Our Story
The World Humanitarian Action Forum (WHAF) is a global initiative launched in 2008 to foster meaningful collaboration between international organisations and local humanitarian actors, particularly those working with or within Muslim communities. Formerly known as the Humanitarian Forum, WHAF continues to build inclusive partnerships across faiths, regions, and sectors to address critical gaps in the aid ecosystem.
While WHAF’s network is broad and diverse, many of its partners bring lived experience from contexts often marginalised in mainstream humanitarian discourse. This includes deep engagement with alternative models of aid financing and the consequences of de-risking policies, particularly those impacting organisations associated with Islamic identities.
WHAF was created to ensure these and other underrepresented perspectives help shape the future of humanitarian work — contributing to a sector that better reflects the plurality of the communities it aims to serve.