Our flagship event, the biennial Humanitarian Leadership Conference brings together humanitarian leaders, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to challenge the status quo and create space for the conversations the sector most needs to have.
2027 Humanitarian Leadership Conference
Mark your calendar: the 2027 Humanitarian Leadership Conference (HLC 2027) is coming to Doha on 20-22 April 2027 – in person, online and with a fascinating array of parallel sessions and affiliated events.
Once again, we are delighted to be partnering with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), continuing the collaboration that shaped HLC 2025.
Register your interest in HLC2027
The HLC has asked hard questions before. Who are the humanitarians? Why is the system stuck? What does leadership look like in a polycrisis? Each edition has pushed the conversation further.
2027 is a little different. Our theme, our discussions, our debate, our dialogue, and our decisions will be shaped around the premise that ‘We Are the Systems’.
Those closest to crisis have always shaped the systems that respond to it – and the HLC2027 will recognise and celebrate the amazing work that occurs inside, outside and around the formal humanitarian system, through the ingenuity, solidarity, and brilliance of local leaders, their allies, and supporters.
This conference is designed to produce decisions, rather than just dialogue – and participants will work towards negotiated commitments, with named owners and transparent follow-through.
It is also the summit moment for Beyond Reform; a multi-year process we’ve been building – with convenings across Africa, Asia, West Asia, and South America, bringing frontline realities into the room where the system gets shaped. By the time we gather in April 2027, the agenda will have been built from the ground up.
The conference experience is about trust. We’re working towards an event that is intellectually rigorous and creatively alive – where artists carry weight that data sometimes cannot, and where you’ll be asked to sit with complexity, and we hope you’ll leave changed.
More details on themes and explorations, the program, online events and venue are coming soon.
HLC 2027 runs 20-22 April but pre- and post-conference events will be running in the days either side, with more detail coming soon.
Full details on the theme, location, and program will be announced in the coming months.
To be the first to hear, Register your interest in HLC2027 or sign up to our newsletter
Get in touch: For partnership and sponsorship enquiries, contact partnerships@cfhl.org.au.
2025 Humanitarian Leadership Conference: Transformative leadership in times of polycrisis
The 2025 Humanitarian Leadership Conference was held from April 8-9 in Doha, Qatar. The 2025 HLC was hosted in partnership with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, and with the support of Pledge for Change 2030.
The 2025 Humanitarian Leadership Conference focused on the very human element of leadership: of who takes risks and how they can make real, positive change. Disrupting the usual discussions and creating space for emerging and insightful analysis, the 2025 Humanitarian Leadership Conference explored the multiple aspects and impacts of the polycrisis as well as the multi-faceted nature and influence of transformative leadership. It showcased the increasing reality of diverse leadership and its capacity to navigate and affect positive change in crises around the world.
Visit the Conference webpage to access our wrap-up and key resources from the event.
2023 Humanitarian Leadership Conference: Re-engineering the global disaster response system
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 investigated why the system is ‘stuck’ and will proposed ambitious and pragmatic ways to reinvigorate change and build a better global disaster response system fit for the world in 2050.
2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference: Who are the Humanitarians?
The 2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference was part of the global transition from rhetoric to action. More than 1000 delegates from across 80 different countries came together to determine where change is needed and what a reshaping of the humanitarian ecosystem might looks like, from the actors involved and ways of working to the very definition of what constitutes a humanitarian crisis.
2019 Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference
The 2019 Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference brought together leading humanitarian practitioners, academics, researchers and stakeholders from government, NGOs and the private sector from around the world for three days of plenary sessions, panels, presentations and networking in Melbourne. Participants critically reflected on the challenges facing good leadership in the humanitarian space and the future of humanitarian action in the Asia Pacific and fragile states.
