The NCHS is very pleased to announce the following keynote speakers will share their insights on the future of humanitarian needs and assistance at the upcoming NCHS Humanitarian Futures conference to be held in Oslo this June.

Amali Tower, Refugee and migration expert, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees

Living in a changing climate: Dynamics of forced migration and displacement

Amali Tower is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees, a human rights organisation that calls for the protection and rights of those displaced by climate change. She has extensive global experience in refugee protection, refugee resettlement and in forced migration and displacement contexts, having worked globally for numerous NGOs, the UN Refugee Agency and the US Refugee Admissions Program. She is also a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network in Migration, Human Rights and Humanitarian Response, and the UC Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law (climate refugees and immigrant justice working group).

Mukesh Kapila, Professor Emeritus of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester

What killed the humanitarian consensus?

Mukesh Kapila is a Professor (now Emeritus) of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, where he also founded and chaired the Manchester Global Foundation. He has extensive experience in global and public health, international development, humanitarian affairs, conflict and security issues, human rights and diplomacy and social entrepreneurship. He has held leadership roles in government, the United Nations system and multilateral agencies, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, civil society and academia. Professor Kapila is also an author and public and media speaker.

Dorothea Hilhorst, Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the International Institute for Social Studies of Erasmus University

Future or science fiction? A reality check of humanitarian action

Professor Hilhorst is an expert in development in areas affected by disaster, conflict or fragility, with a special focus on aid-society relations, including the impact of humanitarian aid on society and the ways in which people and institutions shape the organisation of aid relations. She leads a European Research Council project which aims to understand how humanitarian governance is evolving and particularly how civil society actors and crisis-affected people shape humanitarian governance. Professor Hilhorst was also awarded the 2022 NWO Spinoza Prize for her contribution to the field of humanitarian studies and is the president of the International Humanitarian Studies Association.

Held at the Litteraturhuset in Oslo on 7 and 8 June 2023, the Humanitarian Futures conference will explore what developments, risks, ideals and policies are characterising the ongoing transformations of the idea and practice of humanitarian assistance.

The conference is organised around the central themes of:

• the future of humanitarian governance,
• the future of the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and
• the future for displaced people.

This conference is free and open to all. Please register your interest here to receive further information in the lead up to the conference. We hope you can join us!