[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation-en":3,"index":24,"latest-posts-en":126},[4,8,12,16,20],{"title":5,"path":6,"stem":7},"The Humanitarian AI Chatbot","\u002Fprojects\u002Fai-chatbot-project","1.projects\u002F1.ai-chatbot-project",{"title":9,"path":10,"stem":11},"Analytics Dashboard for ReliefWeb Jobs Data","\u002Fprojects\u002Freliefweb-jobs-dashboard","1.projects\u002F2.reliefweb-jobs-dashboard",{"title":13,"path":14,"stem":15},"Understanding Cash Assistance in Ukraine","\u002Fprojects\u002Fhumanitarian-data-platform","1.projects\u002F3.humanitarian-data-platform",{"title":17,"path":18,"stem":19},"Humanitarian Data Analyst Portfolio","\u002Fprojects\u002Fweb-development-project","1.projects\u002F4.web-development-project",{"title":21,"path":22,"stem":23},"AI-Powered Humanitarian Legal Advisor for Ukraine","\u002Fprojects\u002Fhumanitarian-paralegal-advisor","1.projects\u002F5.humanitarian-paralegal-advisor",{"id":25,"title":26,"body":27,"cta":28,"description":41,"extension":42,"features":43,"hero":71,"meta":82,"navigation":83,"path":84,"sections":85,"seo":121,"stem":124,"testimonials":27,"__hash__":125},"index\u002F0.index.yml","Task-Based Consulting for Humanitarian & Social Action",null,{"title":29,"description":30,"links":31},"Ready to transform your data systems?","Let's discuss how baena.ai can help your organization leverage data for greater humanitarian impact.",[32,36],{"label":33,"to":34,"icon":35},"Get in touch","\u002Fcontact","i-lucide-message-circle",{"label":37,"to":38,"trailingIcon":39,"variant":40},"View demos","\u002Fdemos","i-lucide-arrow-right","subtle","Flexible, task-based consulting and Professional Services for social organizations. I deliver targeted technical expertise and data systems that drive humanitarian impact.","yml",{"title":44,"description":45,"items":46},"My Approach, A Partnership for Impact","My work is built on a foundation of collaboration, field-informed design, and a deep commitment to creating solutions that are not only powerful but also sustainable and ethical.",[47,51,55,59,63,67],{"title":48,"description":49,"icon":50},"Subject-Matter Expertise","Every solution is informed by years of direct humanitarian experience, technical decisions are grounded in operational reality.","i-lucide-brain-circuit",{"title":52,"description":53,"icon":54},"Collaborative & Transparent Process","I work as a partner, not just a consultant. You'll have full visibility into the project's progress through the client portal.","i-lucide-handshake",{"title":56,"description":57,"icon":58},"Sustainable & Empowering Solutions","The goal is to build capacity, not dependency. I deliver well-documented solutions and provide the training needed for your team.","i-lucide-sprout",{"title":60,"description":61,"icon":62},"Security & Ethics by Design","Security and ethical data principles are integrated from the very beginning of the design process, not as an afterthought.","i-lucide-shield-check",{"title":64,"description":65,"icon":66},"Built for the Field","Solutions architected for resilience and performance, prioritizing accessibility and usability even in low-bandwidth settings.","i-lucide-compass",{"title":68,"description":69,"icon":70},"Dedicated & Managed Infrastructure","For projects requiring robust performance and data sovereignty, I offer secure managed hosting on a private hybrid cloud.","i-lucide-server",{"links":72},[73,79],{"label":74,"icon":75,"size":76,"color":77,"to":38,"target":78},"Demos","i-lucide-projector","xl","primary","_blank",{"label":80,"icon":35,"size":76,"color":81,"variant":40,"to":34,"target":78},"Contact","neutral",{},false,"\u002F",[86,104],{"title":87,"description":88,"id":89,"orientation":90,"image":91,"features":92},"Actionable Solutions from the Ground Up","Solutions built upon deep subject-matter expertise, allowing your team to benefit directly from years of experience gained in the world's most complex contexts.","features","horizontal","\u002Fsubject_expertise.svg",[93,97,100],{"name":94,"description":95,"icon":96},"Field-Ready & User-Centric","Solutions are designed with the end-user in mind, ensuring they are intuitive and effective for humanitarian staff, regardless of their technical background.","i-lucide-users",{"name":98,"description":99,"icon":62},"Built for Resilience","Leveraging robust infrastructure and best practices to ensure tools remain available and performant, even in low-bandwidth or challenging operational settings.",{"name":101,"description":102,"icon":103},"Ethical Data Handling","Adhering to the highest standards of data protection and security, ensuring the privacy and safety of vulnerable populations are always the top priority.","i-lucide-lock",{"title":105,"description":106,"orientation":90,"reverse":107,"image":108,"features":109},"Precision Execution - The Task-Based Consultancy Model","While organizations need long-term strategic evaluations, the immediate bottleneck is usually operational - the report that is due next week or the dataset that needs cleaning. I offer Task-Based Consultancy designed to plug directly into your workflow.",true,"\u002Ffrom_pilot.svg",[110,114,117],{"name":111,"description":112,"icon":113},"Defined