The Aurora Humanitarian Index is a special survey that examines public perceptions of major humanitarian issues. It explores the international public’s attitudes toward both responsibility and effectiveness of humanitarian intervention, as well as the motivations that urge people to intervene on behalf of others. 
 

The annual survey is conducted across multiple countries and its findings are presented each April during the Aurora Dialogues, an international platform for discussions among leading experts in the humanitarian community, as part of a weekend of events culminating with the presentation of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

The results of the first annual Aurora Humanitarian Index were unveiled during the inaugural Aurora Dialogues conference in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 23, 2016. The 4,600 respondents in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Lebanon and Iran all cited terrorism as the number one most pressing humanitarian challenge now and for the next five years, followed by forced migration.

Here are the key findings of the first Aurora Humanitarian Index:

• The public disproportionately associates the global refugee crisis with the situation in Syria, demonstrating ignorance of other refugee crises including Myanmar, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The majority of respondents believe that international institutions are best placed to solve the refugee crisis, yet half feel refugees have been abandoned by the international community
• When it comes to identifying international leaders most capable of managing the Syrian crisis Barack Obama (46%) and Angela Merkel (46%) score the highest, followed by Vladimir Putin (33%) and David Cameron (28%) with Hilary Clinton (17%) and Donald Trump (9%) trailing far behind
• The public feels compassion for refugees, but only half would help Syrian refugees if they could, and most question their ability to make a real difference

You can learn more about the 2016 Aurora Humanitarian Index here.