The humanitarian workforce is experiencing profound disruption. Funding freezes, shifting mandates, and organisational restructuring are pushing thousands of professionals into sudden transitions, often without coordinated or timely support. In these moments, people frequently turn to convenors, network coordinators, peer-support leads, and partnership builders: the individuals who informally hold together the relational fabric of our system, including many local actors who already carry disproportionate burdens.
This session - grounded in insights from the forthcoming Pivoting Well Report - is designed for people who connect colleagues across agencies, sectors, and geographies, whether based in Geneva or visiting for the HNPW. Together, we will explore how workforce disruption is reshaping collaboration; exchange practical approaches that reduce workload and duplication (drawing inspiration from CHS due diligence passporting, emerging shared-services models, and country-level cooperatives); and strengthen peer-support practices that protect wellbeing and reinforce people-centred, accountable aid, including methods demonstrated by CoCreate Humanity through peer support and artistic expression.
Participants will experience simple, reusable participatory micro-methods drawn from Liberating Structures and proven peer-support techniques that they can immediately apply in their own networks to increase trust, reduce isolation, accelerate collaboration, and elevate local leadership. Through fast-paced, high-impact dialogue, the session contributes to collective solutions for accountable, people-centred aid and demonstrates how approaches incubated in Geneva can be shaped with, shared with, and adapted by colleagues worldwide.
Expected outcomes - A clearer, shared understanding of how the humanitarian workforce is (and can)Pivot Well
- Practical, adaptable convening methods that support colleagues through uncertainty while reinforcing safety, solidarity, and accountability
- Stronger cross-sector connections and a co-created set of actionsto take forward in 2026
- Clear pathways for continued engagement aligned with the Leading Edge Programmeand Geneva’s broader workforce adaptation initiatives.
Target audience Network coordinators, partnership leads, convenors, facilitators, community managers, inter-agency working group members, information-sharing focal points, peer-support leads, and anyone (whether Geneva-based or global) whose role involves connecting people or strengthening collaboration across the humanitarian system. |
