We are choosing to stop feeding a system that reproduces the problem.
Local and national actors are not the future of humanitarian action—they are its present and have always been its foundation. Every day, community leaders, local aid groups and frontline responders navigate crises with ingenuity, legitimacy, and deep local knowledge. Yet the humanitarian system continues to concentrate power, resources, and decision-making elsewhere, leaving those closest to crisis too often unheard and under-resourced.
At a time when conflict is intensifying, climate impacts are accelerating, civic space is shrinking, and the global order itself is becoming increasingly unstable, the need for a different approach has never been clearer. Across the world, new forms of leadership, solidarity, and community-led action are emerging. The challenge is not whether alternatives exist, but whether the wider humanitarian system is willing to recognise, support, and learn from them.
What we’re building together
Pathways towards change
Beyond Reform is a multi-year initiative working with local and national actors across four regions to reshape how the humanitarian system operates, who leads it, and who it answers to. Over three years, it will do this through three interconnected streams of work.
Regional convenings: building a movement
A collective of regional convenings, podcasts, publications and the 2027 Humanitarian Leadership Conference, working together toward a common purpose: building solidarity, setting the agenda, and producing negotiated commitments that carry real weight. These are not one-off events — they form a sustained, connected arc of dialogue designed to shift who holds influence in shaping humanitarian action.
Research: turning the lens on ourselves
Evidence designed to do more than document. The research strand of Beyond Reform examines the humanitarian system from the inside — its funding norms, its power dynamics, and the gap between what the system says it values and how it actually behaves. Findings are designed to travel: into policy, into practice, and back into the convenings that generate them.
Leadership development: strengthening ecosystems, not just individuals
Investing in the leadership capabilities of local and national actors across all four regions, with a deliberate focus on durability. The goal is not to produce isolated leaders but to build regional networks and relationships that outlast any single program cycle — ecosystems through which locally led humanitarian action can grow and sustain itself.
The foundations of the journey
Beyond Reform is built as a continuous pathway; connecting frontline experience, research, and global agenda-setting into a multi-year process that builds towards the 2027 Humanitarian Leadership Conference (HLC) and beyond: embedding and tracking commitments made during the conference in ongoing convenings.
Regional convenings: regionally driven gatherings across Asia, Pacific, Africa, West Asia, and South America – before and after the conference – prioritising crisis affected and historically underrepresented communities.
Podcast and publications: translating frontline insights into accessible formats – amplifying voices and shifting global discourse ahead of the HLC.
2027 HLC – the moment of commitment: Doha, April 2027. The most considered and locally led edition yet. Reform packages. Community-led accountability metrics. Named owners. Tacked outcomes. Full or partial travel sponsorship for up to 50 local leaders.
Research and documentation: a three-year implementation study tracking what genuinely enables shared power. Regional working papers and a special edition of Humanitarian Leader disseminated in multiple languages.
Leadership development: Crisis Leadership Program (CLP) cohorts and advocacy intensives supporting capacity building for local leaders engaging in global crisis response debates – in Arabic, Spanish and English.
What this initiative delivers
Convenings
- 7 Regional agenda setting gatherings.
- Locally led thematic workstreams producing decision-ready deliverables.
- A reimagined 2027 HLC with negotiated commitments, named owners and tracking mechanisms.
- Dedicated HLC digital platform hosting regional outputs and progress tracking.
Research
- Three-year implementation study on barriers and enablers to equitable convening.
- Regional working papers synthesising locally generated priorities.
- Flagship synthesis publication on emergent humanitarian systems.
- Findings disseminated in multiple languages.
Education
- CLP Seed, Grow and Extend cohorts with peer and one-to-one coaching.
- CLP delivered in Arabic and Spanish
- Three advocacy training intensives for hyperlocal and crisis responses actors.
- Research findings integrated into leadership curriculum.
We’re inviting you to join us
We are seeking partners who want to actively shape this work. Whether you are a regional think tank, practitioner network, funder, academic institution, or movement actor, your role will be co-designed based on where you can have the greatest influence.
- Co-convene regional dialogues, bringing your networks, legitimacy and contextual insight.
- Contribute thought leadership and research that strengthens the evidence backed for change.
- Amplify frontline voices and help shift global discourse.
- Support agenda-setting and commitments leading into the 2027 HLC.
- Invest as a funding or strategic partner, enabling this ecosystem to grow and sustain.
Get in touch
Interest in partnering, collaborating, or learning more about the initiative? We’d love to hear from you: partnerships@cfhl.org.au
