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The Humanitarian Finance Forum is a global network of professionals working in humanitarian finance. We provide a platform for collaboration, learning, and advocacy. Contact us today to learn more about our work and how you can get involved.

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Humanitarian Finance Forum Contact Us | Connect with Us to Learn More

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Bringing together experts with AidEx participants to share public and private perspectives around the new and rapidly developing field of innovative finance, and to explore addressing funding needs for projects in LIC/FCSA settings.

AidEx 2023 - Innovative Finance Side Event

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Public service provision in fragile states often involve a complex network of external development agencies, NGOs, and domestic institutions. This session explore building effective partnerships in these high-risk areas.

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Social Outcomes Conference 2023

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Advancing equity is the World Health Organization pandemic treaty&rsquo;s goal. O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and UNAIDS convened experts in biomedical science, human rights, finance, patient advocacy, and other areas to examine innovative mechanisms.&nbsp;
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On February 15, the O'Neill-FNIH-UNAIDS launched the report, Advancing a World Together Equitably: WHO Collaborating Centre Global Consultation on Equity Models for a Pandemic Agreement in Support of the World Health Organisation and Intergovernmental Negotiating Body.&nbsp;
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The report followed the January WHO expert summit in Geneva on the range of possible models in global health law that assert equity as a priority and analysed them for possible inclusion in a new instrument. The Humanitarian Finance Forum was invited to participate in the summit and was represented by Board Member Helen Alderson.

Advancing equity is the World Health Organization pandemic treaty’s goal. O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

Advancing Equity - Consultations on a New International Pandemic Agreement

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Over 3,000 persons with disability have benefited from physical rehabilitation services in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali and Nigeria, thanks to the first humanitarian impact bond (HIB). Initiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2017, this innovative financing mechanism has proven to be an efficient tool to raise project-driven funding at a time of growing global needs.
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The HIB has been a successful attempt for private and public actors to combine resources and expertise, paving the way for other innovative projects to bring additional resources to address the growing humanitarian finance gap. Investors who trusted the ICRC with this project will receive 100% of their investment back, and even if there will be no financial gain, the human and humanitarian impact is incommensurable.

Over 3,000 persons with disability have benefited from physical rehabilitation services in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali and Nigeria, thanks to the first humanitarian impact bond (HIB).

ICRC Humanitarian Impact Bond Brings Physical Rehabilitation Services to Conflict-Affected Communities

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An emerging form of blended financing and project structuring reaches out to private sector investors as partners in initiatives to benefit displaced communities.

An emerging form of blended financing and project structuring reaches out to private sector investors as partners in initiatives to benefit displaced communities.

Accelerating Humanitarian and Resilience Investing

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Addressing the climate and environmental crises is a high priority for the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement (The Movement). That is why in 2021, the ICRC and the<a href="https://www.ifrc.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)</a> co-led a broad consultative process across the humanitarian sector the develop the <a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:1aeef9a1-0eed-48e1-9999-ca07005ec087" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian </a>Organisations to galvanise and guide the humanitarian response to the climate environmental crises.
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It is clear that multisectoral partnerships within and beyond the humanitarian sector are essential to developing appropriate responses that meet the urgent needs of people enduring conflict and help them adapt to future risks and to reduce our environmental impact.&nbsp;
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/krshi/Downloads/climate_and_environment_transition_fund_concept_note_web%20(1).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The ICRC Climate and Environment Transition</a> Fund will be key to enabling this transformation.&nbsp;
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Launched in January 2022, the Fund aims to attract and mobilise additional funding to support the organisation's ambitious decarbonisation plan, accelerating the transition to clean energy, and adapting programs to prevent or respond to environmental and climate risks.
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"This fund will be critical to enabling our transition to a climate-smart, adaptable and sustainable organisation, It will mobilise additional funding from public, private and philanthropic sources to support the many initiatives needed to accelerate this process. Our ambition is clear: we will lead by example and support the evolution of the humanitarian sector for strong climate action." - ICRC President Peter Maurer

Addressing the climate and environmental crises is a high priority for the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement (The Movement).