Deliverables, Not Open-Ended Strategy","I don't sell broad advice — I sell finished products. You define the need, I execute the solution. No open-ended strategy, no scope creep.","i-lucide-rocket",{"name":115,"description":116,"icon":54},"Donor-Ready Reporting & Compliance","The gap between field data and donor compliance is often where funding stalls. You provide the raw data; I process, analyze, and deliver a polished, compliant document ready for submission.",{"name":118,"description":119,"icon":120},"Tailor-Made IM Tools","AI has lowered the cost and complexity of building custom software. For NGOs this is especially relevant — off-the-shelf tools are built for companies, not for us.","i-lucide-chart-bar",{"title":122,"description":123},"baena.ai - Data Systems for Humanitarian Action","Flexible, task-based consulting for social organizations. I deliver targeted technical expertise and data systems that drive humanitarian impact.","0.index","YhwkHLatcAqA-FKLmyasVj_pnP3uKzO1Mcxy4dzgx8M",[127,409,755],{"id":128,"title":129,"authors":130,"badge":136,"body":138,"date":390,"description":391,"extension":392,"external_links":393,"image":401,"meta":404,"navigation":107,"path":405,"seo":406,"stem":407,"__hash__":408},"posts\u002F3.articles\u002F7.uhf-twin-tiers.md","The Ceiling-Bound Economy of the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund",[131],{"name":132,"to":133,"avatar":134},"Jesus Baena","https:\u002F\u002Flinkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjbaenanet",{"src":135},"https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002Favatar-jesus-color.jpg",{"label":137},"Funding Analysis | CBPF",{"type":139,"value":140,"toc":376},"minimark",[141,146,163,166,169,173,184,191,195,198,214,221,225,228,231,237,245,249,256,263,267,270,276,286,292,298,301,305,308,319,322,326,329,332,336,339,344,348,351,354,361,364,367],[142,143,145],"h2",{"id":144},"how-a-standard-shape-cbpf-with-a-2x-envelope-produces-a-ceiling-bound-grant-economy","How a standard-shape CBPF with a 2x envelope produces a ceiling-bound grant economy",[147,148,149],"blockquote",{},[150,151,152,156,157,162],"p",{},[153,154,155],"strong",{},"Full technical report:"," ",[158,159,161],"a",{"href":160},"\u002Fdemos\u002Fukraine-poolfund-report","link","\nThis is an explanatory, opinionated companion piece. Views expressed are solely my own and do not reflect the positions of any organisation I have worked with.",[150,164,165],{},"On the usual concentration metrics, Herfindahl index, top-5 share, top-10 share, the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF) looks like a fairly ordinary Country-Based Pooled Fund. That is exactly why it is misunderstood. The UHF is not more concentrated than its peers; it is much larger. And when you run a normal-shape distribution through a $541M envelope over three years, the arithmetic produces something peers don't have: a cap-binding upper tier that receives the same maximum grant, round after round, year after year.",[150,167,168],{},"The result is effectively a two-tier fund hiding inside a one-number summary.",[142,170,172],{"id":171},"the-inner-circle-a-cap-binding-core","The inner circle: a cap-binding core",[150,174,175,176,179,180,183],{},"Twenty organisations appeared in every UHF allocation round between 2022 and 2024. Together they absorbed ",[153,177,178],{},"$299M of the $541M envelope, about 55%",". That alone would be unremarkable for a mega-fund. What makes the UHF distinctive is what happens at the very top of this cohort: seven partners, ACTED, UNHCR, DRC, People in Need, ICF Caritas Ukraine, NRC and Proliska, average grants of ",[153,181,182],{},"$3.4M-$4.8M",", essentially every ticket at or near the $5M standard cap. Six of the seven have also received at least one exceptional-cap grant above $6M (UNHCR's highest: $9.4M).",[150,185,186,187,190],{},"This is not a concentration story in the classical sense. It is a ",[153,188,189],{},"ceiling-binding"," story. For these partners, the binding constraint is no longer competition or absorptive capacity, it is the programmatic cap itself.",[142,192,194],{"id":193},"the-flat-top-a-distribution-peers-dont-have","The flat top: a distribution peers don't have",[150,196,197],{},"The clearest fingerprint of the UHF's scale is the shape of its grant distribution at the top.",[199,200,201,209],"ul",{},[202,203,204,205,208],"li",{},"The ",[153,206,207],{},"median UHF grant is 2.6x the global CBPF median",": $1.13M vs $440K.",[202,210,204,211],{},[153,212,213],{},"90th percentile is exactly $5.00M, the standard cap.",[150,215,216,217,220],{},"That second number is unique among CBPFs. Peer funds, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia, oPt, show a long right tail that fades out smoothly as grants get larger. Ukraine shows a ",[153,218,219],{},"flat top",": a dense cluster of grants pinned against the ceiling. The cap is doing visible work in the data.",[142,222,224],{"id":223},"the-disguise-why-the-averages-look-normal","The disguise: why the averages look normal",[150,226,227],{},"Given that flat top, one might expect the UHF's concentration