The Humanitarian Response Index

30th November 2007

I was invited to the launch of the Humanitarian Response Index at the RSA yesterday (the speeches are available here, though the Chief Exec hasn’t blogged about it yet).

Kofi Annan launched the report and gave a short speech calling for better links between humanitarian relief and environmental awareness. All the speakers said that humanitarian relief would definitely be a larger part of aid in the future, mainly because of the impact of climate change. There was also discussion about how to bring in the “new kids on the block”, those rich countries outside the OECD (for example, those with large Sovereign Wealth Funds) that currently aren’t signed up to aid and good governance.

The HRI analysis focuses on OECD countries, against criteria that the donors themselves have pledged to stand by. It reminded me of the School Reports compiled by GCE, which ranked the same group of countries on their funding of education.

In a piece of Friday afternoon nerdery, I have plotted the scores of the HRI against the most recent GCE School Report. They aren’t directly comparable indices (GCE includes volume as well as quality), but they do paint a picture of how rich countries act in this field. Scandinavia, the Low Countries, UK and Ireland are the top tier, with the rest of the G7 languishing some distance behind.

Comparing the Humanitarian Response Index 2007 with the Global Campaign for Education’s School Report 2007

Click the graph for a larger version.

(Notes: The GCE index is on the y-axis and is a score out of 100. The HRI is on the x-axis and is a score out of 7. The European Commission appears in the HRI but not the GCE analysis, so is excluded. Interestingly, Canada and New Zealand got exactly the same score in both rankings, but as a result they appear as one dot.)