Strategy and governance
Organisational strategy, governance reviews, options appraisals and resource mobilisation plans, including partnership and leadership transitions.
Strategy and governanceHumanitarian Leadership Consultancy
Humanitarian strategy,
leadership and
organisational change.
HLC is a network of independent humanitarian consultants, coaches and learning specialists. We support strategy and governance, executive and team coaching, leadership programmes and organisational review, with attention to who decides and who carries the work.
Recent work and practitioner experience includes
- Oxfam
- IFRC
- UNFPA Asia Pacific
- IDRAAC
- Syria Resilience Initiative
- St James’s Piccadilly
What we do
How we can help
We work with humanitarian and development organisations, networks and partnerships, UK charities and individual leaders.
Coaching and teams
Executive coaching for leaders, team coaching and facilitation for leadership teams working through disagreement or change.
Coaching and teamsLeadership programmes
Leadership development design and facilitation, including women’s and feminist leadership, with coaching and peer learning built in.
Leadership developmentLearning and review
Programme and organisational reviews that connect people’s experience and evidence with what to continue, adapt or stop.
Learning and reviewSelected work
Recent assignments
IFRC
Making room to practise women’s leadership
Leadership development · Africa pilot, 2025
A five-day programme for 18 women leaders from African National Societies, and a review recommending three design changes for future delivery.
Read the IFRC exampleSyria Resilience Initiative
Making governance choices explicit in a changing partnership
Governance review · 2025
Three governance scenarios appraised, recommendations linking representation with decision authority, and a continuity plan when funding changed.
Read the SRI exampleOxfam
Working with power, without transferring the risk
Feminist leadership practice · 2026
A learning sequence, facilitator and participant resources, and pilot facilitation for women in humanitarian coordination across the Middle East and North Africa.
Read the Oxfam exampleOUR APPROACH
Look at the decision. Look at who carries it.
A leader may need space to think, a team may need to work through disagreement, and an organisation may need to change who decides or how work is resourced. We connect those questions, combining support for people with practical organisational advice, and pay attention to power and participation throughout.
How we workDecisions.
Relationships.
Working conditions.
Relationships.
Working conditions.
People and network
Meet the people behind the work.
Eleven independent consultants, coaches and learning specialists, co-directed by Samantha Davis and Deb Barry, with experience across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. We agree who will lead your assignment and which collaborators, contextual knowledge and language skills it needs.
Meet the full network
Let’s begin
What decision is ahead of you?
Bring the situation, the tension or the question. We can work with you to turn it into a useful brief.