metrics to scream. They don't. HHI, top-5 and top-10 shares all place Ukraine mid-pack among broad-partnership CBPFs. The paradox dissolves once you look past the Core-20.",[150,229,230],{},"The other 74 partners in the fund's 2022-2024 roster share the remaining $242M, 45% of the envelope, at much smaller, less repeated tickets. A churning outer ring of single- and two-grant partners operates at a fraction of the core's scale and drags the average down.",[150,232,233,234],{},"When you blend a tightly capped top tier with a long, flat bottom tier, the aggregate metrics land squarely in normal CBPF territory. ",[153,235,236],{},"Averages here actively obscure the operational reality.",[150,238,239,240,244],{},"The honest summary is: ",[241,242,243],"em",{},"same shape as peers x roughly double the envelope = roughly double the mean partner take",". Everything unusual about Ukraine grant sizes follows mechanically from that arithmetic.",[142,246,248],{"id":247},"the-un-exit-and-the-localized-vacuum","The UN Exit and the localized vacuum",[150,250,251,252,255],{},"Where did this excess volume for NGOs come from? The data reveals a dramatic, structural policy shift: a ",[153,253,254],{},"92% collapse in UN Agency funding"," over just two years. UN allocations plummeted from $66M in 2022 to a mere $5M in 2024.",[150,257,258,259,262],{},"This vacuum didn't shrink the fund; it redistributed the wealth. The displaced volume flowed directly into a broadened National NGO tier and select INGOs (like DRC and Caritas Ukraine). This created an unprecedented dynamic where, by 2024, the median grant awarded to a Ukrainian NNGO was actually ",[241,260,261],{},"larger"," than the median grant awarded to an INGO—an inversion of the global norm.",[142,264,266],{"id":265},"what-sits-inside-each-tier-a-risk-weighted-look-at-the-recipients","What sits inside each tier: a risk-weighted look at the recipients",[150,268,269],{},"Not every recipient carries the same due-diligence profile. Four clusters are worth naming explicitly.",[150,271,272,275],{},[153,273,274],{},"(a) \"Born of the war\" partners, no pre-invasion track record."," A handful of organisations were established in direct response to the 2022 escalation. When these entities receive multi-million-dollar grants, their institutional existence is effectively endogenous to UHF-scale funding. There is no pre-war baseline against which to assess organisational risk.",[150,277,278,281,282,285],{},[153,279,280],{},"(b) Small global revenue base, UHF volume dwarfs the institution."," Some international partners operated with pre-war global revenues of a few million dollars. A single UHF grant can equal or exceed their entire historical annual turnover, structurally transforming the organisation. The technical report tracks this as a ",[153,283,284],{},"dependency ratio",": UHF disbursements divided by 2021 global revenue. Several partners exceed 1.0; one exceeds 4x.",[150,287,288,291],{},[153,289,290],{},"(c) Established local NNGOs, the localisation success story."," A cohort of Ukrainian NGOs with 5-10 years of pre-2022 operational history was absorbed into the UHF ecosystem as part of the deliberate post-invasion localisation shift. (Per UHF Annual Reports, direct allocations to national partners moved from ~30% pre-war toward ~60% post-invasion.) These are the partners the fund can legitimately point to when describing its localisation outcomes.",[150,293,294,297],{},[153,295,296],{},"(d) The hyperscalers."," Major UN agencies and Tier-1 INGOs with the global infrastructure to absorb rapid funding surges without altering their institutional risk profile. These sit predominantly inside the seven cap-binding partners.",[150,299,300],{},"The interesting policy question is not how to shrink the inner circle. It is how thin the empirical basis is for the partners in category (a) and (b) compared to (c) and (d), and whether that thinness is being priced into risk management.",[142,302,304],{"id":303},"the-ideal-candidate-the-full-coverage-premium","The Ideal Candidate: The Full-Coverage Premium",[150,306,307],{},"If we map every UHF partner since 2019 across two simple axes—geographic footprint (oblasts) and sector coverage (clusters)—a clear \"Ideal Candidate\" profile emerges.",[150,309,310,311,314,315,318],{},"Organisations that operate across multiple oblasts and sectors, the ",[153,312,313],{},"Full-Coverage partners",", capture the vast majority of the disbursed budget. Only 16% of all partners sit in this top quadrant, but they absorbed ",[153,316,317],{},"46% of all UHF disbursements since 2019"," (a median cumulative budget of $20.9M per partner). Conversely, narrow Specialists have a median budget of just $2.2M.",[150,320,321],{},"The path to scale is brutally clear: Geographic and sector coverage are the strongest predictors of funding volume.",[142,323,325],{"id":324},"health-fragmentation-over-expertise","Health: Fragmentation over Expertise",[150,327,328],{},"This absorption-first model creates blind spots, nowhere more visible than the Health sector. Despite massive allocations, the UHF’s health portfolio has seen profound temporal