In the face of catastrophic crises like increasing natural disasters, a global pandemic, and protracted violent conflicts, communities around the globe have depended on efforts from governments and humanitarian institutions to support recovery. Yet, the role of the private sector remains vastly underrecognized, despite billions of dollars of corporate contributions every year to disaster relief. Businesses have niche resources, expertise, and technologies that can effectively address unmet needs.  

The Private Sector Humanitarian Alliance (PSHA), a Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors sponsored initiative, formally integrates the private sector within the wider humanitarian architecture, enabling companies to act in unison with public sector actors, recognizing their indispensability and efficiency in response. This maximizes corporate impact, effectiveness, and efficiency across disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts. This innovative approach empowers companies to collaborate with public sector entities, acknowledging the private sector’s vital role and ability to drive rapid, effective responses to global crises.  

To amplify private-sector contributions PSHA is introducing a first-of-its-kind humanitarian coordination platform tailored to meet business needs, integrating companies into the humanitarian ecosystem, empowering them to rebuild and strengthen both markets and communities in the face of current and future challenges, and ensuring the humanitarian system can reach more populations in need.  

Aid efforts from diverse responding actors are often duplicative or are performed in silos, reducing contributions’ overall impact. As a coordination body, PSHA has created the infrastructure to prevent redundancy and enhance exchange between varied stakeholders, including a wide network of members, acting as a ‘one-stop shop’ for cross-sectoral collaboration.  

PSHA gained special recognition in September 2023 during an open debate session at the United Nations Security Council with the support of the governments of the United States and Albania. PSHA’s community of partners includes Mastercard, Vodafone, Flexport, BCG, monday.com, the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum, UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA), the US Department of State, USAID, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), among others.  

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