History and evolution of humanitarian aid
- Page updated onJune 13, 2025
Humanitarian crises have not always been the same. Neither has the way of responding to the needs of the people affected by them nor the objectives of these actions. Knowing the history of humanitarian action and its main milestones allows us to understand the factors that have made us evolve the principles and practices of our interventions, the necessary advances in the coordination and professionalization of a sector in continuous growth since its origin, and where this field is heading in the response to new crises.
Table of contents:
The origins of humanitarian action
Throughout the centuries there have always been natural disasters and conflicts. There has also been altruism, in many different forms and under different justifications, including philosophical and religious ones. Charity has always had a place in the teachings of Christianity or Islam, for example. However, there are hardly any records of more or less organized humanitarian aid before the 19th century, when communications began to make great strides. At that time, empires such as the British Empire used humanitarian assistance for disasters and famines in some of their colonies to maintain social order and thus their political power.
The 19th Century: Henry Dunant, Solferino and the Red Cross
The turning point of this era came in 1859, thanks to the solidarity of the women of an Italian village and the testimony of a Swiss merchant. This merchant, named Henry Dunant, witnessed the Battle of Solferino during a business trip. The battle involved three hundred thousand soldiers from Swiss and Austro-Hungarian troops, armed with rifles and bayonets, lined up along an eleven-kilometer front.
After the battle, the nearby town of Castiglione della Pieve and everything in it that could serve as shelter had been turned into an improvised hospital for wounded French and Austrian soldiers. Thousands of soldiers who had survived the battle died there from wounds, infections, hunger, and thirst. Dunant saw how the local population mobilized as best they could to provide assistance and helped organize groups of women who distributed bandages, food, and water, cleaned wounds, and offered comfort to the injured, regardless of their side or nationality. "They are all brothers" became the motto of these women who faced the horror and relieved the suffering of so many in a spontaneous and selfless way.
Dunant realized that altruism and the will to help were not enough. Collaboration and coordination were also necessary. Therefore, he asked a question that would change everything. “Would it not be possible, in times of peace and calm, to form relief societies with the purpose of providing care to the wounded in times of war, made up of enthusiastic, dedicated, and fully qualified volunteers?” This question would stay with him throughout his life, starting with the founding of what would become the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863. This milestone in the history of humanitarian action was followed by a diplomatic conference in 1864 that laid the foundations of International Humanitarian Law. Dunant was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, nine years before his death.
The first half of the 20th century: humanitarian assistance in World War I and World War II.
The newly created International Committee of the Red Crossassisted thousands of people during World War I (1914-1918), repatriating wounded, reuniting families separated by the conflict and monitoring compliance with the Geneva Conventions. During the same period, the United States provided humanitarian assistance to Europe to deal with the famines that plagued it.
After the war, the League of Nations was established (which would give rise to numerous organizations and agreements for the protection of populations affected by conflicts), Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in numerous countries, the first High Commissioner for Refugees and created the first non-governmental organization dedicated to humanitarian assistance to civilian population (Save the Children), which would be followed by many others, such as Plan International (during the Spanish Civil War).
The incipient and newly created humanitarian system, however, was not yet prepared for what was to come in the following years. Although during the Second World War (1939-1945) new organizations (such as IRC, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam or CARE) appeared to provide assistance to affected populations, the scale of this conflict posed a challenge to all of them. The magnitude of the war exceeded the response and coordination capacity of humanitarian efforts, which could not overcome the restrictions imposed by the belligerent states.
The humanitarian principle of neutrality was put to the test in the face of terrible war crimes. In this context, the ICRC not only lacked the mandate to protect people sent to Nazi concentration camps, but also failed to condemn the atrocities of the Holocaust (thus maintaining the possibility of offering some humanitarian assistance to prisoners of war), while the German Red Cross Society served the Nazi totalitarian regime. All this evidenced the fragility of the humanitarian system, which was not yet well developed.
After World War II: A united world... and a cooled world
The great development of international cooperation would come after World War II, with the creation of the United Nations, the founding of new NGOs, and the development of international humanitarian law, consolidating the humanitarian system as we know it today. In addition, numerous key milestones in this period were shaping the sector.
