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How we do it

At Humanitarian Advisory Group, how we work is as important as what we do.

Australia, Photography by Greta Carroll

This is how we do it

Through listening and learning, we have developed four key approaches that underpin how we work: how we partner, how we elevate local leadership, how we invest back into our sector and how we support emerging humanitarian practitioners.

Myanmar, Photography by Greta Carroll
Myanmar, Photography by Greta Carroll

Our partnership approach

We invest in strategic collaborations across a range of stakeholders, from humanitarian agencies (local and international) to regional universities and peak humanitarian bodies.

Our values guide us in all that we do and partnership is no exception. We aim to be ridiculously flexible with all our partners to ensure that their needs are met, no matter the time zone difference.

We foster an open, honest and brave approach to partnership, welcoming two-way feedback and real-time adjustments to the way we work together. We seek partner feedback during project design, implementation and evaluation, and we draw on partner wisdom when we make all sorts of decisions.

Elevating local leadership

We have committed to elevating local leadership across all of our work.

Our goal is to use our platform and networks to amplify the voices and knowledge of local and national organisations. We see our role as elevating, accompanying and supporting the growth and priorities of local, national and regional humanitarian actors as they work in their own communities, and providing tools and guidance to help others do the same.

Investing in our sector

We invest our time and resources back into the humanitarian sector where they are most needed and most valuable.

We do this not only because we are a B Corp and Social Traders certified social enterprise, with at least 50% of our profit committed to social purpose activities, because we believe it’s right. We believe in generously contributing our knowledge and expertise to achieve common goals and objectives.

We do this in a diversity of ways: independent research, events, mentoring, education and training, supporting local partners, promoting ethical business practices and responding generously, from a position of ‘yes’, to the requests of our peers across the sector.

Tunisia, Photography by Greta Carroll
Tunisia, Photography by Greta Carroll

Supporting emerging practitioners

We believe in supporting the future of humanitarian aid – those emerging practitioners who will be around long after we are gone. Over the last nine years, we’ve had 32 interns from more than 10 institutions complete a placement with us.

We enable, mentor and support, and learn from, those who want to work in the humanitarian sector. Our internship program provides opportunities for students engaged in advanced university study to develop their skills in research, training and technical support. We value bringing new and diverse voices to our organisation to encourage fresh thinking.