Centre for Humanitarian Leadership (CHL) co-organised with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) 

This is a call for participation. Tell us the question, tension or dilemma you keep coming back to, and who you’d need in the room to work on it. 

Submissions need to be approximately half a page to a page maximum. From this, if your idea sparks something, we’ll be in touch to shape something further with you. 

Share your idea by 23:59 GMT on Sunday 6 December. This window is intentionally short, and the deadline won’t be extended. 

Why this call looks different 

The people best placed to help a community in crisis are already in it. 

HLC 2027 starts there. Under the theme, We Are the Systems, the people in the room aren’t only observers of the humanitarian system. They are the system, and its failures and adaptations are theirs to reshape. 

Before writing this call, we asked our partners and regional networks what the sector needs to face. More than 400 people who have registered for HLC also told us what they want from the conference. 

What came back was consistent: the problems are well understood. Commitments to locally led response haven’t yet changed who holds the money, who sets the agenda or whose knowledge counts. Much of what matters happens inside, outside and around the formal system, led by communities, mutual aid groups, diaspora and faith networks who respond first. And people want to leave a conference with something to act on. 

So HLC 2027 is designed to produce decisions. Negotiated commitments, with named owners and transparent follow-through. Fewer stages and more rooms. Intellectually rigorous and creatively alive, where artists communicate experience that conventional data sources sometimes cannot capture. 

Alongside this call – and as part of CHL’s Beyond Reform initiative – regional convenings across Africa, Asia, West Asia, and Latin America are shaping the program, so that by April the agenda has been built from the ground up. HLC 2027 is co-organised with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), placing the experience of the Arab region at the heart of these conversations. It builds on CHS’s Humanitarian Diplomacy Initiative and more than a decade of bringing together humanitarian practitioners and policymakers from across the Arab region and beyond. 

The themes 

Four themes sit under We Are the Systems. Bring your sector with you – show us where power sits in it. 

These questions are starting points. 

Who decides? 

Power, money and the gap between promise and practice. 

The sector has made commitments to locally led action, but money, decisions and recognition still mostly flow the same way. 

  • How do national and local organisations move from implementers to decision-makers? 
  • What would direct, flexible, multi-year funding actually take, and what’s getting in the way? 
  • What would accountability look like if it ran first to communities rather than to funders? 
  • What incentives are we each holding to maintain the status quo? Who is prepared to give something up? 
  • How do local and national actors gain a real seat in the political and diplomatic processes that decide access, not only in operational ones?

Already responding or emerging 

What’s happening beyond the formal system. 

Communities, mutual aid groups, diaspora, faith networks and local funders are the first responders during conflict and crisis. We want to learn from what’s working, and talk openly about what isn’t, such as who gets left out and who carries the work unpaid. 

  • What does community-led response know that the formal system doesn’t? 
  • What happens when the humanitarian system supports mutual aid? 
  • How do we support it without taking it over or forcing community groups to remake themselves in the image of the formal system? 
  • When is local response not enough, and who decides?
  • What role do philanthropy, social finance (including Islamic social finance such as zakat and waqf), donors, and other non-traditional funding partners play?

Less money, harder choices 

Doing humanitarian work as funding falls. 

Cuts are reshaping the sector right now. Too often, local organisations and national crisis responders carry the burden of cuts, while larger organisations hold onto their structures. 

  • When funding falls, who absorbs the cuts, and how do we change that? 
  • What should we stop doing, and what must we protect? 
  • How do we protect and care for the people doing the work, including those who have lost their jobs or keep working without pay?  
  • What do equitable partnerships look like when there is less to go around? 
  • When does localisation become a transfer of risk without the resources or political backing to carry it? 
  • How do we demand accountability and justice when funding is cut? 

The ground is shifting 

Geopolitics, technology and climate 

Forces outside the sector are changing what humanitarian action can do and who shapes it. 

  • What happens to humanitarian space when violations of international humanitarian law go unanswered, aid is obstructed or used as a weapon, aid workers are targeted, and parties to conflict decide who receives assistance?  
  • What does it take to keep people safe when they’re living under siege, from Gaza to Sudan and beyond? And what can be gained by negotiating with governments, armed groups and whoever controls the territory? 
  • Who shapes the development and use of data and AI in humanitarian action, and how can affected communities influence those decisions? 
  • What role should the private sector play and on whose terms? 
  • How should humanitarian action relate to development, peacebuilding and climate action? Are the lines between them useful, or do they get in the way of the work? 

Ways to take part 

Some ways you may like  to engage. 