ICRC Climate and Environment Transition Fund

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<a href="https://fortune.com/2022/10/11/ifrc-wants-to-leverage-financial-markets-world-humanitarian-crisis-nena-stoiljkovic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://fortune.com/2022/10/11/ifrc-wants-to-leverage-financial-markets-world-humanitarian-crisis-nena-stoiljkovic/</a>
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The humanitarian and private sectors may appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but closer collaboration could yield solutions to the world&rsquo;s biggest problems.
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From CSR to ESG, the corporate world has increasingly sought to engage in socially and environmentally beneficial activities. Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations are overwhelmed with rapidly increasing needs that traditional funding cannot keep up with.
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The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2022 found that total funding for crisis response has plateaued despite historically high (and rising) demand. The report showed that the value of international humanitarian assistance reached an estimated $31.3 billion in 2021. The World Economic Forum anticipates an increase to $50 billion by 2030.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
The donors we currently rely on&mdash;primarily a core group of governments&mdash;are too few and too precarious. We need to grow and diversify our funding sources if we are to have any hope of keeping up with the level of humanitarian needs forecast.
I believe it&rsquo;s possible to move toward a shared ownership approach, whereby both the private sector and humanitarian partners align their objectives, including financial returns.
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The private sector&rsquo;s responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have shown its power in times of crisis. To date, this has been mostly through grants, but the private sector&rsquo;s skills, knowledge, and expertise could be the real game changers for the humanitarian sector.&nbsp;
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Insurance companies are one example of where we have significant overlap when we drill down into our operations and goals: We are both dealing with the impacts and consequences of loss and damage caused by crises and disasters.&nbsp;
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Since 1985, the IFRC&rsquo;s Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) has worked as a central pot of money that can be quickly and transparently distributed to support community action in countries facing disasters before or when they hit.&nbsp;
Now we are working with AON and the Centre for Disaster Protection to structure an innovative insurance mechanism that uses commercial insurance markets to leverage contributions of traditional donors in order to increase the capacity of the DREF for responding to natural disasters to CHF 100 million by 2025. We are aiming for the new insurance mechanism to be in place in 2023.
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We are taking a system that&rsquo;s been proven over three decades and adapting it to an uncertain future. Through the insurance mechanism, instead of putting up the money to fund disaster responses, donors pay the premium. This stretches the value of their contributions and transfers the risk to the private sector if allocation requests exceed available resources. The approach uses reinsurance markets to lay off the risk of excessive natural hazards and ensure funds for response are available in a timely and reliable manner even in periods of excessive or unanticipated demand.
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Our ambition will not be possible to achieve through grants alone. We will need innovative financing that can leverage our resources and allow for the private sector to meaningfully engage. Through our initiative, we are keen to demonstrate the value of structures that can be more sustainable, replicable, and scalable to address humanitarian needs.
&nbsp;
Currently, we&rsquo;re exploring options of innovative finance for our other flagship programs, including the potential to use green bonds or climate bonds as well as impact bonds for our water, sanitation, and hygiene programming.
We&rsquo;ve set up a pilot with the Islamic Development Bank following the impact bond model that unlocks private capital through investors. Instead of the donors paying grants ahead, they pay when the results are proven. Investors provide the upfront funding, while the bank acts as the guarantor, which reduces the cost of the bond and enables true additionality of capital.
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In collaborative financing models, it is important to consider the value and approach for each partner: The private sector can engage in ways that drive social impact as well as profits, governments can lead the change by creating enabling frameworks, and humanitarian agencies can embrace more agility in their operating models&mdash;all with the goal of mobilizing more private sector funding for humanitarian assistance and leveraging overstretched government donors&rsquo; grants.
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We also need to strike the right balance between risks and rewards and be alert to conflicts of interest, value for money, and ethical questions. Today&rsquo;s humanitarian needs demand that we create opportunities and conditions for private capital to come in to scale up funding, but it is paramount that the product we develop is in line with our principles.&nbsp;
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This transition will take time and require making difficult compromises and changes to our operating models. We will likely fail before we succeed, but unless we try&mdash;with the will to learn from our mistakes&mdash;our humanitarian investments will continue to be mere drops in an ocean of needs.&nbsp;
For the private sector, this will be an opportunity to design innovative solutions that align with their ESG approach and to be at the forefront of a new untapped market while saving the lives of millions of people.
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Nena Stoiljkovic is undersecretary general for global relationships, humanitarian diplomacy, and digitalization at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Her background is in impact investing in emerging markets, change management, and innovative financial instruments such as blended finance. Stoiljkovic has held several leadership positions at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

The humanitarian and private sectors may appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but closer collaboration could yield solutions to the world’s biggest problems.

