By Clara Egger

This graph compares the prevalent sector of activities of national and international organisations. Different groups of sectors can be identified, based on their prevalence. 

Overall, the predominant sector of intervention for organisations in the Humanitarian Organisations Database (HOD) is health. 

A second group of highly important sectors are protection, food aid and food security and education. Yet their importance diverges for international and national actors. International actors appear to be more active in protection activities than national ones. This may be linked to the fact that, in some conflict settings, national actors face more obstacles to engage in protection activities than international actors. 

A third group gathers early recovery, WASH activities and disaster risk reduction programmes. Our data reflect that national actors are more engaged in early recovery and prevention activities than international ones. This reflects the long-standing criticism about the reactive nature of international humanitarian intervention. In contrast, national actors appear to be more concerned with strengthening the resilience of their community. In comparison, activities in the shelter and non-food items and security areas are less predominant but equally important for international and national actors. 

The last group gathers more marginal and specialised activities, mainly implemented by international actors such as logistics, emergency telecommunications, camp coordination and management and coordination.

This Expertise Note was contributed by Dr Clara Egger in collaboration with the Humanitarian Encyclopedia team, based on analysis of the Humanitarian Organisation Database (HOD).