Lack of accountability, not budget cuts, is the real humanitarian crisis

Abstract

The impact of funding cuts on refugees and displaced communities is being framed as a crisis of resources. But this moment is better understood as a crisis of legitimacy. The current model excludes affected communities from decision-making and is structurally flawed, prioritising donor agendas over the needs of refugees. Aid systems are being questioned by donors and affected communities because they are unaccountable. Despite frameworks for accountability, the entrenched hierarchy within the aid system reinforces colonial and racial biases and focuses on risk-averse approaches that cannot produce transformative change. This is an opportunity to overhaul the humanitarian system that never fully served refugees in the first place and is predicated on participatory budgeting, local community oversight, and direct funding to refugee-led organisations.