fragmentation. As institutional anchor agencies like the WHO exited the direct recipient pool, the funding flowed to a shifting mix of INGOs and NNGOs selected for their grant-absorption capacity, rather than technical medical expertise or pre-war field presence.",[150,330,331],{},"Even more glaring: the strategy systematically overlooked Local Health Facilities as partnership candidates—concentrating resources in predominantly Anglo-Saxon NGOs lacking prior health footprints in Ukraine, while ignoring the existing domestic healthcare infrastructure.",[142,333,335],{"id":334},"interactive-grant-size-distribution","Interactive Grant Size Distribution",[150,337,338],{},"Explore the grant distribution data interactively:",[340,341],"fullscreen-embed",{"src":342,"title":343},"https:\u002F\u002Fshiny.baena.info\u002Fuhf-grant-size-2025\u002F","UHF Grant Size Distribution",[142,345,347],{"id":346},"conclusion-a-dual-track-response-and-the-reality-for-applicants","Conclusion: a dual-track response, and the reality for applicants",[150,349,350],{},"The UHF is a unique operational model in the CBPF system: not one fund, but two operating under identical headline statistics. There is an inner tier of twenty partners recycling maximum ceiling grants round after round, shielded by their massive absorption capacity and broad coverage footprint. Then, a churning outer ring of 74 smaller-ticket partners that make the aggregate fund metrics look \"normal.\"",[150,352,353],{},"For organisations deciding whether to invest in a UHF proposal, the implication is harsh: the defining constraint is not the quality of your pitch—it is the shape of the grant distribution itself.",[150,355,356,357,360],{},"If your institutional profile (pre-war track record, geographic coverage, sectoral breadth) doesn't mirror the Core-20's ",[153,358,359],{},"Full-Coverage"," model, the standard allocation is unlikely to elevate your rank, no matter how robust the proposal. You are competing against an arithmetic inevitability—a $5M ceiling on a $540M envelope that guarantees large repeated grants to those with proven scale.",[150,362,363],{},"For the fund itself, the hardest question is whether a flat-topped, cap-binding distribution that increasingly ignores local health facilities and over-relies on Reserve Allocations (51.9% globally vs the 40.2% CBPF average) is what its donors and the people it serves actually need. Is this deliberate strategic allocation, or simply what happens when you run the standard playbook at double the scale?",[365,366],"hr",{},[150,368,369],{},[241,370,371,372,375],{},"If you are looking to commission similar reports on your own data, I offer task-based consultancy. You can reach me through the ",[158,373,374],{"href":34},"contact page",".",{"title":377,"searchDepth":378,"depth":378,"links":379},"",2,[380,381,382,383,384,385,386,387,388,389],{"id":144,"depth":378,"text":145},{"id":171,"depth":378,"text":172},{"id":193,"depth":378,"text":194},{"id":223,"depth":378,"text":224},{"id":247,"depth":378,"text":248},{"id":265,"depth":378,"text":266},{"id":303,"depth":378,"text":304},{"id":324,"depth":378,"text":325},{"id":334,"depth":378,"text":335},{"id":346,"depth":378,"text":347},"2026-04-23T00:00:00.000Z","Why geographic footprint and absorption capacity—not proposal quality—make or break your funding.","md",[394,397],{"label":395,"url":160,"icon":396},"Full Technical Report","i-ph-file-text",{"label":398,"url":399,"icon":400},"GitHub Repository","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FJesus-Baena\u002F2026-ukraine-poolfund-analysis","i-ph-github-logo",{"src":402,"alt":403},"https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002FComfyUI_00518_.png","Ukraine Humanitarian Fund analysis illustration",{},"\u002Farticles\u002Fuhf-twin-tiers",{"title":129,"description":391},"3.articles\u002F7.uhf-twin-tiers","3ACLZ4ABH8T7Q8zjvEkZYUryKCJgnFsmwLxFarMhfr4",{"id":410,"title":411,"authors":412,"badge":415,"body":417,"date":738,"description":739,"extension":392,"external_links":740,"image":748,"meta":750,"navigation":107,"path":751,"seo":752,"stem":753,"__hash__":754},"posts\u002F3.articles\u002F3.jobs-relief.md","Data Insights into the 2025 Humanitarian Sector Contraction",[413],{"name":132,"to":133,"avatar":414},{"src":135},{"label":416},"Business Intelligence | AI",{"type":139,"value":418,"toc":721},[419,423,434,441,446,453,464,468,471,488,498,513,525,529,532,559,573,586,588,592,599,605,608,615,619,622,635,638,641,648,652,655,664,668,672,678,682,685,688,700,704,711,718],[142,420,422],{"id":421},"introduction","Introduction",[150,424,425,426,429,430,433],{},"The modern humanitarian professional is a figure born from the crucible of past failures. The volunteer-dependent responses to crises in ",[153,427,428],{},"Biafra (1970)"," and ",[153,431,432],{},"Rwanda (1994)"," starkly revealed that good intentions alone were insufficient. These events catalyzed a shift, underscoring the necessity for a corps of professionals equipped with technical skills and specialized knowledge, not just a vocational calling for humanity.",[150,435,436,437,440],{},"This evolution spurred a wave of ",[153,438,439],{},"institutionalization and standardization"," from the 1990s onward, establishing the benchmarks for a new kind of aid worker. The result is the contemporary humanitarian: a managerial and technical expert, often with a strong administrative background. This professional identity is defined by a complex, and often conflicting, blend of technocratic capabilities and a deeply ingrained set of humanitarian ideals.",[442,443,445],"h3",{"id":444},"the-current-crisis-the-great-contraction-of-2025","The Current Crisis: The Great Contraction of 2025",[150,447,448,449,452],{},"The year 2025 is being defined by a severe ",[153,450,451],{},"contraction of the humanitarian sector",". This downturn was triggered by the United States' decision on January 24th to freeze humanitarian funding with immediate effect. This move was quickly emulated by other key donor countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden.",[150,454,455,456,459,460,463],{},"This crisis, however, did not emerge from a vacuum. It is an acceleration of a trend that began in 2024. For over a decade, the growth in humanitarian funding, ",[153,457,458],{},"while always failing to meet the ever-expanding global needs, was at least steady",". Last year marked a turning point, with total funds dropping by ",[153,461,462],{},"11%","—the first such decrease in more than ten years.",[142,465,467],{"id":466},"the-human-component-workforce-dynamics-and-wellbeing","The Human Component: Workforce Dynamics and Wellbeing",[150,469,470],{},"To understand the full impact of this contraction, one must look beyond the budget lines to the demographics and operational realities of the workforce itself. The sector is characterized by distinct patterns of entry, retention, and attrition that are likely to be exacerbated by the current crisis.",[150,472,473,476,477,480,481,484,485,375],{},[153,474,475],{},"Age and Career Lifecycle","\nThe humanitarian workforce typically exhibits a bimodal age distribution. There is a significant peak of entry-level professionals in the ",[153,478,479],{},"25–35 age range",", driven by early-career enthusiasm and volunteerism. A second, smaller peak exists for senior experts aged ",[153,482,483],{},"55–65",", often returning to the field after other careers. Between these two groups lies a \"missing middle.\" Data suggests a high attrition rate as workers reach their mid-30s, often due to the incompatibility of field life with raising a family. Consequently, the \"active life\" of a field worker is surprisingly short; for many, it is less than a decade. Surveys indicate that over 45% of humanitarian professionals expect to remain in the sector for ",[153,486,487],{},"10 years or less",[150,489,490,493,494,497],{},[153,491,492],{},"The Physical and Emotional Weight","\nThe toll of this work is measurable and severe. The physical weight of the profession has increased as the security environment deteriorates; 2024 was recorded as the deadliest year in history for aid workers, with ",[153,495,496],{},"281 fatalities"," globally, driven largely by conflicts in Gaza and Sudan.",[150,499,500,501,504,505,508,509,512],{},"The emotional weight is equally heavy. The prevalence of ",[153,502,503],{},"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)"," among aid workers is estimated at up to ",[153,506,507],{},"30%"," upon return from assignment. Furthermore, burnout rates range significantly, with some studies showing between ",[153,510,511],{},"8.5% and 32%"," of workers suffering from emotional exhaustion. Alarmingly, health data suggests that 28% of workers report a deterioration in their physical health following a mission, often persisting months after their return.",[150,514,515],{},[158,516,520],{"href":517,"rel":518},"https:\u002F\u002Fbaena.ai\u002Fdemos\u002Freliefjobs-dashboard",[519],"nofollow",[521,522],"img",{"alt":523,"src":524},"A live dashboard tracking the state of humanitarian jobs","https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002Fdashboard-link.png",[142,526,528],{"id":527},"how-to-monitor-the-situation-a-dashboard-approach","How to Monitor the Situation: A Dashboard Approach",[150,530,531],{},"To track the impact of these funding cuts on the workforce, I have developed a dashboard that provides a daily, high-level overview of the humanitarian job market.",[150,533,534,535,540,541,429,544,547,548,553,554,375],{},"The dashboard automatically collects and processes job posting data using the API from ",[158,536,539],{"href":537,"rel":538},"https:\u002F\u002Freliefweb.int\u002Fjobs",[519],"ReliefWeb",", one of the sector's primary information hubs. It then visualizes key trends, allowing for a quick assessment of how the market is changing. The underlying ",[153,542,543],{},"SQL queries",[153,545,546],{},"automation flows"," used to power this tool are open-source and available for review in this ",[158,549,552],{"href":550,"rel":551},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FJesus-Baena\u002F005-dashboard-reliefweb-jobs",[519],"GitHub repository"," and this entry of my blog: ",[158,555,558],{"href":556,"rel":557},"https:\u002F\u002Fbaena.blog\u002F00.-STOCK\u002FB.