Our story
Ground Truth Solutions was founded in 2012 to shift the focus of the humanitarian system from a supply side approach – doing what aid agencies themselves consider to be the needful – to one that takes its cue directly from affected people.
We believe that recipients of humanitarian aid should have more of a say in how aid is provided.
Our work is based on two traditions of inquiry that continue to drive the core of our work: participatory development thinking and the business world’s emphasis on customers’ perceptions of service.
Through our research, we help them communicate their feedback to policymakers and aid providers in the most effective way possible. We regularly engage with people affected by crisis to discover whether they find humanitarian services relevant and fair, if they trust aid agencies, and whether they feel empowered.
Our goal is to make their perceptions the touchstone and driver of humanitarian effectiveness. To achieve this, we champion the views of people affected by crisis at the global level and wherever decisions about aid are made.
We set up Ground Truth Solutions to bring greater focus to the way refugees and displaced people experience actions taken on their behalf. The goal was to provide a new metric of success within a humanitarian tradition that emphasizes intent over outcomes. Prioritising the views of affected people is no longer challenged. Now we need to move from tacit buy-in to explicit and continuous follow-through.
Nick van Praag, Founder
Interviews with our team
- The customer is king - Trumanitarian [Nick van Praag]
- What does the future of financial assistance mean for your work today? - CashCast [Meg Sattler]
- Making humanitarian services more people-centred and respectful - One Step Forward [Nick van Praag]
- Humanitarian Sci Fi - Trumanitarian [Meg Sattler]
- Haggling for a Grander Bargain - Trumanitarian [Meg Sattler]
- un-Musked - Trumanitarian [Meg Sattler]