International humanitarian funding has fallen by almost a third, but people’s needs have not disappeared. On Thursday, 5 November, the Estonian Refugee Council will host its fourth Tallinn Humanitarian Conference at Fotografiska. The conference will ask who controls humanitarian funding, data and decisions, and how aid can become more effective and more just.

“Power in humanitarian action is not exercised only through major political decisions. It is also embedded in budgets, eligibility criteria, mandatory data fields and partnership agreements,” said Eero Janson, Director of the Estonian Refugee Council. “These determine who receives aid, what people must disclose about themselves, and who gets to decide on whose behalf. Declining funding makes these choices more painful, but simply shrinking the existing system is not reform. We must ask who holds decision-making power, and how much say the people whose lives are affected actually have.”

According to ALNAP’s new State of the Humanitarian System 2026 report, international humanitarian assistance fell from US47.5billionin2022toUS33.3 billion in 2025. ALNAP Director Juliet Parker will present the report’s principal findings at the start of the conference. 

Three panels will then examine questions that funding cuts alone cannot explain.

  • “Reform or Retreat? The Future of Humanitarian Action After the Reset”. Will the funding contraction drive genuine change, or simply leave a smaller version of the same system? The discussion will explore trust, protecting approaches that already work, alternative funding and incentives that enable or obstruct change.
  • “No Consent in a Food Line? Data Protection and Power in Humanitarian Aid”. How much personal data is actually necessary to deliver aid, and can people in crisis refuse to provide it? The panel will examine data breaches, biometrics, Big Tech and how control over data can confer power over aid recipients and other organisations.
  • “Sidekicks, Leaders, or Subcontractors? Rewriting the Humanitarian Division of Labour”. Who decides, who funds, who delivers, and who bears the risk? The panel will explore whether relations between local and international organisations genuinely redistribute power or merely delegate tasks.

Speakers include Freddie Carver (ODI Global), Cate Turton (CALP Network), Maria Groenewald (VOICE), Irwin Loy (The New Humanitarian), Marwa Fatafta (Access Now), Jos Berens (OCHA), Sema Genel Karaosmanoğlu (Support to Life), Gry Ballestad (Norwegian People’s Aid) and Jeremy Wellard (ICVA).

The conference will be held in English. Programme and speakers: pagulasabi.ee/en/tallinn-humanitarian-conference

The conference is supported by ESTDEV – Estonian Centre for International Development.