The Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) is a catalyst. It promotes new ways of planning, collaborating and innovating so that organisations with humanitarian roles and responsibilities can deal with future humanitarian threats more effectively. 

HFP is an independent policy research programme based at King’s College London, and its aim is to develop strategies, approaches and tools to ensure that humanitarian organisations are prepared to meet the uncertainties and complexities of the future. It works with a wide range of partners – not only to help them but also to garner lessons, methods and ‘tools’ that will be of use to the wider humanitarian sector.

The reason for HFP’s futures orientation is very clear. Future humanitarian threats will present the world with challenges of scale far greater than before. Over the next two decades, the dimensions and dynamics of humanitarian hazards will increase exponentially, and new forms of crisis drivers will add to an already burgeoning list. Threats will be more complex and unpredictable than those of today, and their spatial impacts will be greater. Significantly, we will need to address such threats with solutions that are more imaginative, collaboration that is more creative, and a wider application of innovations than has been achieved to date.

The HFP works with a wide range of partners, getting them to think about the types of challenges they will have to face, and working with them to identify ways for dealing with such futures. In this context the HFP ‘toolkit’ is under continual development, offering more ways for organisations to assess and strengthen their fitness, competency and expertise.

The HFP was established in 2006, and is supported by governments, and by multilateral and non-governmental organisations. It relies on a Stakeholders Forum, comprising a range of research institutes and humanitarian practitioners from around the world to guide and assess its work and activities.