The global momentum of the United Nations and international NGOs
After the first United Nations General Assembly in 1946 and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, some of the agencies we know today began to be created. UNICEF was created that same year in 1946 to initially provide food assistance to the children of Europe. The WHO came into existence in 1948. UNHCR was created in 1950 (from the International Refugee Organization, which in turn grew out of the Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) to protect refugees and displaced persons. A U.S. initiative for food aid in 1961 eventually led to the creation of the World Food Program in 1961. The United Nations system continued to grow and evolve in the following years.
In this same period new non-governmental humanitarian organizations emerged, such as World Vision (in 1950, to respond to the humanitarian needs of the Korean War), Caritas (in 1951, grouping together a large number of already existing Catholic organizations), Danish Refugee Council (in 1956, when a group of Hungarian refugees arrived in Denmark), Concern Worldwide (in 1967, during the Biafra war), Medics Without Borders (1971, also in Biafra), Mercy Corps (1979, after the Cambodian genocide), Action Against Hunger (1979, for the response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan), International Medical Corps (1984, also in Afghanistan), along with many others. All these organizations played important roles in the response to the humanitarian crises of that time, with enormous successes and mistakes, the analysis of which helped to professionalize and improve humanitarian action.
A breakthrough slowed by the Cold War
Although this period saw the publication of the Humanitarian Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 1965, their implementation was greatly compromised by the geopolitical context of the Cold War. The confrontation of the Western and Soviet blocs and the political or military interests of the superpowers restricted the countries to be assisted with humanitarian action and the organizations - highly subject to political pressures - that were allowed to intervene.
In the Biafra war that began in 1967, independent NGOs demonstrated the capacity to intervene with direct humanitarian assistance in areas controlled by rebel groups, thus overcoming the limitations of the ICRC (which ceased its operations because it could not do so with neutrality) and the United Nations (which did not intervene for political reasons).
Although the following decades would see important advances, such as the study in the 1970s of the causes of famines in places like Cambodia and the countries of the African Sahel, or the initial development of early warning systems to respond quickly and adequately to crises, or the advances in the 1980s of communication and fund mobilization strategies, it would be the end of the Cold War in 1991 that would mark the evolution of changes in humanitarian contexts and response.
The end of the Cold War and the transformation of humanitarian action
The 1990s saw a huge change in the nature of conflicts and the dynamics of humanitarian contexts as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991, as well as a major transformation in humanitarian action.
The nature of conflicts and humanitarian emergencies is being transformed...
On the one hand, new conflicts, many of them civilian, now had a much greater impact on the civilian populations and the political stability of the affected countries. In humanitarian crises such as those in Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Somalia or Rwanda, natural disasters overlapped with political causes, violence, forced displacement, epidemic outbreaks and famine that disproportionately affected the civilian population, with a level of complexity that required professional, quality and scaled humanitarian interventions.
The humanitarian crisis in Rwanda and its neighboring countries in the African Great Lakes region is possibly the tragedy that has most influenced subsequent reforms of the humanitarian system. In 1994, in just a few months, genocide and civil war resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000 people and the forced displacement of more than 3 million people within Rwanda, to Zaire and to Tanzania, where approximately another 80,000 people died victims of cholera and dysentery. The disaster exposed the political, diplomatic and military failure of the international community, and the weaknesses of a humanitarian response involving more than 200 actors.
...and humanitarian action is being transformed
The 1990s was also the time when humanitarian aid managed to detach itself (at least in part) from the ideological struggle of the superpowers and their influence on crises and the humanitarian system.
This resulted in an expansion and professionalization of humanitarian actors and their coordination mechanisms, an increase in humanitarian interventions in conflict zones and (the newly coined) complex humanitarian emergencies, the integration of a vision of human rights that went beyond mere immediate assistance, the linking of action in emergencies with post-crisis recovery and development programs, and a reaffirmation of humanitarian principles that eventually favored their application. In fact, it was not until 1991 that the United Nations finally recognized the principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality (that of independence from political powers would not be recognized until later, in 2004).
All this allowed the end of the 20th century to witness other important substantive changes in humanitarian action, as a result of the impulse of more and more actors and the commitment to self-criticism, learning and improvement.
