The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre recognized for its work with the Humanitarian Observatories over two grants

The Humanitarian Observatories were initially established as part of the ERC-funded Humanitarian Governance project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia and Latin America & the Caribbean (based in Colombia). These are organised spaces where participants, representing multiple actors, discuss a variety of topics in relation to humanitarian governance. Actors can include, for example, national aid providers, civil society actors, research institutions, independent researchers, academics, think tanks and government representatives. These networks of actors observe trends and processes in humanitarian governance and propose changes when needed. Today, there are 12 active Observatories across the world with 3 more on their way as the work of the Observatory Network continues to grow and gain recognition.

The ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) €150 000,00 grant

The project ‘Humanitarian Observatories: Building a Knowledge and Advocacy Network on Humanitarian Governance’ has been running since February 2025 and has funding until July 2026. The grant is an extension of the initial ERC grant that established the first Observatories. 

This project aims to test, demonstrate, and validate the effectiveness of country-based Humanitarian Observatories as a way for localized knowledge-building and reform in the humanitarian field can be advanced: from crisis-affected places. As a development of the ERC-funded HUM-GOV project, Humanitarian Observatories are envisioned as a locally embedded knowledge and advocacy network – a means through which humanitarian governance can be understood, reimagined, or reformed from ‘below’.

Despite efforts for reform within the sector, the influence of actors from crisis-affected countries remains limited and the voices of affected populations are often left out of policy development and strategy, reinforcing unequal power relationships between international aid providers and local actors and further adding to the long-standing critique that humanitarian programming is most often top-down. Humanitarian Observatories contribute to addressing this challenge. Contextually rooted, multi-actor, and self-governing, Humanitarian Observatories, established in areas affected by crises, create space for relevant actors to come together and research, advocate, and work on priorities that they set for humanitarian action and reform in their context. 

Over 18 months, the project will focus on refining methodologies and partnerships, connecting Observatory-generated knowledge with policy/practice realms, strengthening and exploring sustainable pathways for the network of Observatories. 

One of those pathways is to explore further opportunities of projects, funding and collaborative activities as identified relevant by each Observatory and the Network at large, such as the State of the Humanitarian System Report. 

The State of the Humanitarian System (SOHS) report 

As a collaborative front, the Humanitarian Observatories together with the HSC were awarded the lead on the in-country research component of the renowned SOHS report. The SOHS is ALNAP’s flagship report, well regarded in the humanitarian field for being the “only independent, longitudinal study of humanitarian aid performance” and a valuable resource utilised by many humanitarian policy makers.

The Observatories play a key role in leading individual in-country studies, with the Network being consulted as a whole for cross-case analysis and co-reflection. The Observatories in the DRC and Central and Eastern Europe (with a focus on Ukraine) are leading in-country teams as well as an emerging Observatories part of the PoC in Palestine and Myanmar. 

The aim of the consultancy is to conduct research in countries where there is ongoing humanitarian response for the sixth edition of the report where ALNAP aims to prioritize working with nationally-based researchers and to also produce country-specific reports relevant to the different contexts.