In March 2020, when the Ebola outbreak in Eastern DRC was nearing the end, the IRC consulted some affected communities to understand what had changed in their lives due to the Ebola response.

The international response to these crises is already grossly underfunded, and the reductions included in the Fiscal Year 2018 foreign aid budget request would unquestionably serve to widen the gulf between needs and available assistance. United Nations appeals outlining the needs for the largest seven crises around the world, which affect over 78 million people and overlap with conflicts in which U.S. forces are engaged, have an over $10 billion funding gap so far in 2017. In the face of these challenges, cutting the U.S. foreign aid budget as the administration has proposed—a nearly one third reduction overall, with a 46 percent cut to development assistance, a 26 percent cut to global health programs, and a stunning 45 percent cut to life-saving humanitarian assistance—would shirk America’s moral obligations and be self-defeating to its strategic interests.

This report provides an overview and assessment of innovative financing concepts and instruments that could be applied to support the response to refugee crises.