On 14-15 December 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will convene the twelfth annual Global Humanitarian Policy Forum (GHPF). For the fifth consecutive year, the United Nations Foundation (UNF) will contribute its invaluable expertise and network across and beyond the humanitarian sector to co-host the GHPF.

This year’s forum will bring together leaders with diverse backgrounds and skill sets to share their perspectives on the state of the world at the end of 2023, the global risks and challenges that keep them up at night, and the possible ways forward for the humanitarian system. A High-level Opening Panel and two interactive sessions will highlight some of the biggest challenges and opportunities the sector faces, including geopolitical tensions and conflict, climate change and humanitarian diplomacy. In addition, OCHA will present its new Flagship Initiative to reform and strengthen certain key aspects of the humanitarian system.

This year’s forum is held against the backdrop of humanitarian needs that are on track to skyrocket far beyond the humanitarian sector’s resources and capacities. New and persisting conflicts are driving displacement at unprecedented levels. Climate shocks are forcing people from their homes, destroying livelihoods, intensifying food insecurity and exacerbating health concerns. Conflict, economic shocks and climate extremes are fueling the largest global food crisis in modern history. Economic uncertainty persists amid high inflation, financial sector upsets, ongoing effects of the war in Ukraine and the lingering aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic. The most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of the suffering.

Since 2012, the GHPF has convened members of the humanitarian community and experts from other fields to anticipate future trends, launch new policy ideas and explore the practical challenges and opportunities of translating policy into practice in crisis contexts. Over the past twelve years, the GHPF has been at the forefront of shaping the international humanitarian community’s policy agenda.

Resources

GHPF Attendee Briefing Packet

Humanitarian Risks & Trends 2023

Global Humanitarian Overview 2024

Agenda

Day 1: Thursday 14 December

High-level Panel: A World in Turmoil, a Humanitarian System under Stress

9:00 – 10:00 EST

The world is in turmoil, and the international humanitarian system is on the edge of a precipice. The number of people requiring humanitarian assistance more than doubled over the past five years and more than quadrupled from 2014 to 2023. The system has redoubled efforts again and again to try to keep up, but needs are skyrocketing far beyond its ability to deliver. Drivers of need are intensifying and compounding, setting new records of need year after year. Against this backdrop, at this year’s opening panel, a diverse group of leaders across different sectors will come together to reflect on the current state of the world, on the challenges that keep them up at night, and on the possible ways forward for the humanitarian system. The discussion will help relay a realistic picture and understanding of the global humanitarian landscape ahead of us in 2024, and the critical steps humanitarian actors, donors, and their partners can take to best address the exponential rise in humanitarian needs. Discussions will focus on persistent and emerging socio-economic, political, ethical and security challenges, like climate change, new and resurging conflicts, mounting economic pressures, and rising food insecurity worldwide, compounded by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other concurrent crises. The panel will identify a number of strategic, organizational or operational challenges and opportunities for humanitarian actors and their partners, and the decisions they may have to make.

Moderator: Shakuntala Santhiran, International Broadcast Journalist

Opening Remarks: H. E. Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations and President of the 78th United Nations General Assembly (2023-2024)

Panellists:

• Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
• Fatima Gailani, Senior Afghan Negotiator and Board Member, Afghan Red Crescent Society
• Abby Maxman, President & CEO, Oxfam America
• Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, World Food Programme

Interactive Session: Humanitarian Diplomacy – The Political Engagement of Humanitarian Organizations

10:15 – 11:30 EST

Humanitarian actors face monumental challenges when delivering aid and assistance to people affected by humanitarian crises. They include violence and insecurity, rapidly changing operating environments, humanitarian access restrictions, mistrust by state and non-state actors, violations of international humanitarian law, bureaucratic and administrative impediments, and restrictive policies like sanctions and counterterrorism measures, to name only a few. The humanitarian space is shrinking, and the operating environment is becoming increasingly politicized and polarized. At the same time, an ever-increasing number of people in-need live under the authority of non-state armed groups or de-facto authorities. There is a greater need than ever to find new ways of constructively engaging and negotiating with actors that can positively influence the humanitarian space. Humanitarian diplomacy is the use of diplomatic engagement and negotiations and the nurturing of relationships to influence the parties to armed conflicts and their sponsors, and governance bodies ruling areas affected by natural disasters, to pursue humanitarian objectives. It can support different purposes including negotiating access and leveraging influence over state and non-state actors that are impeding humanitarian operations. It can raise protection concerns or respond to global humanitarian issues. And it can help find solutions to prevent, mitigate and roll-back humanitarian need and suffering. This panel will shed light on the changing political and conflict landscape and the different baseline requirements, steps, approaches and actors involved in humanitarian diplomacy. It will address humanitarians’ own positioning in engaging with political actors against a landscape in which apolitical humanitarians operate in highly politicized contexts for operational delivery.