-HUMANITARIAN-SECTOR-EMPLOYMENT-DASHBOARD",[519],"Building a Humanitarian Jobs Dashboard",[150,560,561,564,565,568,569,572],{},[153,562,563],{},"A major disclaimer."," While invaluable for a ",[241,566,567],{},"\"sneak peek\""," into market dynamics, ",[153,570,571],{},"a dashboard has its limits",". It reveals trends and correlations but cannot provide the rigorous, in-depth analysis needed to draw definitive conclusions. The interpretations that follow are therefore informed hypotheses, not final judgments.",[150,574,575,576,581,582,585],{},"This dashboard is powered by ",[158,577,580],{"href":578,"rel":579},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.metabase.com\u002F",[519],"Metabase",", a leading open-source business intelligence platform. By running a ",[153,583,584],{},"self-hosted instance of Metabase",", I can embed the live, interactive visualizations directly into this webpage, providing a seamless and up-to-date user experience.",[365,587],{},[142,589,591],{"id":590},"interpretation-reading-the-data","Interpretation: Reading the Data",[150,593,594,595,598],{},"The impact of the 2025 funding crisis is clear and immediate. ",[153,596,597],{},"Monthly job postings have been in a sustained downturn"," since the February funding freeze.",[150,600,601],{},[521,602],{"alt":603,"src":604},"Chart Downturn jobs trend","https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002Fjobs-trend.png",[150,606,607],{},"While a minor recovery in postings was observed in July, this more likely signals that the market is beginning to normalize at a new, much lower baseline rather than indicating a true recovery.",[150,609,610,611,614],{},"Notably, ",[153,612,613],{},"short-term consultancy roles appear largely impervious"," to this downward trend. This is a critical finding. It suggests a potential strategic shift in hiring, with organizations leaning on flexible, short-term contracts to navigate the budget crisis.",[442,616,618],{"id":617},"the-acceleration-of-precarity","The Acceleration of Precarity",[150,620,621],{},"This pivot towards consultancy is not just a temporary fix; it's an acceleration of the sector's most problematic structural habits. The humanitarian field has long been criticized for practices that hurt aid effectiveness, such as a reliance on short-term contracts, which fuels labor discontinuity and a constant \"brain drain.\"",[150,623,624,627,628,631,632,375],{},[153,625,626],{},"The dominance of one-year, project-based funding cycles"," limits long-term planning, capacity building, and the overall quality of delivery. Standard assignment lengths for organizations like MSF or the ICRC typically range from ",[153,629,630],{},"6 to 12 months"," for first-time field staff, creating a constant churn of personnel. Research indicates that retention is a major challenge, with some studies showing that only ",[153,633,634],{},"40% of employees reenlist for a second mission",[150,636,637],{},"More often we see organizations rotating even senior management at the mission level, which often attracts short-term professionals with little commitment to the organization's mission or the communities they serve.",[150,639,640],{},"The new data suggests the 2025 crisis is not solving these issues but rather entrenching them. By favoring flexible (and precarious) gig-based roles over stable, full-time positions, organizations are trading long-term institutional stability for short-term financial survival. We are witnessing a transformative reduction in stable relief jobs, which could hollow out the professionalized core of the sector.",[150,642,643,644,647],{},"(",[241,645,646],{},"Note on Scope:"," While the USAID funding freeze was the catalyst for this crisis, this analysis will not focus on that specific event. There is already excellent, detailed reporting on the 'stop work' order and its immediate fallout from sources like ICVA and specialist platforms like usaidstopwork.com. This article's aim is to analyze the secondary, sector-wide workforce impact as seen through the job market data.)",[142,649,651],{"id":650},"what-data-says-about-localization","What data says about Localization?",[150,653,654],{},"Contrary to some expectations, the data does not indicate a significant shift towards local hiring in response to the funding crisis. The proportion of job postings targeting local versus international candidates has remained relatively stable throughout the downturn.",[150,656,657,658,663],{},"The way this was calculated can be found here: ",[158,659,662],{"href":660,"rel":661},"https:\u002F\u002Fbaena.blog\u002F00.