One of the Department for International Development's top 3 priorities is leading the United Kingdom's response to crises. Crises are emergencies—caused by, for example, conflict, natural disaster, disease, or climate change—anywhere around the world which have a humanitarian consequence and which can impact on a country's development. Crises may occur suddenly or develop over time.
Since 2011 the Department has responded to over 30 crises. In 2014–15, it spent £1.4 billion of its annual budget of £9.4 billion on humanitarian assistance—a reasonable proxy for its spending responding to crises. The Department works with a number of different organisations when responding to crises—multilateral organisations, for example, and other government departments such as the Ministry of Defence.
This review looks at how the Department prepares to respond to crises, how it manages its own resources and works with partners, and how it learns lessons from its interventions. The reviews draws on 5 case studies to illustrate the challenges the Department faces:
- the Syrian conflict
- the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone
- the Yemen conflict
- the Nepal earthquake
- food insecurity in the Horn of Africa.