The IFRC wants to leverage financial markets to keep up with the world's unprecedented humanitarian needs.  Here's how

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&nbsp;https://www.devex.com/news/the-bankers-trying-to-crack-humanitarian-financing-103617
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A new kid on the block is trying to tackle an old problem.&nbsp;
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&ldquo;The humanitarian funding gap: needs are growing, funding isn't, yada yada,&rdquo; former banker and co-founder of the Humanitarian Finance Forum, or HFF, Simon Meldrum, told Devex in a recent interview. &ldquo;Everybody writes about it. Everybody knows it needs to be solved, right? But &hellip; no one has any kind of credible answers.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Enter the HFF. Conceived in 2019, the forum grew from conversations between Meldrum, who works in the private sector and innovative finance unit at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, or IFRC, and Cyrus Ardalan, then board chair of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, or IFFIm, which supports Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
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Meldrum had taken inspiration from IFFIm&rsquo;s model &mdash; using bonds to frontload long-term government donor pledges into immediately available funding &mdash; for the One WASH Fund, developed by IFRC and the Islamic Development Bank. That prompted both men to wonder why there were not more similar initiatives underway.
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HFF focused initially on hosting a series of invite-only discussions that bring private sector financial experts together with technical specialists and humanitarian institutions to address challenges such as NCDs, nutrition and landmines.
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The aim, Meldrum said, is to complement existing work by the likes of the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative and Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. &ldquo;We're trying to make quite a narrow and specific addition about how [to] use financial markets and operate at scale,&rdquo; he said.
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The forum is free for NGOs and charities, while philanthropic, private sector and humanitarian partnerscontribute a mixture of financial and nonfinancial support. A more detailed strategic plan will be developed with incoming advisory board members this fall.
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Meldrum, who previously worked at the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch, says one challenge the forum is trying to address is a lack of financial expertise in the aid sector.
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&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be a good WASH person, I'm not going to be a good emergency response person. So why do we think that somebody without finance experience is going to be good at delivering finance solutions?&rdquo;
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Recalling one forum meeting, Meldrum said that Citigroup Vice Chairman Jay Collins mentioned at one point that his bank had 47 managing directors working on the COVAX facility on COVID-19 vaccines.
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&ldquo;That blew my mind. But this is the kind of scale of commitment, right?&rdquo; Meldrum said. &ldquo;This is hard, complicated stuff and takes professional organization. You're not going to workshop it in an afternoon, and hey, presto, solved.&rdquo;
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He said the aim of the forum, which is set up as a not-for-profit entity in the U.K., is to stay small and avoid becoming a financial advisory service itself, with all the regulatory requirements that entails. Rather, he sees the forum&rsquo;s added value in offering humanitarian organizations access to financial experts who know what it takes to issue a bond, for instance.
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&ldquo;The forum being successful is 80% of what comes through our door is a &lsquo;no,&rsquo;&rdquo; Meldrum said. &ldquo;Or giving people the advice of &lsquo;look, here's the things that you need to put in place before you start down this road.&rsquo; And saving them money, [saying] &lsquo;don't waste your time until you're here.&rsquo;&rdquo;
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The word Meldrum keeps coming back to is &ldquo;scale.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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The best inspiration is green bonds, he said, citing progress from the first issue 15 years ago to today&rsquo;s multibillion-dollar market. However, while acknowledging their role as an important innovative finance tool, he&rsquo;s less admiring of social impact bonds.
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&ldquo;Why do people talk about &hellip; scaling social impact bonds, when we know there's only been [$460 million] of social impact bonds over 10 years, right?&rdquo; he asked, referring to Brookings research. &ldquo;The jury's not out on scaling social bonds. The jury is in. And the jury has said it's not going to scale.&rdquo;
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Meldrum said the forum&rsquo;s work role is to help create large-scale investments.&nbsp;
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&ldquo;It's not worth anybody's time spending $5 or 10 million and having lots of lawyers or consultants or people like me working on little small deals. You don't see that in the commercial markets, because it's not viable, and it makes no sense.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Serious private investors were only interested in bonds of $500 million and above, Meldrum said. &ldquo;That's when the BlackRock and people want to play or be interested in this, anything below that, they&rsquo;re not interested.&rdquo;

The humanitarian funding gap: needs are growing, funding isn't, yada yada,” former banker and co-founder of the Humanitarian Finance Forum, or HFF, Simon Meldrum, told Devex in a recent interview. 

