17 May 2026 How frontline communities can drive a better and fairer humanitarian response

Pamela Saab

Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) works with crisis-affected communities around the world to ensure their voices shape the systems that are meant to support them. We’re an international NGO, founded in 2012 on a simple but powerful idea: people receiving aid should be in the driving seat of the support they receive. That they should be heard, not as a formality but as a fundamental principle of humanitarian assistance.

Too often, humanitarian response is shaped from the top down. Aid actors rely on institutional priorities, donor pressures, and legacy frameworks, while the perspectives of people experiencing crisis remain peripheral. They assume what people need and prioritise, rather than asking the question. They deliver what they are set up to deliver, not what communities tell us they need most. We believe this must change. Our work aims to re-centre humanitarian and broader global support systems around the views, priorities, and capacities of the people they serve.

Since we began, we’ve worked in 35 countries, gathering insights from more than 100,000 people living through crisis. Our goal is not just to improve aid effectiveness – it’s to shift power and drive lasting change to whose priorities count. We want aid systems to start from and change in response to the real needs and aspirations of the people they aim to serve.

We face increasingly overlapping crises: climate change, conflict, displacement, inequality, and political repression are combining in ways that put millions at risk while straining the systems meant to respond. Meanwhile, global solidarity is crumbling, aid budgets are shrinking, political and public support for aid is being eroded and space for civic action is narrowing.

Sweeping aid cuts from the US and other major donors meant that humanitarian aid volumes halved from 2024 to 2025, with further reductions planned for 2026, leading humanitarian actors to dramatically narrow the scope of who they can assist and the types of assistance they can provide. The result? Too many people are being left behind, and too many people are being silenced.

And where people are receiving support, it’s often not the support they most need. People we speak to across countries tell us they feel trapped in short-term cycles of humanitarian assistance when what they want is support which helps them realise their future aspirations and escape aid dependency: education, livelihoods, climate-resilient infrastructure.

“It’s short-term assistance we’re getting from NGOs. Give us food, yes, but give us much more something that can serve us in the days to come.” – Angelique,* 25, DR Congo

As humanitarian aid shrinks the importance of community-led and mutual aid efforts – always the first line of humanitarian response – has grown even further. Communities express frustration that their own initiatives to navigate crises are not being recognised and supported. We are working to understand and spotlight these initiatives in communities around the world so they can be better supported and enabled.

We are a small, diverse team, united by a commitment to justice and accountability. We’re motivated by a belief that aid is not charity but a mechanism of solidarity and justice. That people in crisis should not just be helped – they should be heard, respected, and supported to lead.

Together with local partners, we carry out independent perceptions research and dialogue to understand what people are experiencing and what they want to see change. We use this evidence to influence decisions – from programme design and policy reform to how crises are framed globally. Our work helps ensure that people’s perspectives are not only heard but translated into action.

Over 15 years of research makes one thing clear: aid that doesn’t listen, fails.

“The NGOs have come to support the population in distress. But through the ways they’re working they’re helping to fan the flames of division and conflict between members of the community.” – Thierry,* 60, CAR

What we hear is consistent across countries and contexts: people want support that helps them move forward, not just survive. They want decisions to be transparent and participatory. And they want those who hold power – whether governments, donors, or humanitarian actors – to hear their views and be accountable for the choices they make.

Across our work, we focus on four interconnected priorities. We work to support and embolden communities to advocate for their key priorities, and to be heard. We provide the data to help communities drive changes to the aid they receive. We work with communities and local partners to transform systems across humanitarian, development, climate and peacebuilding efforts to address the challenges people face holistically. We aim to build a movement of local actors around the world helping hold aid providers to account. And we aim to change the narratives around global crises, amplifying the voices of those on the front lines.

We know that change isn’t easy, but we also know it’s possible. Communities around the world are already leading. Our role is to listen, support, and help clear the path for more equitable systems of support. We don’t have all the answers, but we do believe the starting point is clear: decisions about how scarce resources are allocated to support people living through crisis must start from the perspectives, priorities and aspirations of those communities.

* Names marked with (*) were changed for confidentiality purposes, but the voices and experiences are real.