The New Humanitarian Annual Report 2020

Executive summary

Introduction After years creating the building blocks of a successful media non- profit, is now reaping the benefits of those investments. 2020 wasn’t just our 25th year reporting from the heart of crises – it was a breakthrough year in terms of both our visibility and our impact.

At a time when COVID-19 dealt a critical blow to the media sector, we thrived. The pandemic has pushed our beat into the global limelight and reminded audiences around the world of the importance of reliable information about crises.

We produced increasingly valuable insights into the realities on the ground in COVID-affected countries for a growing number of readers, while ensuring that other crises were not forgotten amid the focus on the pandemic.

We invested in more agenda-setting reporting and adopted more strategic approaches to audience engagement, brand-building, and distribution partnerships.

We experimented with new revenue streams and strengthened our compliance measures and due diligence standards.

And as we marked our 25th anniversary in a pivotal year for a humanitarian response sector hit by two world-changing events – a global pandemic and a worldwide movement for racial justice – we drove an important conversation on the future of aid.

2020 at a glance

25 years of reporting from the heart of crises

A doubling of More than 9 8 awards and our audience to 550 reports investigations nominations 370,000 monthly readers

21,000 new followers on 957,536 views 51,242 podcast 455 new social media for a on YouTube downloads members total of 170,000

7 new funding 5 The New More than 30 142 territories contracts and a Humanitarian high-level speaking covered total of 20 donors events engagements The New Humanitarian Annual Report 2020

Thriving during a difficult year

The COVID-19 pandemic has been supporters alike with the nuance, realities on the ground for themselves. described as an “extinction event” balance, and depth of our work. We provided essential information to for journalism. But in a year when policymakers about the impact of In 2020, we more than doubled our many news organisations had to lay the pandemic on communities in the audience year on year; we increased off staff, take pay cuts, or shut down Global South, when usual channels of our income at a time of funding altogether, The New Humanitarian not information were no longer working. cuts; we signed up more than 450 only weathered the storm, but went readers to become members, directly Our funding model shielded us from from strength to strength. supporting our journalism with both the economic shock of significant In 2020, our humanitarian beat their donations and their ideas; and drops in advertising revenue, and took centre stage globally, amid we grew our staffing to meet the a newly launched membership COVID-19 and a worldwide fight for increasingly urgent need for our programme became the latest of our racial equality, as well as the ongoing journalism. revenue diversification efforts. effects of climate change and global We bucked many of the negative Finally, our track record for accuracy migration. trends seen across the journalism made us a trusted source for local And yet despite this renewed sector, and proved that non-profit people in countries like Tanzania, recognition of the importance of media that offer a clear public service , and Peru, amid deadly dis- reliable information about crises, such and are valued by their readers can and mis-information about the virus, journalism remains under-serviced, be resilient in the face of challenges. as well as government cover-ups as demonstrated by our 2020 reader about its real toll. Our agile, globally distributed team survey. and network of journalists in some 70 The New Humanitarian has emerged As one of the only newsrooms countries around the world enabled from COVID-19 stronger than we went worldwide specialising in reporting on us to continue reporting when other into it. crises through a network of reporters media organisations were hamstrung, on the ground, The New Humanitarian and when aid professionals were has attracted new readers and often unable to travel to assess the

Editorial production Number of Stories

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News

News feature

Opinion

Cheat sheet

Analysis

Feature

Maps and graphics

Special report

Interview

Investigations

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Podcast

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In-depth

About us

Our journalism in 2020

The New Humanitarian’s journalism seeks to do three things:

Provide in-depth, field- Shine a spotlight on Cast a critical eye over based perspectives on forgotten stories and the emergency aid sector humanitarian crises emerging trends

We documented the impact of We launched a new She Said series We offered deep reflections on COVID-19 on crisis zones, providing focused on the impact of crises the past 25 years of humanitarian objective, informed perspectives on women and girls, and telling action and the potentially for policymakers and affected women’s stories through women’s transformative impact of COVID-19 people alike. voices. and Black Lives Matter.

We highlighted the devastating We flagged the deteriorating We reported on racism in the impact of enduring conflict and situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray sector, and welcomed opinion protracted crises in , region, skyrocketing violence pieces from a diverse range of Bangladesh, the Democratic and increasing displacement in voices who shared their own Republic of Congo, Syria, and Burkina Faso, and rising militancy stories of , as well beyond. in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado. as ideas for the way forward.

