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Humanitarian aid arriving by plane at Rinas Airport in Albania in the summer of 1999. Many organizations engaged in assisting refugees fleeing Kosovo.

A distribution point for humanitarian aid in Southern Kosovo in 1999. In this case, food donated by USAID to an international NGO is being distributed by a local NGO to recipient families. Note the cans of cooking oil and sacks of flour being broken down into family sized rations by distribution point volunteers.

U.S. Army Sgt. Kornelia Rachwal gives a young Pakistani girl a drink of water as they are airlifted from Muzaffarabad to Islamabad, Pakistan, aboard a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter on the 19 October

Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may therefore be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying socioeconomic factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency.

Humanitarian aid is delivered by governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other non-governmental humanitarian agencies according to humanitarian principles set out in Resolution 46/182 of the United Nations General Assembly (for governments and UN agencies), and in Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (for NGHAs).

They are funded by donations from individuals, corporations, governments and other organizations. The funding and delivery of humanitarian aid is increasingly being organized at an international level to facilitate faster and more effective responses to major emergencies affecting large numbers of people (eg. see Central Emergency Response Fund). The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinates the international humanitarian response to a crisis or emergency pursuant to Resolution 46/182 of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Sphere Project handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, which was produced by a coalition of leading non governmental humanitarian agencies, lists the following principles of humanitarian action:

• The right to life with dignity
• The distinction between combatant and non-combatants
• The principle of non-refoulement

The Quality Project, based on the Quality Compass, is an alternative project to Sphere, taking into account the side effects of standardization and those of an appraoch based on "minima" rather than the pursuit of quality. This project is leaded by Groupe URD.

• Larry Minear, (2002). The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries. West Hartford, Conn: Kumarian Press. ISBN 1-56549-149-1. 
• Waters, Tony (2001). Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan: The Limitations of Humanitarian Relief Operations. Boulder: Westview Press.

• Attacks on humanitarian workers
• Timeline of events in humanitarian relief and development

Organisations

• Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF (Doctors Without Borders)
• Mercy Corps
• AmeriCares
• CARE
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Organisation types

• Foundation
• Community service
• Non-profit organizations
• Non-governmental organizations

• Networks
  • Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance
  • TLC Global Outreach
  • The Sphere Project
  • Aid Workers Network
  • UN ReliefWeb
• News media
  • AlertNet
  • IRIN
• Academia
  • The Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM)
  • The ODI Humanitarian Policy Group
• Critiques of Humanitarian Aid
  • A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis interview with David Rieff and Joanne Myers
  • Journal of Humanitarian Assistance Sean Greenaway: Post-Modern Conflict and Humanitarian Action: Questioning the Paradigm