The State of Surge Capacity in the Humanitarian Sector

The report features recent developments, future trends and lessons learnt around surge response within and beyond civil society.

It further highlights some of the key issues affecting surge and underlines a growing recognition of the important role that local and national actors play in surge response. Better preparedness, enhanced capacity, coordination and collaboration at all levels are vital, with local people being at the heart of any response. In particular, there is a need for much stronger support to the critical role that women play in surge response in order to enable for the most vulnerable populations to be reached.

“This state of surge report shows we are on the right track to more collaborative and locally rooted disaster response. It also shows that we must go further – much further – it cannot be ‘business as usual’ if we are to respond to the increasing demands that are coming our way.” Richard Miller, Humanitarian Director of Action Aid.