Coordination and Support Services

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Last Updated 3rd February 2025.

Coordination and Support Services (also referred to as ‘Common Services’) is not like many of the other sectors we’re analysing on the site. The role of the Coordination and Support Services sector is to support the humanitarian community through effective coordination, and so it doesn’t have a ‘People in Need’ number, nor a ‘Target’ number like other sectors.

So what does ‘effective coordination’ mean? Quite simply, it just involves making sure that everyone has a common sense of what they want to achieve, and that they have the tools to make that happen. For example, clusters and sectors in different contexts need resources to function (e.g. Coordinators and Information Management Officers) as well as to push changes that matter in that context (e.g. capacity strengthening, localisation etc.). But at the inter-cluster level, this could also mean things that all clusters rely on. This includes safety and security services, work around ensuring humanitarian access, making sure that humanitarian services are accountable to the affected population, conducting needs assessments across the different sectors, producing response plans and monitoring the response.

In short, the sector is an ‘enabler’ of the work of humanitarian organisations.

Another quick caveat. Unlike other sectors, more Coordination and Support Services funding is not tagged to any particular response plan. We’ll be talking about the response plan funding on this page as often we are comparing it to the funding requirement. Funding requirements are only based on particular responses – if we can’t say the funding received went to those responses then we can’t really compare the two numbers.

How much funding is the Coordination and Support Services sector forecast to receive in 2025?

Funding to the Coordination and Support Services sector is forecast to be between $291m and $462m in 2025. Our central estimate is $462m. For reference, the Coordination and Support Services sector received $430m last year.

This forecast is based on our 95% probability range. In other words, we are 95% sure that funding will be between $291m and $462m. Below are the other forecast ranges for the Coordination sector. As we become less sure about our forecast, the range narrows. So for example, we think there’s a 50% probability that funding will be between $396m and $545m.

But we need to put this into context. What does the forecast mean in terms of reaching the funding that is required for the sector (also known as the funding requirement)? The total funding requirement globally is determined by how much is needed in each context. If you hover over the donut below you’ll be able to see the chances of reaching 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the funding that is required.

We think that it’s almost certain that the Coordination and Support Services sector will reach at least 25% of funding required, and likely that the sector will reach 50% of its funding requirement.

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How does the 2025 forecast compare to previous years?

Our central estimate of $462m for 2025 would match the best year yet for the sector (2022), but it would fall short of the funding requirement which is the highest it has ever been at $858m.

Funding to Coordination and Support Services has been on a downward trend since 2022. Funding hit a high of $463m in 2022, but reduced to $430m in 2024. This followed several years of growth; in 2020, the sector received less than half of these figures ($205m)

The funding gap has increased year-on-year, that is until 2021. The funding gap expanded to 48% in 2020. But the trend reversed in 2021, and the Coordination and Support Services only had a gap of 14% in 2022. However, this reversed again and the sector had a funding gap of 42% in 2024, the most since 2020.

With the funding gap increasing last year, that means Coordination and Support Services experienced a real recession. In this story, we’ve defined real humanitarian growth and a humanitarian recession, with the latter defined as two consecutive years of a growing funding gap.

Given the growing funding requirement, we think it is almost certain that the Coordination and Support Services sector will experience real negative growth in 2023 (i.e. the funding gap will widen).

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How does the 2025 forecast compare to other sectors?

Our central estimate of $462m for Coordination and Support Services puts the sector in 9th place of all forecasted humanitarian sectors. This is in the bottom half of the table which is notable. Sectors from 7 upwards to have $2bn+ funding requirements and $700m+ in funding received, whereas the opposite is true for sectors in the bottom half.

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