Moderator: Salla Turunen, Manager, Centre for Women, Peace and Security, the London School of Economics and Political Science

Panellists:

• Reshma Adatia, Former Head of Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Operations Coordinator, Médecins Sans Frontières
• Richard Gowan, UN Director, New York, International Crisis Group
• Kyung-nan Park, Director of Emergency Operations Division, World Food Programme
• Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow, Blackfriars Hall and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Day 2: Friday 15 December

Interactive Session: Rethinking Humanitarian Coordination: The Flagship Initiative

9:00 – 10:15 EST

As the demand for humanitarian assistance increases and available funding falls short, there is a pressing need to transform the coordination, delivery and financing of humanitarian action. Time and again, the humanitarian sector has been called upon to shift from a supply-driven system that measures success based on agency mandates or donor priorities to a demand-driven one that is shaped by genuine and unfiltered listening to and understanding of affected people’s priorities. A fundamental reorientation of the system is needed. To that end, the Emergency Relief Coordinator launched the Flagship Initiative in 2023. The Flagship Initiative is a three-year project designed to explore innovative approaches to putting affected people at the centre of humanitarian action and having their unique priorities drive programming decisions at all levels. The intention is both to realize the commitments of the Grand Bargain and to bring together thematic workstreams like localization, Accountability to Affected Populations, gender and centrality of protection. Resident Coordinators and Humanitarian Coordinators are spearheading this initiative at the country-level in a select number of countries, starting with Colombia, Niger, the Philippines and South Sudan. This panel will focus on presenting the key characteristics of the Flagship Initiative and how it came into existence. It will highlight progress to date, key challenges that must be overcome, opportunities for the future and, most importantly, how it will help to achieve better outcomes for people affected by humanitarian crises.

Moderator: Quynh Tran, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, OCHA

Panellists:

• Gustavo Gonzalez, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, Philippines
• Regina “Nanette” Salvador-Antequisa, Executive Director, Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits, Inc. (EcoWeb), Philippines
• Lewis Sida, Co-Director of the Humanitarian Learning Centre, Institute of Development Studies
• Modibo Traoré, Head of Office, OCHA Niger
• Valeria Vargas Martínez, Spanish Help Desk from the Global Child Protection Area of ResponsibilityCorporación Infancia y Desarrollo
• Marie-Helene Verney, Acting UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNHCR Representative, South Sudan

Interactive Session: The Violence Before the Storm – Climate and Conflict’s Compounding Toll

10:30 – 11:45 EST

Fragile and conflict-affected states are among those most severely and adversely impacted by the climate crisis. Not only are they disproportionately affected by extreme weather events compared to non-fragile settings. Already grappling with violence, instability and poverty, they also find climate change exacerbating their pre-existing humanitarian vulnerabilities. Most of these states bear minimal responsibility for causing climate change but bear the brunt of its consequences. Compared to non-fragile settings, they receive a minuscule fraction of climate finance. There is an urgent need for more financing directed to communities in fragile and conflict-affected settings for disaster preparedness and anticipatory action as well as strengthened local systems and actors to break out of the shock-reaction cycle and build resilience ahead of crises and over the long-term. To that end, the COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace seeks to scale up climate action in fragile and conflict-affected settings in a landmark effort to integrate climate and humanitarian policy. This panel will focus on what the COP28 Declaration and other lessons from COP28 mean in practice for the humanitarian community in navigating the escalating climate crisis and its interaction with other drivers of need. It will discuss potential paths towards realizing a shift from reactive to proactive strategies including anticipatory action, strengthening resilience and adaptation to future shocks, and prioritizing collaborative efforts, early warning and sustained community engagement to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of those most vulnerable.

Moderator: Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, Senior Advisor, Adaptation and Resilience, United Nations Foundation

Panellists:

• Preety Bhandari, Global Climate Program and the Finance Center, World Resources Institute
• Emma Flaherty, Implementation Lead, Risk Informed Early Action Partnership
• Nimo Hassan, Director of Somali NGO Consortium
• Gernot Laganda, Director, Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction at United Nations World Food Programme
• Aleksandra Roulet-Cimpric, Country Director of International Rescue Committee, Chad