With traditional humanitarian aid donor still pulling back, private capital is often cited as the answer. Yet, in practice, very little flows into fragile settings. The barriers are well known but one critical aspect remains underexamined: How success is measured.

In this quarter’s update, we invite you to attend AidEx 2025; highlight innovative financial models that are tangibly supporting humanitarian goals; and welcome you to submit case studies for the 2026 Humanitarian Finance Summit.

Together with UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Instiglio, and DanChurchAid, we convened a private roundtable to examine the design and objectives of the Syria Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) and Livelihood Development Impact Bond (DIB).

In this quarter’s update, we spotlight the liquidity crisis threatening humanitarian response and actions forward.

The Anticipation Hub and the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative recently published a working paper that reveals how insurance, traditionally a post-disaster tool, is being adapted to fund anticipatory action.

The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report is the world-leading annual assessment of the state of international humanitarian financing, published by the ALNAP Network.

Following our webinar last week on ‘A Shared Responsibility: Developing Solutions to Address the Humanitarian Liquidity Crisis’, here are key takeaways from the discussion with Elise Baudot (ICVA Network), Yolaina Vargas-Pritchard (Start Network), Simon Meldrum (HFF), alongside remarks from Alice Soukupova (DG ECHO)

A pocket guide on "Humanitarian Innovative Financing" from the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA). It defines humanitarian innovative financing as a range of models and approaches that use humanitarian grants to attract partnerships, capacity, and capital from the development, local, and private sectors.

Our latest newsletter addresses the humanitarian liquidity crisis, providing context and proposing practical, viable solutions.

The Humanitarian Finance Forum and AidEx, with support from Aon and Reed Smith, recently hosted the inaugural Humanitarian Finance Summit in London. The event convened senior leaders, experts, and practitioners to explore innovative financial solutions for humanitarian challenges, emphasising urgency and actionable approaches. The Summit welcomed 227 delegates representing 165 organisations across 32 countries.

Ahead of the Humanitarian Finance Summit in London (14 February 2025) and The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville (30 June – 3 July 2025), our Humanitarian Finance Forum asserts that innovative and sustainable financing solutions, including market-based approaches are needed to foster long-term resilience beyond traditional aid. The need is substantial and urgent which demands for cross-sector collaboration. It is a shared responsibility that requires concrete commitments with tangible actions from all stakeholders. 

This edition of our newsletter wraps up 2024, while looking forward to our very first Humanitarian Finance Summit, co-hosted by the Forum and AidEx in London next month. Our 2024 highlights include a spotlight on the Red Cross and Red Crescent Innovative Finance Report, followed by a roundtable discussion on developing a frontloading mechanism for mine action. We also delve into the exciting outcomes of our AidEx Geneva side event, which explored the potential, challenges, and tangible projects supported by private capital in the humanitarian sector. Insights from this important event are also available in the Humanitarian Logistics Association’s inaugural magazine digest. To further enrich your understanding of humanitarian innovative finance, we recommend two insightful must-read papers published last year.