The bankers trying to crack humanitarian financing

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New humanitarian financing service protects people from climate shocks in six countries
 <a href="https://startnetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Start Network</a> has announced its new financial service - Start Ready - will be providing protection to people at risk in six countries against climate shocks.
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<a href="https://startnetwork.org/funds/start-ready" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Start Ready</a> is a new financing mechanism that enables frontline humanitarians to access early, predictable funds. The unique financing enables national and local institutions and NGOs to collectively analyse and quantify crisis risks, in anticipation of expected shocks. Using scientific modelling of data and best practice from insurance, financial, and humanitarian sectors &ndash; Start Ready pools risks and allows financing to stretch up to three times further than traditional humanitarian funding.
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Funding can now be disbursed to any of the six countries that applied for protection against heatwaves, droughts, floods and cyclones. Funding will be disbursed based on the prediction of a climate shock, using live data and scientific modelling. The countries, and events include:
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Bangladesh - Flood The Democratic Republic of the Congo - Flood Pakistan - Heatwaves, Flood and Drought The Philippines - Cyclones Senegal - Drought Zimbabwe - Drought

Start Network has announced its new financial service - Start Ready - will be providing protection to people at risk in six countries against climate shocks.

New humanitarian financing service protects people from climate shocks in six countries

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Blended Finance for the Humanitarian Sector
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The OECD, Convergence, and the Blended Finance Task Force presented their recent findings and reports on Blended Finance and reviewed implications and considerations for humanitarian challenges and organizations while highlighting the limits, challenges, and issues with Blended Finance in this context.
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The event convened around 50 participants from more than 30 different public and private organizations bringing a broad range of perspectives from different sectors, with a range of knowledge and experience in Blended Finance.
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Insufficient volumes have been raised and progress needs to be made on private finance mobilisation. From 2012-19, a total of US$ 257.6 billion was mobilized from the private sector by official development finance interventions, less than a tenth of the estimated sUG financing needs. About USD 50 billion was mobilised in 2018/19 and that amount is plateauing. Private finance mobilization is especially lacking in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Most
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private finance was mobilised for middle-income countries, mainly targeting the banking energy and industry sectors. The areas and countries most in need of Rended Finance are left behind - receiving only 12% of amounts mobilised from the private sector for developing countries.
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COVID outbreak aggravated a downward trend in external private finance in developing countries. Financial inflows to developing countries have been declining steadily since 2017 and remain below their level of 2010, resulting in a 22% decline in external private resources.
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Blended Finance has a critical role to play in mobilizing private capital, especially for LDCs and for Fragile Conflict, and Violent or Humanitarian settings
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Blended Finance is not a silver bullet, but part of a broad suite of interventions using development and philanthropic capital as part of a solution to lower risk at a reasonable cost
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Blended Finance &amp; Humanitarian Finance should avoid silos and reinventing the Blended Finance wheel to increase private sector mobilisation.
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Challenges in Blended Finance are small scale, high transaction costs, and lack of replication.

The OECD, Convergence, and the Blended Finance Task Force presented their recent findings and reports on Blended Finance and reviewed implications and considerations for humanitarian challenges

Summary note from January 2022 Spotlight Event: Blended Finance for the Humanitarian Sector

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This course helps you develop organisational capacity for innovative finance transactions in fragile settings.

This course helps you develop organisational capacity for innovative finance transactions in fragile settings.

Driving Innovative Finance for Impact

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<a href="https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/</a>

The role of capital markets in humanitarian finance

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<a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/podcast/2021/12/8/different-ways-to-fund-humanitarian-aid?utm_source=The+New+Humanitarian&amp;utm_campaign=5ebb54b153-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_12_10_Weekly&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_d842d98289-5ebb54b153-75647138&amp;mc_phishing_protection_id=28047-c6sulaqdu814ckga4kjg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/podcast/2021/12/8/different-ways-to-fund-humanitarian-aid?utm_source=The+New+Humanitarian&amp;utm_campaign=5ebb54b153-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_12_10_Weekly&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_d842d98289-5ebb54b153-75647138&amp;mc_phishing_protection_id=28047-c6sulaqdu814ckga4kjg</a>

Who will finance growing humanitarian needs?

