Climate change is a major issue but it may reflect a degree of intellectual laziness if that is our main focus. If we probe harder there are a great many deeply serious vulnerabilities we must anticipate and plan for... HFP promotes a dialogue on one of the most vulnerable regions of the world – the Hindu Kush Himalaya region – where millions of lives and livelihoods are at risk in the foreseeable future... Human kind has proved ingenious in finding ways of dealing with hazards but how much is done by those with a humanitarian role or responsibility to anticipate low-frequency-high-impact events? We can’t afford to wait until it happens.... Rich or poor, we face a world of new types of humanitarian threats – radioactive leakages and cybernetic collapse are just two examples of an expanding list of hazards. Science and technology can help us find new ways of avoiding disaster...if we act now... There are important ways in which emerging science can directly improve the prevention, preparedness and response capacities of humanitarian and development organisations, but there remain significant constraints to enabling the dialogue necessary for such a process.... A U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee discussed Near-Earth Objects (asteroids and comets in our neighbourhood), in particular those that are classified as Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs are larger than about 140 meters across whose orbits bring them close to Earth orbit).... There are important ways in which emerging science can directly improve the prevention, preparedness and response capacities of humanitarian and development organisations, but there remain significant constraints to enabling the dialogue necessary for such a process.... A U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee discussed Near-Earth Objects (asteroids and comets in our neighbourhood), in particular those that are classified as Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs are larger than about 140 meters across whose orbits bring them close to Earth orbit)... Rich or poor, we face a world of new types of humanitarian threats – radioactive leakages and cybernetic collapse are just two examples of an expanding list of hazards. Science and technology can help us find new ways of avoiding disaster...if we act now... Science and technology offer increasing opportunities for mitigating threats. The natural and social sciences offer a future range of tools and approaches which can save the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people over the next decade.... Science and technology offer increasing opportunities for mitigating threats. The natural and social sciences offer a future range of tools and approaches which can save the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people over the next decade.... There are important ways in which emerging science can directly improve the prevention, preparedness and response capacities of humanitarian and development organisations, but there remain significant constraints to enabling the dialogue necessary for such a process.... There are important ways in which emerging science can directly improve the prevention, preparedness and response capacities of humanitarian and development organisations, but there remain significant constraints to enabling the dialogue necessary for such a process....

Recent news

Aversion to risk adds to death toll

Risk aversion causing inertia in the face of looming humanitarian crises is widespread among policymakers at all levels - governmental, intergovernmental and aid agencies......

Reforming the international humanitarian system

Support for Sir John Holmes’s call for investment in Disaster Risk Reduction as a better option than the equivalent on response....
 

Dawn of a new global humanitarian order

2012 should be seen as the beginning of a new humanitarian dawn. Randolph Kent told BBC Radio 4's 'Today Programme'...

Foul words for the future

“Some of the most favoured words in the humanitarian lexicon reflect potential stagnation in creative thinking and mind-closure to the greater threats of the future”. Dr. Randolph Kent, Director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) at King’s College, London stigmatises ‘practical’ and ‘academic’ as “foul words for the future”...

What does humanitarian innovation really mean?

The corporate sector, military, diaspora, scientists, technologists and non-state activists, will become key humanitarian actors providing an innovative humanitarianism for the 21st  Century, HFP Director tells the Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

World population crisis – don’t focus on figures

As world population reaches the day (31st October 2011) when it is estimated there are 7-billion humans on the planet, HFP’s Senior Research fellow, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, tells The Independent Newspaper that numbers are not the issue to focus on, but how we reduce vulnerability by the way we prepare, reduce risks and respond to humanitarian crises.

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