Partnerships between donors and humanitarian agencies are a critical foundation of the international response system. Building and maintaining trust between them has been crucial for important agreements including the Grand Bargain and frameworks such as Good Humanitarian Donorship.

At the same time, the collection of large amounts of programmatic data has become normal. Better data on people’s needs and agency responses should lead to better programming and fewer gaps in meeting those needs. However, while there are important developments in sharing open humanitarian data, not all humanitarian data can be shared openly. For example, data about the location of affected people and responders can put people at risk, especially in conflict environments.

This briefing note outlines some of the key questions facing the sector around data-sharing. It was originally produced as a background paper for the Wilton Park 1777 meeting, ‘Responsible data sharing with donors: accountability, transparency and data protection in principled humanitarian action’, which took place online, 17–18 September 2020.