  • Creative expression: storytelling, art, film, music or performance that carries what a traditional presentation can overlook.  
  • Speakers’ Corner: three minutes. One idea, one question, one thing the sector needs to hear. 
  • A conversation we need to have: a hard question worked through by people who see it differently, including people who hold different power or resources. Tell us who should be in the room. 
  • Workshop: an interactive, group session that works on a real problem. People leave with something: a decision, a commitment, a tool, a partnership, a next step. 
  • Scenario: rehearse a crisis scenario, a funding cut to a major program or a negotiation. 
  • Bring your collective: show how your community, network or movement is already responding: what you’re doing differently, what you’re learning, what’s still hard.  
  • Knowledge exchange: research or evidence shared through posters, short films or visual displays, for conversation rather than presentation. 

A note on panels: we won’t be programming dozens of separate panels, because we want more time for people to connect. If you’d like to be in a conversation with others, tell us who, and we’ll help bring people together. We may also connect you with others who’ve sent in similar ideas. 

What we’re not looking for 

To save you time: 

  • Keynote proposals. Keynotes will be invited separately. 
  • Panels that cover familiar ground. If it’s been heard before, at another conference or across the sector, it’s probably not the right fit. We want panels that test new ideas or bring together voices that are rarely heard side by side. 
  • Showcases. Organisational promotion, product pitches and report launches. 
  • Findings with no question for the room. Bring your research, but tell us what you want people to wrestle with. 
  • Restating the problem. The problems are well understood. Bring what you’re doing about them, or where you’re stuck. 
  • Long documents. We’re choosing ideas, not polished proposals. 

Who we especially want to hear from 

People who are often invited to speak but rarely get to decide in these spaces: 

  • Community-led, indigenous, refugee-led and diaspora groups 
  • Women and feminist organisations 
  • Creatives and artists  
  • Disability-led organisations 
  • Young people, including those under 30 leading in their communities 
  • National and local humanitarian and crisis leaders, including those who’ve lost roles in funding cuts 
  • Mutual aid, faith-based and informal networks 

We also want people from outside the sector – share this with them! Economists, technologists, organisers, coaches, and scientists. And we want decision-makers, including funders, and the compliance, legal and grants teams who set the rules, willing to sit in the same room as people their decisions affect. 

How to share your idea 

All ideas are to be submitted via our portal here.

Via the portal, share some information about yourself and your idea, including:

  • What are the questions no one is asking? The question, tension or dilemma you want to work on at HLC 2027. 
  • Which theme is it closest to? Who decides? / Already responding or emerging / Less money, harder choices / The ground is shifting / Something else 
  • How would you like to take part? A conversation we need to have / Workshop / Scenario or role play / Bring your collective / Knowledge exchange / Creative expression / Speakers’ corner / Not sure yet 
  • Who needs to be in the room with you? Name people, groups or perspectives, especially someone who holds different power or might disagree with you. 

Optional: anything else that may support your idea e.g. a link to past work.

What happens next 

Your idea is the start of a conversation. 

  • 12 November: call opens. 
  • Sunday 6 December, 23:59 Doha time (GMT+3): call closes. No extensions. 
  • December: we read every idea and look for the ones that spark something, and where people are asking the same question from different places. 
  • Before the end of the year: we will get in touch with the people whose ideas we’d like to explore, and set up conversations for January 
  • January: we work with you to shape the session: who is in the room, what format fits, and what it could lead to. Where several people have sent similar ideas, we may bring you together. 
  • Early February: program confirmed, so there’s time to plan travel and visas. 

Submit your idea here.

Questions you might have: 

Do I need to be an academic or have research to share? No. Most of what we’re looking for comes from practice, creatives, communities and lived experience. 

My idea isn’t fully formed. Should I still submit? Yes. We’d rather hear a sharp question than a polished answer. 

Can I submit more than one idea? Yes, as long as it’s before the deadline.

How will ideas be chosen? We look for a fresh question rather than a familiar one, a clear sense of who needs to be in the room, and a program that brings together different regions, perspectives and forms of expertise. 

Can I submit in a language other than English? Yes. CHL and CHS have language expertise in Spanish, French, Burmese, Ukrainian and Arabic, but please note we may use AI to support our other team members to understand the idea. If you’d like to hold a session in a language other than English at the conference, we will work through options with you. 

Can I propose a panel? You can tell us who or what type of people you’d like to be in conversation with. We’ll shape the format with you, and it probably won’t be a traditional panel. 

Does taking part mean I don’t pay to attend? If your idea is accepted for the official conference program, you will be entitled to a 50% discount on the full-price registration. 

Is there support for travel? CHL has secured some funding to support local leaders and their participation, and we are continuing to fundraise. We are committed to ensuring a diverse representation of local leaders and ideas. You can tell us in the form if you need support with flights or accommodation. 

What if I miss the deadline? The deadline is firm. You’re still very welcome to register and take part in the conference. 

We Are the Systems. Share your idea here by 23:59 GMT on Sunday 6 December and join us in Doha.