The Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative, widely embraced by donor governments in 2003, sought to reaffirm the core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence in the financing of humanitarian assistance. It reinforced the importance of saving lives and alleviating suffering wherever it is found, delivering relief according to need and without discrimination among recipients, refraining from taking sides and keeping humanitarian action autonomous from political, economic and military interests.

Donor governments have made various attempts to examine the extent to which GHD is being rolled out at the country level. As part of this process, this study was commissioned by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in 2008 to explore how GHD and its implementation by donors was affecting humanitarian responses to the needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and communities affected by displacement.