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This publication discusses the humanitarian financing gap, including key messages on the state of humantarian financing and reccomendations for action. The publication features input from HFF working group members Andrej Kirn (WEF) and Juan Coderque (ICRC).

This publication discusses the humanitarian financing gap, including key messages on the state of humantarian financing

Reducing the humanitarian financing gap: Review of progress since the report of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing

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The COVAX Facility is an innovative financing success story. It is a global risk-sharing mechanism that facilitates the procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVAX Facility is an innovativev financing success story. It is a global risk-sharing mechanism that facilitates the procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

COVAX explained

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Aon, supported by the City of London Corporation, reports on their vision for the future of London&rsquo;s insurance market.
&nbsp;
Contributions are made by British Red Cross and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre, &lsquo;Addressing the human impact of climate change together&rsquo;. &nbsp;The Red Cross shares a vision on how the private sector and humanitarian sectors can work together to tackle the growing impacts of climate change on people and communities.

Aon, supported by the City of London Corporation, reports on their vision for the future of London’s insurance market.

The London Insurance Market: Beyond 2021 




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HFF co-founders, Cyrus Ardalan and Simon Meldrum, published an article "Humanitarian funding post-2020 and the role of capital markets" in the International Capital Market Association's (ICMA) Q1 2021 quarterly report. The associated podcast can be found <a href="https://www.icmagroup.org/media-and-market-data/icma-webinars-and-podcasts/the-innovative-humanitarian-finance-forum-and-the-role-of-capital-markets-in-humanitarian-finance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>

HFF co-founders, Cyrus Ardalan and Simon Meldrum, published an article "Humanitarian funding post-2020 and the role of capital markets

Humanitarian funding post-2020 and the role of capital markets

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IFFIm, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, is an innovative financing model that supports the securement and equitable distribution of vaccines. The Resource Guide provides detail on how IFFIm works.

IFFIm, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, is an innovative financing model that supports the securement and equitable distribution of vaccines. The Resource Guide provides detail on how IFFIm works.

IFFIm Resource Guide 2021

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The Global Humanitarian Overview is published annually by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It provides a comprehensive and evidence-based update on the current state and future trends of humanitarian action.

The Global Humanitarian Overview is published annually by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Global Humanitarian Overview 2021

