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Who we are

Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG) brings fresh thinking to challenge the status quo of humanitarian aid. As an ethically driven business, we combine humanitarian passion with entrepreneurial agility to think and do things differently.

Myanmar, Photography by Greta Carroll

WHERE IT BEGAN

HAG began as an experiment – one designed to determine if humanitarian passion could be combined with entrepreneurial agility and innovation. A bunch of aid workers asked: ‘how can we do this better?’ and then set up a unique organisation to turn that into a reality.

We wanted to move away from working within the assumptions of the aid business to challenging the status quo. HAG was created to ask (and answer) hard questions, explore contentious issues and support hard-working teams to improve humanitarian action with new perspectives and networks.

Our approach

Today, HAG is a team of courageous, principled, results-focused (and yes, idealistic) thinkers and doers who still believe that humanitarianism is one of the most sacred ‘isms’ in the world.

We want to be part of a story that tracks humanitarian action from its current conundrum humanitarian need outstripping the capacity and agility of the sector to one that realises its future potential: a sector that challenges power structures and transforms the way that people are treated in crisis around the world.

Our role in that story is to ask and answer tough questions, provide evidence for transformative action, and connect people and ideas. Central to this are our values, our partnerships and the work we choose to do.

Our social purpose

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.

We recognise that it’s not just what we do that counts, but how we do business. Our values drive our work decisions and behaviours. That’s why we operate as a social enterprise, meaning we generate income from services, the work we do has a social purpose and we give away at least 50% of our profits.

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.

To uphold our purpose, we: maintain our ethical certifications (B Corporation and Social Traders, invest our time and money, reduce our environmental impact, purchase ethically and support local partners