to millions
As we grapple with the twin health and economic crises created by COVID-19, nowhere is this challenge greater than in the camps and shanty towns that are home to the world’s 70 million refugees and displaced people.
Building and busting trust in humanitarian action
Several years ago in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp I witnessed a refugee official glad-handing Syrian refugees as he went about his daily rounds, the very picture, to me at least, of a trusting relationship. Later, back in Amman, I described the scene to a Syrian refugee friend. Talking is good, she told me, but it’s not enough. Amidst the skewed power dynamics in the humanitarian space, there’s more to relations between aid providers and recipients than meets the eye.