We flagged abuses against We zeroed in on how climate-linked Our investigations exposed displaced people – from Libya disasters are overlapping and neglect and abuses of power by to the US-Mexico border – and locking communities in a perpetual aid agencies, from sexual abuse underlined the many other rebuild. in the Ebola response in Congo, to challenges they face. the failure to dismiss a senior staff member accused of racism, abuse, and misconduct in . The New Humanitarian Annual Report 2020

Places we reported from in 2020

Our impact In 2020, our coverage of humanitarian NGOs and UN agencies involved. themes at conferences, boardroom crises informed decision-making in The story reached a global audience meetings, and humanitarian network the interest of those most affected with coverage in major publications events. For example, Director Heba at the highest levels. For example, around the world, from the New Aly gave a keynote speech to launch our reporting of the refugee crisis in York Times to the BBC. A separate Humentum’s OpEx365 – a year-long Bangladesh served as evidence in a investigation looked into accusations series of virtual learning for the global petition by Rohingya victims’ lawyers of racism, abuse, and misconduct development community to re-imagine to the International Criminal Court, against the Sudan office head of one their work – on how the pandemic and and our analysis of lessons from past of the world’s leading charities. He the Black Lives Matter movement have pandemics and epidemics helped to was finally fired just as we were about transformed traditional conceptions shape NGO strategies for responding to publish. of . to COVID-19. Our Rethinking Humanitarianism By making humanitarian issues more We provided greater accountability series drove a range of existential accessible to a wider audience, we and transparency in the aid sector: conversations about the aid sector, raised awareness of forgotten crises In one investigation, we uncovered including around its neo-colonial and inspired further support: One claims by more than 50 Congolese roots, the push for decolonisation, and reader, for example, donated money women that they were sexually abused emerging models for the future. These to a woman featured in our report on and exploited by aid workers during conversations continued across Venezuelan migrants facing rising an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic various channels, and we were soon xenophobia in . Republic of Congo, prompting fielding at least one request per week investigations from several of the for speaking engagements on these The New Humanitarian Annual Report 2020

Our audience

In 2020, we saw a remarkable increase in average monthly We launched a membership programme in May, allowing website users to 370,000, up from 170,000 in 2019. This our readers to become part of a community that believes in growth was partly a response to the pandemic – during our work and supports it financially. Members have access which audiences worldwide sought out information to our staff, to exclusive products and events, as well as to they could trust about the virus – but it was also due to: each other. By the end of the year, almost 500 members improvements in the quality of our journalism, including had joined our nascent programme. our cornerstone investigations; growing clout within the news media landscape; increased outreach efforts, We also launched our first podcast, Rethinking including on social media; distribution partnerships to Humanitarianism, in collaboration with the Center for reach new audiences; efforts to engage more with our Global Development, with more than 50,000 downloads of readers through events and newsletters; and continuous the first season and great feedback from our listeners. We improvements in our use of multimedia and technology. ended the year with 170,000 social media followers, as well as close to one million views of our videos on YouTube. The New Humanitarian Annual Report 2020

Establishing our place in the media sector

We raised our profile in media circles in 2020 by strategically Interviews of our editors and correspondents were carried partnering with a number of key media organisations. We out by BBC Radio 1, Euronews, France24, Al Jazeera, and co-published reports with the (AP), ’s ABC radio, among others. Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Thomson Foundation, and The Independent. We also partnered with Finally, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign News Deeply to host their archives on our website, in a new Policy, The Guardian, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, The Mail space called “Deeply Humanitarian”. & Guardian, Yemen Online, and Human Rights Watch were among those who republished, cited, and/or linked to our Our work was featured in the Global Investigative reporting. Journalism Network, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy.

Our funding In 2020, our overall income was CHF 2,054,670 and our We maintained our levels of unearmarked funding, which total expenditure was CHF 1,980,722. This represents a accounted for 65%* percent of our overall income allowing slight increase in our funding levels compared to 2019, more coherent coverage and flexibility to adapt to a with 20 partners (listed here) supporting our work. We changing news environment. also struck several new multi-year funding agreements, which now account for more than 90 percent of our overall Through individual donations, speaker fees, and the launch funding. No one donor contributed more than 25 percent of our membership programme, we generated more of of our overall budget. our own independent revenue, allowing us to continue building reserves and providing greater sustainability for our organisation.

Our organisation and governance We made great strides in our policies and procedures in Dr. Joanne Liu, a paediatrician and former international 2020, with the development of a child safeguarding policy, president of Médecins Sans Frontières, joined our board an independent complaints platform, and a remuneration of directors. Currently practising as a doctor in framework providing an evidence base to our staff salaries. during the COVID-19 response, Dr. Liu is a member of the independent panel (IPPR) examining how the World We hired a newsroom administrator, an audience Health Organization and countries handled the COVID-19 engagement editor, and a policy editor to improve the pandemic. quality of content we produce both in our journalism and across our social channels.

* This percentage has been updated to reflect funds that were spent, rather than received, in 2020.