In 2016, at the World Humanitarian Summit, all the big players in the international humanitarian aid system, committed to ‘better support and reinforce national and local actors’. Since then, the roles and behaviors of notably international aid agencies, acting as ‘intermediaries’ for the funding to national and local actors, have come under closer review.

This briefing paper looks at what we mean by ‘intermediary’ and why ‘back-donors’ use them. It unpacks how intermediaries can add value but can also abuse their power over national and local actors they sub-grant to. Abusive behavior can come from specific individuals, but unjust practices can be more structurally embedded in how an organization sees its intermediation role, and its wider organizational culture and self-image. Organizations playing intermediary roles now can and must reflect self-critically about how they choose to play that role. The next briefing paper will offer practical guidance for the conversations back-donors can and must have with those they fund in intermediary roles.