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The rise of COVID-19 has further exposed the fragility of the current humanitarian system. Simply put, traditional funding alone is not sufficient to address the number and scale of prolonged emergencies that the world is facing.
&nbsp;
In 1990 Overseas Development Aid (ODA) was the single major North-South resource flow. Despite the growth in ODA, which includes Official Humanitarian Assistance (OHA), it remains insufficient to address the world&rsquo;s humanitarian needs as issues become more complex, and protracted. Just 37% of UN appeals were funded in 2019 (pre-COVID).
In fact, ODA is now much smaller than Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Remittance, and Private Capital (Debt and Equity) to Low- and Middle-Income countries (LMIC). This remains true even in the 20 countries receiving the most International Humanitarian Assistance (as observed by a Development Initiative's study) and where the Red Cross and Red Crescent typically operate. COVID-19 is only going to accelerate this trend, as ODA funding (especially as a function of GDP economic output), will decrease globally going forwards. In order to access these other greater sources of capital, funding and financing, the sector needs to adopt new Innovative Finance tools and approaches.
&nbsp;
Innovative Finance refers to a range of non-traditional mechanisms using private capital, repayable finance and risk transfer to support humanitarian &amp; development goals.
 It is vital to maximise limited funds to provide an effective response to tackle longer-term goals. There is much focus on innovating and improving our programs and interventions to maximise their impact. Equally, there is a responsibility to innovative and ensure our activities operate efficiently, transparently and with accountability. Traditionally, there has been less focus within the sector on how we innovate and improve resource mobilisation (which covers financial and non-financial support).
&nbsp;
This week the British Red Cross and the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) convened a virtual Roundtable on &ldquo;Innovation in Humanitarian Financing (IHF)&rdquo; to discuss and explore new tools and approaches in addition to traditional humanitarian funding.
&nbsp;
Our aim was to consider how we could contribute to, support and improve innovations in Humanitarian financing, through collaboration and networks based in London. At the meeting we heard from MBA students at London Business School who presented research to help us consider initiatives that will catalyse IHF globally. Over a ten-week consulting assignment, LBS conducted 13 industry expert interviews and synthesised industry reports before presenting to the representatives from more than 10 diverse groups and actors within the space including Gavi, World Bank, ODI, ECHO, DFID, Centre for Disaster Protection, International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd), WSSCC, Volta Capital, Aon, Citibank and law firm McDermott Will &amp; Emery.
&nbsp;
Below are some key themes and learnings from the event.
&nbsp;
LBS identified a number of barriers that hinder the mobilisation of non-traditional sources of financing and private sector capital. This set the foundation for the group discussion to build upon with the key points as follows:
&nbsp;
1. Lack of investable opportunities which match the risk-reward appetite of private sector as well as the lack of a prior evidence base.
 2. Gaps in information and data on investment opportunities and precedent transactions due to the different nature of transactions across jurisdictions.
 3. The need for more collaboration between private sector and humanitarian actors, particularly in harnessing financial expertise for deal structuring.
 4. A prerequisite for organisational readiness to participate in innovative humanitarian financing, which is fundamentally required to drive the shift from reactivity to proactivity.
 5. Operational and political challenges in delivering humanitarian projects. While in agreement that C-Suite engagement and buy-in is important, sometimes the &ldquo;top-down&rdquo; approach needs to be complemented by a &ldquo;bottom-up approach&rdquo;, in scenarios where operational staff may be more inclined to adjust organisational practices than the most senior staff.
 LBS highlighted why it&rsquo;s important to consider the system involved in this innovative finance agenda across the sector including &ndash; (i) high-level coalitions, (ii) market infrastructure building actors, and (iii) technical experts / transaction teams. Through the presentation and subsequent group discussion, the following initiatives were suggested:
- Investment Opportunity Prioritisation Framework to ensure alignment between stakeholders, and to set narrowly focused and tangible targets
- Align with existing initiatives and positively influence other high-level coalitions such as the WEF&rsquo;s Humanitarian Investing Initiative
- Encourage and strengthen Market Infrastructure Building Actors, who have strong incentives for participating in Innovative Humanitarian Financing and a track record of commitment to the sector - Promote the strengthening of Technical Experts / Transaction Teams and leverage existing technical knowledge - Adopt a solution-based approach, where a humanitarian need is identified and fully defined before structuring a suitable solution, rather than trying to apply a readymade product to a problem.
 We took the opportunity to survey the attendees with an electronic poll, the results of which largely endorsed the above, where the top solutions to successfully grow IHF selected were; (1) to support humanitarian actors to develop capabilities; (2) to encourage private sector actors to provide more resources to IHF specialised teams and (3) to develop and/or showcase innovative financing models.
&nbsp;
Our Innovative Finance roundtable will now look to reflect on these findings and clearly define how they, in collaboration with partner organisations, can drive forward the case to innovate and improve resource mobilisation, engagement and synergies in order to address the growing humanitarian needs. We intend to these share plans and proposals with interested parties both for feedback and in the interest of transparency and accountability. Should you wish to learn more or participate in the initiative please do get in touch.

The rise of COVID-19 has further exposed the fragility of the current humanitarian system. Simply put, traditional funding alone is not sufficient to address the number and scale of prolonged emergencies that the world is facing.

Takeaways from our Roundtable on Innovation in Humanitarian Financing

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Rather than report on the insufficient funding for humanitarian and development needs, this playbook, written by BCG, provides practical advice on how to change organizational processes, systems and capabilities to leverage Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) to solve humanitarian and development problems.

Rather than report on the insufficient funding for humanitarian and development needs, this playbook, written by BCG, provides practical advice on how to change organizational processes, systems and capabilities

Good Practices Playbook on Organizational Readiness and Enabling Private Capital for Innovative Financing in Humanitarian Contexts (2020)

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The world's first volcano catastrophe bond, sponsored by the Danish Red Cross, was launched in March 2021. The bond uses a paramteric trigger to offer up to $3 million from investors to provide humanitarian support following an erruption.&nbsp;

The world's first volcano catastrophe bond, sponsored by the Danish Red Cross, was launched in March 2021. The bond uses a paramteric trigger to offer up to $3 million from investors to provide humanitarian support following an erruption. 