Event details

The humanitarian system is no longer fit-for-purpose to deal with the scale and severity of crises in the 21st century. Climate change, increasing fragility and conflict, and financial and economic crises are compounding disasters, while system reform initiatives have failed to deliver transformational change. Progress towards decolonising aid, shifting the power and achieving the localisation agenda has stalled.

The 2023 Humanitarian Leadership Conference will investigate why the system is ‘stuck’ and will propose ambitious and pragmatic ways to reinvigorate change. It will explore answers to key questions: what needs to change, how, and who needs to drive the change; across four key areas: funding for crisis response, organisational models and their mandates, motivations and incentives.

Building on momentum from the 2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference, this ambitious event will reunite key actors – local, national, international and global – to deliver a better global disaster response system fit for the world in 2050.

Following a successful digital-first event in 2021; the 2023 event will be hosted online, this time over three days, with the final day continuing online with optional in-person workshops, meetings, and a closing function in Melbourne, Australia.