Global Database of Humanitarian Organisations (GDHO)

GDHO is a global compendium of organisations that provide aid in humanitarian crises. The database includes basic organisational and operational information on these humanitarian providers, which include international non-governmental organisations (grouped by federation), national NGOs that deliver aid within their own borders, UN humanitarian agencies, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. 

All the organisations included the database have responded to humanitarian needs in at least one emergency context, individually or in partnership with other organisations, even if their stated mission is not strictly humanitarian. Not included are NGOs devoted to development, human rights, or political causes, or that do not work in emergency settings.

GDHO originated in Humanitarian Outcomes’ research on the global population of humanitarian workers under its ongoing program on Aid Worker Security and provides a global denominator to calculate rates of attack on aid personnel.

GDHO data is also used for the organisational mapping and descriptive statistics in the State of the Humanitarian System reports produced by ALNAP. Individual users can view or download the data in full or filtered by customised search criteria.

The GDHO research team pulls information from public sources and through direct queries, and updates the database each year. For organisations where no information is available, the GDHO algorithm imputes missing figures based on a system of tier averages. A visualization of this system can be found in our process infographic or project summary document. These imputations allow us to estimate totals for the sector, and these figures and analysis are available through our commissioned research (on the public database they appear as blank cells.) Details on our research methodology, imputation algorithm, and coding parameters can be found in the GDHO Codebook.

For information on the GDHO API please contact meriah-jo.breckenridge@humanitarianoutcomes.org.

Humanitarian Outcomes provides this data for non-commercial use by aid practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.