In 1991, a new humanitarian coordination framework with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in 1992 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee was established, a major Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda and the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief were published in 1994, and in 1997 the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in humanitarian action (ALNAP), the Sphere project for improving the quality of humanitarian action, and its Humanitarian Charter were established.
Humanitarian action in the 21st century
Humanitarian system reform and major humanitarian crises
With the turn of the century, milestones in humanitarian action continued to unfold. In 2003, the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (the origin of today’s Core Humanitarian Standard) was launched. Crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and Darfur (Sudan) presented new challenges for humanitarian principles. The 2005 humanitarian reform aimed to improve financing, coordination, and the response capacity of humanitarian actors, leading to the implementation of the cluster approach and the establishment of the Central Emergency Response Fund, among other developments.
The following years witnessed the 2010 earthquake in Haiti (and the subsequent cholera outbreak that caused 10,000 deaths), the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2013-2016, the onset of other massive humanitarian crises such as those in Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza (among many others) a new humanitarian reform initiative originating from the significant World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, the consolidation of cash transfers as an intervention modality, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Many things have changed since Solferino...
There are no longer wars between battalions of soldiers fighting in the open as in Solferino. Whereas in the past 90% of conflict deaths were military, today an estimated 90% are civilian deaths..
Not only has the nature of conflict changed, but the importance of climate change, disaster risk reduction, security management, mental health, the potential of digital tools, gender equality or the link between humanitarian action, peace and development have come to the fore, changing how the complexity of crises is addressed.
The amount of funds allocated to humanitarian action per capita has increased by more than 15% per year since 1995, doubling every decade since 1990, and taking up an increasing share of Official Development Assistance. Nevertheless, they remain insufficient to meet humanitarian needs, which have grown even faster, both in impact and duration, with crises lasting much longer than before.
For all these reasons, the humanitarian system continues to evolve and adapt to new times, overcoming challenges and renewing itself to be more effective, efficient and transparent.
2025: From the dismantling of USAID to the Humanitarian Reset
At the beginning of 2025, the new U.S. administration temporarily paused all USAID-funded projects (responsible for about 40% of global public humanitarian funding). This first move was apparently cushioned by waivers for key humanitarian emergency response projects. However, just days later, the new administration continued to issue orders to finalize most of the projects funded by this agency, as well as to temporarily or permanently suspend the contracts of most of its staff.
The dismantling of USAID meant that plans to simplify and streamline the humanitarian system were forced to accelerate. The worst predictions had come true, causing the humanitarian system to be in the biggest funding crisis in its history by the start of the second quarter of 2025. While virtually all humanitarian organizations were trying to adapt to the new situation and rethink how they could continue to ensure humanitarian assistance in the most vulnerable contexts, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) launched a new reform of the sector: the Humanitarian Reset.
Within the framework of the Humanitarian Reset, the global humanitarian architecture mobilized in the second quarter of 2025 to conduct an exercise to prioritize operations and reimagine the way the new humanitarian system will work. This process, still unfinished as of June 2025, has unfolded under great financial pressure and under the watchful and critical eye of those who do not believe that the apparent reset approach will bring about the change in leadership and strategic direction that the humanitarian system needs.
Related blog articles:
Core concepts
External links
- ICVA, 2025. The IASC Humanitarian Reset examined: A strategic briefing for NGOs.
- Fletcher, 2025. ERC Letter to IASC Principals: The Humanitarian Reset.
- IECAH y MSF, 2023. From 2003 to 2023: Some key elements of humanitarian action in the 21st Century.
- Slim, 2022. Solferino 21. Warfare, Civilians and Humanitarians in the Twenty-First Century.
- Anderson, 2018. History of humanitarian emergencies.
- Sphere, 2015. The Sphere story, a video documentary.
- Sphere, 2014. Twenty years after the Rwandan genocide: the unfinished accountability revolution.
- Slim, 2010. Humanitarianism and the Holocaust: Lessons from ICRC’s Policy towards the Jews.
- Tsunami Evaluation Coalition, 2006. Joint Evaluation of the International Response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
- Salama, 2004. Lessons learned from complex emergencies over past decade.
- Burkle, 1999. Lessons learnt and future expectations of complex emergencies.
- ODI, 1996. The Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda: Study III Principal Findings and Recommendations.
- Dunant, 1862. A memory of Solferino.
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