A child stands barefoot in the mud in Cité Soleil, one of the porrest areas in Port au Prince. Cité Soleil is about 50 square kilometers of squalor and home to over half a million people. Many of its residents do not have access to basic sanitary equipment such as latrines.

The qualitative data for the HRI 2009 was generated from field research in 13 different crises around the world: Afghanistan, Chad, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Georgia, Haiti, Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste. The process included interviews with more than 450 humanitarian organisations and donor agencies involved in the implementation of humanitarian programming, and more than 2000 responses to a survey of donor practice. The quantitative data was compiled from a number of different sources, including the United Nations (UN), European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO)/Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the World Bank, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The HRI process also includes reviews of key policy documents and evaluations of humanitarian action.