Putting people first in humanitarian operations
Where we work
Our mission is to ensure that people affected by crisis have a say in humanitarian action, from individual projects to global humanitarian reform.
We have a broad geographic focus working across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific ensuring we are listening to, and working with, people in locations where there is greatest need. We regularly review our geographic focus, considering evolving circumstances including new health, natural disaster, and human-made complex emergencies.
Our approach
Ground Truth Solutions works with people affected by humanitarian crises to understand how they experience the quality and effectiveness of aid provision, and to help them influence the efforts undertaken on their behalf. Our main research methodology is rooted in two traditions of inquiry: participatory development thinking, combined with the business world’s emphasis on customer satisfaction. We examine how affected people see the relevance and fairness of the support they receive, whether they know what to expect, how to seek recourse and if they feel safe. We also want to know if people feel able to take control of their lives and whether they trust and respect those providing aid.
To learn more, we discuss these issues with people in focus groups and interviews. We triangulate what people tell us with factual information collected by aid agencies as part of their regular programme monitoring. We engage with affected people regularly and systematically, to understand important trends in their views. Then we feed back findings from our work to aid providers and policymakers, aiming to increase accountability and improve programme quality. Our surveys of humanitarian workers provide additional insight for managers and donors trying to make sense of and respond to the way things look on the ground.