-STOCK\u002FLLM-extraction-of-new-information-in-Job-Descriptions-about-localization",[519],"LLM Data Extraction from Job Descriptions",". I have used an LLM to read through the job descriptions and extract whether the position is open to local candidates only, international candidates only, or both.",[142,665,667],{"id":666},"the-technology-behind-this-project","The technology behind this project",[442,669,671],{"id":670},"metabase-an-open-source-alternative-to-power-bi","Metabase, an Open Source alternative to Power BI",[150,673,674,677],{},[153,675,676],{},"Metabase is a powerful open-source business intelligence tool"," that allows users to create dashboards and visualizations from various data sources. It provides an intuitive interface for building queries, generating reports, and sharing insights across teams. I self-host my own instance of Metabase on my own infrastructure.",[442,679,681],{"id":680},"methodological-notes-the-rolling-week-problem","Methodological Notes: The \"Rolling Week\" Problem",[150,683,684],{},"Building and interpreting a live dashboard comes with its own set of technical challenges. Metabase excels at composing queries based on fixed calendar ranges (e.g., \"Last Week\" or \"This Month\"). However, this creates analytical noise.",[150,686,687],{},"For example, when viewing the dashboard at the beginning of a new week (a Monday or Tuesday), comparing the few jobs posted so far to the full seven days of the previous week results in a disproportionate and misleadingly alarming drop.",[150,689,690,691,694,695],{},"The solution is to implement a ",[241,692,693],{},"\"rolling seven-day total\""," query. This provides a far more accurate and stable picture of the immediate trend, smoothing out the noise from arbitrary calendar cutoffs. This is one of several small but critical nuances required to make the data tell an honest story. The query example can be found here: ",[158,696,699],{"href":697,"rel":698},"https:\u002F\u002Fbaena.blog\u002F00.-STOCK\u002FThe-rolling-week-problem",[519],"Rolling Week SQL Query",[142,701,703],{"id":702},"conclusion-a-sector-at-a-crossroads","Conclusion: A Sector at a Crossroads",[150,705,706,707,710],{},"The data points to a sector not just shrinking, ",[153,708,709],{},"but fundamentally changing its employment structure",". The convergence of the 2024 funding drop and the 2025 funding freeze is forcing a painful, sector-wide recalibration.",[150,712,713,714,717],{},"The resilience of consultancy roles amidst a collapse in full-time positions suggests a structural shift towards a more transient, ",[153,715,716],{},"\"gig-based\" humanitarian workforce",". While this may address immediate budget shortfalls, it threatens to deepen the long-standing issues of precarity, knowledge drain, and inconsistent quality that the sector has fought for two decades to overcome.",[150,719,720],{},"The professionalized, technical expert—born from the failures of the 1990s—is now facing a new, existential storm: not just a lack of funds, but a hollowing out of the very institutional stability that allowed the profession to mature in the first place.",{"title":377,"searchDepth":378,"depth":378,"links":722},[723,727,728,729,732,733,737],{"id":421,"depth":378,"text":422,"children":724},[725],{"id":444,"depth":726,"text":445},3,{"id":466,"depth":378,"text":467},{"id":527,"depth":378,"text":528},{"id":590,"depth":378,"text":591,"children":730},[731],{"id":617,"depth":726,"text":618},{"id":650,"depth":378,"text":651},{"id":666,"depth":378,"text":667,"children":734},[735,736],{"id":670,"depth":726,"text":671},{"id":680,"depth":726,"text":681},{"id":702,"depth":378,"text":703},"2025-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","A live dashboard to understand the state of humanitarian jobs in 2025",[741,745],{"label":742,"url":743,"icon":744},"Jobs Analytics Dashboard","\u002Fdemos\u002Freliefjobs-dashboard","i-ph-chart-bar",{"label":398,"url":746,"icon":747},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FJesus-Baena\u002F2025-reliefweb-jobs-dashboard","i-simple-icons-github",{"src":749},"https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002FComfyUI_00250_.png",{},"\u002Farticles\u002Fjobs-relief",{"title":411,"description":739},"3.articles\u002F3.jobs-relief","Sw2-nkvTVcKpn9o915qezArK6Dc5VHt0dG5mKrVIiO4",{"id":756,"title":757,"authors":758,"badge":761,"body":763,"date":885,"description":886,"extension":392,"external_links":887,"image":892,"meta":895,"navigation":107,"path":896,"seo":897,"stem":898,"__hash__":899},"posts\u002F3.articles\u002F2.chat-agent.md","The Humanitarian Assistant is here again, completely revamped",[759],{"name":132,"to":133,"avatar":760},{"src":135},{"label":762},"AI",{"type":139,"value":764,"toc":879},[765,768,775,779,786,789,793,800,811,815,818,858,861,865,876],[150,766,767],{},"In the humanitarian sector, new field managers are often thrust into roles demanding an unrealistic breadth of knowledge. They are expected to instantly master complex donor regulations, reporting procedures, humanitarian principles, and internal policies, leaving them in delicate positions without immediate support. This challenge highlights a critical gap for the dedicated individuals on the front lines.",[150,769,770,771,774],{},"To address this, I built the ",[153,772,773],{},"Humanitarian Assistant",", a dynamic AI tool designed to act as a virtual colleague. It is more than just a chatbot; it is a real-time support system built to provide the contextually relevant assistance that humanitarian workers need to succeed—grounded in trusted public sources and honest about where its answers come from.",[142,776,778],{"id":777},"designing-for-immediate-access","Designing for