Whatever humanitarian system emerges from the one that is currently collapsing will need to be built and maintained by nation-state funding, with larger economies footing most of the bill, as is logical and appropriate. 6/6

Insurance, whether risk-pooling, catastrophe bonds, or sovereign risk transfer schemes, needs governments to act as premium payers, reinsurers, or backstop funders. The reality is that most humanitarian crises—especially conflicts—are not insurable through standard private-sector risk models. 5/6

But what about innovative financing mechanisms? These are promising and important, but at their core, they all reduce to insurance models. The insurance schemes needed at this scale ultimately still rely on state participation:... 4/6

Philanthropy is also not the answer. Bill Gates has said that while philanthropies can innovate and take risks, they cannot replace central role of the state in meeting human needs. It is states that have the mandate and the compelling interest in human welfare and a stable global system. 3/6

The private sector can't replace the role of states in humanitarian aid. Corporates can and do contribute, their capacity is constrained by market logic: their obligation is to shareholders, so could never prioritize unprofitable interventions, such as aid to conflict zones or protracted crises. 2/6

Other donor governments will not be able to fill the USAID hole, but should coordinate and collectively triage where to allocate additional emergency funding. The strategy must consider security resourcing for the remaining (mainly local) aid actors.

7. Over 1,000 food kitchens in Sudan, a country with almost 25 million people experiencing acute food insecurity – terminated. www.npr.org/2025/02/27/g...

With crucial datasets now going dark, it is important that the Aid Worker Security Database, and all others that can, #keepcounting