Every year, millions of people are affected by conflict and natural disasters. Growing public awareness of these crises and their severity and tragic consequences has resulted in an increase in the available funding over the past decades and demonstrated the need to reform the international humanitarian system. It is now more important than ever to have the kind of information and practical tools that allow humanitarian action to be assessed, so that it can be improved. The HRI addresses one of the main links of the humanitarian response system, donor countries, whose policies critically influence the rest of the chain. Donors can apply pressure to make humanitarian action more effective, relevant, and coherent. The HRI provides an annual, detailed analysis of the evolution of humanitarian action, donor commitments, and outstanding challenges. Its aim is to raise the awareness – among donors, humanitarian actors, and society as a whole – about the importance of humanitarian action and the principles of Good Humanitarian Donorship. The information in the HRI focuses on the promotion of active policy dialogue in the search for coherent answers to an increasingly complex reality.