HAG is a purpose-driven social enterprise – and our purpose is to challenge the status quo in the humanitarian sector. We believe in leading by example.
That’s also why independently supporting the humanitarian sector and its emerging practitioners by giving generously of our time and resources is a core part of our identity.
We are a certified B Corporation, and we are also certified with Social Traders. This means we work hard to ensure that our business is a force for good. We have chosen to hold ourselves accountable to the highest social, environmental and ethical standards, setting ourselves apart from business as usual.
We give generously of our pro bono time which includes research, events, mentoring, education and training, supporting local partners, promoting ethical business and community volunteering. We also track the donations we give as well as costs we put up to run events and support interns – all in the name of supporting the sector.
We have committed to becoming NetZero by 2030. We work with Carbon Neutral track and offset our emissions and have a comprehensive environmental policy that covers our travel, commuting, office supplies, and events.
We work to an ethical procurement framework to support other social enterprises and certified businesses. We prioritise purchasing through affirmative action directories such as Supply Nation, and ethical procurement directories such as Social Traders Buyer’s Portal and the B Corp Directory.
We aim to support localisation principles and to support local organisations, networks and consultants in the countries where we work. We believe that partnership is more than a contractual relationship and we invest in and collaborate with our partners outside of formal projects.
We aim to enable the sector to progress, and to be of service in the ways we can most effectively give back to an industry that means so much to us.
We invest our time into humanitarians, which includes 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.
The humanitarian world has many contentious issues. We explore them bravely and authentically because we believe the best solutions lie in the art of an honest and evidence-based debate.
We believe in giving generously of our ideas, energy, time and networks. We start from a position of ‘yes’.
We understand that life and work don’t run to schedule. We support each other and our partners through changing deadlines, competing priorities and evolving goals to achieve the best possible outcomes.
We constantly test our own assumptions and those of the humanitarian world. We explore both the why and the how. We are eager to listen and learn, recognising that knowledge and wisdom often come from unexpected places.
Boundaries can get blurred. We want ours to be crystal clear and we want to be held accountable. We work with B Corps and adhere to ethical standards so we can hold our heads high and have confidence in our practices.
5 August, 2021
Humanitarian Drinks returns on the first Thursday of every month. Join us at Prudence in North Melbourne on 5 August for wine and a chat. We hope to see you there!
5 August, 2021
HAG and the University of Melbourne Master of Development Studies Program invite you to Embedding Feminist Approaches in Development Work, an open-invite professional practice seminar. You can register here. We hope to see you there!
3 September, 2021
Jess Lees will be speaking at the Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria for the 2021 International Careers Conference (ICC).
While we’re always seeking new partnerships with amazing, like-minded organisations, here we’d like to tell you a bit about those who have been instrumental in shaping the way we conduct partnerships, and the way we work.