Scoping review on Environmental Footprint of humanitarian assistance for DG ECHO

DG ECHO, just like all humanitarian donors, can indeed have leverage to ensure that the organizations it funds, take into consideration environmental concerns in their programming and delivery of aid, in accordance with the Do No Harm principle and with those of accountability towards affected populations that sit at the heart of their work.

The objective of this review was to take stock of DG ECHO’s position and practices on this issue in view of identifying areas for progress. This review aimed to map out existing environmental mainstreaming initiatives in the humanitarian sector (DG ECHO, other donors) as well as the existing practical tools used by the humanitarian community, which will serve as evidence on which DG ECHO could base its internal reflection in order to identify how it can support its partners in this complex endeavour to reduce their environmental footprint.

This work was carried out in the framework of the INSPIRE Consortium, which aims to support the development and implementation of the humanitarian policies of the Humanitarian Commission. It is supervised by Groupe URD. Preliminary resultats were presented at the DG ECHO Partners’ Conference (Brussels, December 2019) and HNPW (Geneva, February 2020).