Today is World Humanitarian Day, marked each year on 19 August in memory of the 22 humanitarian workers killed in the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. This year’s campaign, #ActForHumanity, carries a blunt message: ‘The time for concern is over. The time for consequence is now.’ According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 326 humanitarian workers were killed across 21 countries in 2025 – more than 1,000 over the past three years. Most were national staff, serving their own communities. 

That last point matters. The people who face the greatest risks in humanitarian response are overwhelmingly local responders. Often, diaspora humanitarians are there to support them, who mobilise money, expertise, and solidarity from countries of settlement. They are usually the first to respond and the last to leave, yet they remain the least resourced and least protected. 

When the cameras move on, the response continues 

Crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Venezuela have been back in the news, with an outbreak of a new strain of Ebola virus in eastern DR Congo in May, and the most powerful earthquakes in over a century striking Venezuela on 24 June 2026. Both countries have faced recurrent, long-term crises for more than a decade. 

In Venezuela, political instability and economic crisis prompted the largest displacement crisis in Latin America, with over 7.6 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries since 2014. The June earthquakes in eastern Venezuela have overwhelmed the capacity of state authorities. There has been a significant, if insufficient, international response: over 6,000 deaths have been reported, and more than 220,000 people have received humanitarian assistance to date. 

In DR Congo, years of conflict in the east of the country have caused mass displacement internally and across borders, exacerbated by alleged Rwandan support for rebel militias until a fragile peace deal was reached in late 2025. Combined with massive international aid cuts, conditions for an infectious disease outbreak were primed, and the Congolese authorities and global public health agencies are struggling to contain an outbreak that risks spreading, with cases detected in Uganda and South Sudan. 

In both cases, diaspora humanitarians and local responders continue to provide vital support even as these crises drop out of short-attention media cycles. In Venezuela, the diaspora is active in mobilising resources and expertise, with organisations such as Healing Venezuela strengthening health systems and distributing food and relief supplies. The Congolese diaspora has mobilised fund, medical supplies, and diaspora health professionals to support communities affected by the Ebola outbreak despite border restrictions, and disseminated critical public health information. 

Nor is this work confined to countries of origin and heritage. Diaspora organisations have also responded to crises in immigration and asylum systems at the borders of Europe and the United States, and supported those affected by anti-migrant policies and media narratives. 

Recognition without resources 

A decade on from the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, where we joined local responders and diaspora humanitarians to advocate for a ‘seat at the table’ of the formal humanitarian system, it can feel as though the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite major global policy commitments such as the Grand Bargain, its successor agreements, and the Pledge for Change, progress in transferring power and resources to local and national civil society in crisis-affected countries remains contradictory. Local responders and diaspora humanitarians have gained recognition and visibility but receive a tiny proportion of humanitarian financing and continue to rely mostly on their own resources and networks – eligible on paper, but too often shut out in practice. 

The numbers behind this year’s World Humanitarian Day make the stakes plain. By the end of May 2026, more than 252 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection, while humanitarian plans had received less than a quarter of the funding required. When the formal system contracts, it is local communities, local civil society, and the diaspora who absorb the shock. 

Peer support for those who stay: relaunching the DHEG 

These experiences inspired us to establish Shabaka’s Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group (DHEG), first as a pilot in partnership with the British Red Cross from 2022 to 2023, then in-house from 2024 to 2025. The DHEG gave diaspora humanitarians a ‘safe space’ to discuss their pain points, needs, and learning openly with their peers, exchanging knowledge, capacity, and expertise. Radical aid cuts in the US and Europe from 2025, and a deepening crisis in the formal humanitarian system, have only intensified the need for this kind of peer support. 

As the humanitarian landscape shifted around us, we took the opportunity to reflect on our priorities and sharpen our focus on how Shabaka can best support diaspora humanitarians and local responders in crisis-affected countries. Since January 2026, that renewed focus has shaped our research on mutual aid, locally led humanitarian action, and the efforts of diaspora humanitarians responding to crises ‘here’ and ‘there’ – in countries of origin, settlement, and beyond. 

From Haiti to Pakistan, from Gaza to Lebanon, Myanmar, Syria, Sudan, and Ukraine, as crises move in and out of media focus, local responders and their diaspora partners continue to provide vital support to affected communities, despite the financial and personal risks and costs involved. They know only too well the fickle nature of political and media attention and of promises of humanitarian financing – and that after the humanitarian caravan has moved on, it is local communities, local civil society, and the diaspora who remain engaged and invested. 

We believe there is a clear and growing need for the DHEG, and we plan to consult former members on relaunching it in autumn 2026. Building on the group’s and its members’ previous work, we want to ensure that the DHEG meets the needs of diaspora organisations and local responders in crisis-affected countries and is more inclusive and internationally focused. 

This World Humanitarian Day, the UN is calling on all of us to support organisations delivering life-saving assistance – particularly local and national responders working in their own communities. We could not agree more. Honouring humanitarians means resourcing, protecting, and standing alongside the local and diaspora responders who stay when the headlines move on. 

For more information about the DHEG, please contact Paul Asquith, Shabaka Senior Advisor, at paul@shabaka.org.