Immediate Access",[150,780,781,782,785],{},"We believe that in a crisis, barriers to information should not exist. That is why the Humanitarian Assistant follows a strict \"Open Access\" philosophy. Any visitor can land on the page and immediately start asking questions—no login required. However, for those who need to manage long-term projects or revisit complex reasoning chains, the tool integrates seamlessly with ",[153,783,784],{},"baena.ai",". By signing in, users can save their conversation history, effectively building a digital memory bank of their work.",[150,787,788],{},"Rather than asking users to pick the right \"mode\" for every question, the assistant works like a versatile team member: it reads your question and automatically reaches for the right source—a knowledge library, a live data feed, or a web search—and combines them into a single, coherent answer.",[142,790,792],{"id":791},"grounded-in-public-humanitarian-knowledge","Grounded in Public Humanitarian Knowledge",[150,794,795,796,799],{},"In our sector, data privacy and the \"Do No Harm\" principle are non-negotiable. We made a conscious architectural decision to build the knowledge base exclusively from ",[153,797,798],{},"publicly available, verified humanitarian guidance","—ALNAP lessons and evaluations, IASC guidance, the cash and voucher assistance (CVA) toolkit, ECHO eligibility rules, and child-protection and PSEA standards, among others. We do not scrape private internal datasets or sensitive operational files.",[150,801,802,803,806,807,810],{},"These documents—hundreds of reports, distilled into thousands of searchable passages—are embedded and stored in a ",[153,804,805],{},"self-hosted Qdrant vector database"," that we run and control end to end. When you ask a question, the assistant retrieves the most relevant passages and ",[153,808,809],{},"cites the source documents"," it drew on, so you can verify the answer and read further. By owning the retrieval layer rather than relying on opaque third-party services, we keep every answer transparent and traceable to public-sector knowledge.",[142,812,814],{"id":813},"live-data-not-just-documents","Live Data, Not Just Documents",[150,816,817],{},"Static guidance is only half the picture, so the assistant also queries live humanitarian data sources on demand:",[199,819,820,838,852],{},[202,821,822,825,826,829,830,833,834,837],{},[153,823,824],{},"ACAPS"," — displacement and people-in-need figures for Ukraine (down to the oblast level), plus global crisis analytics: the ",[153,827,828],{},"INFORM Severity Index",", the ",[153,831,832],{},"Risk List"," of emerging threats, and ",[153,835,836],{},"Humanitarian Access"," constraints for any country.",[202,839,840,843,844,847,848,851],{},[153,841,842],{},"FEWS NET"," — acute food insecurity ",[153,845,846],{},"IPC phase classifications"," (from Minimal to Famine) and ",[153,849,850],{},"staple food market prices"," with year-on-year trends, anywhere in the world.",[202,853,854,857],{},[153,855,856],{},"Web search"," for current events when the curated sources don't cover a question.",[150,859,860],{},"The agent decides which tool fits each question: a query about famine risk in the Horn of Africa pulls live IPC data and cites FEWS NET, while a question about cash programming draws on the knowledge base, and a request for displacement figures in a Ukrainian oblast hits ACAPS directly.",[142,862,864],{"id":863},"orchestrated-intelligence-under-the-hood","Orchestrated Intelligence Under the Hood",[150,866,867,868,871,872,875],{},"While the interface is simple, the engineering behind it is deliberate. The assistant is built on ",[153,869,870],{},"Flowise",", orchestrating a ",[153,873,874],{},"Google Gemini"," model together with the retrieval and live-data tools above. We recently re-platformed the system off the OpenAI Assistants API onto Gemini and our own Qdrant vector store—a move that gives us independence over the model, full ownership of the retrieval layer, and a lower running cost. Hardened guardrails keep the assistant strictly on humanitarian topics and resistant to prompt-injection attempts.",[150,877,878],{},"The result is a secure, transparent, and cost-effective colleague—free for everyone to use, from international coordinators to local NGO partners.",{"title":377,"searchDepth":378,"depth":378,"links":880},[881,882,883,884],{"id":777,"depth":378,"text":778},{"id":791,"depth":378,"text":792},{"id":813,"depth":378,"text":814},{"id":863,"depth":378,"text":864},"2025-05-01T00:00:00.000Z","A chat agent designed to support humanitarian workers with real-time, context-aware assistance using publicly available data.",[888],{"label":889,"url":890,"icon":891},"Humanitarian Agent Demo","\u002Fdemos\u002Fhumanitarian-agent","i-ph-robot",{"src":893,"alt":894},"https:\u002F\u002Fqecdwuwkxgwkpopmdewl.supabase.co\u002Fstorage\u002Fv1\u002Fobject\u002Fpublic\u002Fbaena-ai-assets\u002FArticles\u002FComfyUI_00352_.png","Illustration of a friendly robot assisting a human worker",{},"\u002Farticles\u002Fchat-agent",{"title":757,"description":886},"3.articles\u002F2.chat-agent","NT4xE2y3yJ1nW8zhN0bkt-0WoSWX8U2TSjzpLdmXBAQ"]