Humanitarian Leadership Academy

What Humanitarian Leadership Academy does

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA) is a non-profit capacity-strengthening organisation hosted by Save the Children UK, focused on accelerating locally led humanitarian action through learning, credentialing, and convening. Founded after UK government funding approval in 2012 and officially launched in 2015, HLA serves humanitarian workers, local and national NGOs, and humanitarian organisations across crisis-affected countries. Its portfolio centres on three proprietary digital platforms — Kaya (e-learning platform with 500+ courses in up to 12 languages, 635,000+ registered users across 190+ countries), HPass (digital badging platform with 160,000+ issued badges), and Humanitarian Xchange (HX, a convening platform and event series). These are complemented by face-to-face training programmes (HOP, Education in Emergencies, Child Protection in Emergencies, FIELD), consultancy services, a podcast, and a webinar series, delivered through five Regional Centres in East and Southern Africa (Nairobi), Asia (Bangkok), MENA (Amman), West and Central Africa (Dakar), and Eastern Europe (Warsaw). Underlying technology is WordPress-based with integrated learning management and badging systems.

HLA operates a hybrid revenue model anchored on institutional grants and donations (UK government original funder, USAID through READY, AWS Imagine Grant), with fee-based revenue from consultancy services delivered through its Social Enterprise (since June 2019) and Kaya/HPass for Organisations offerings. Core learning and badging products remain freely accessible. Distribution leverages the Save the Children global network alongside direct-to-individual self-service onboarding through Kaya and HPass, supported by event-based community engagement (HX24, HX Gaziantep, HX Sarajevo, HX Baghdad) and channel partnerships with local NGOs. Named institutional customers and partners include Save the Children country offices, USAID/READY consortium, IKEA, Unilever, Ashoka Poland, ISAR Ednannia, the Balkan Migration and Displacement Hub, and the MHPSS Collaborative.

Name

Humanitarian Leadership Academy

Legal name

Humanitarian Leadership Academy

Website

https://humanitarianleadershipacademy.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy, a non-profit hosted by Save the Children UK, delivers humanitarian capacity-strengthening through e-learning (Kaya), digital badging (HPass), and convening (Humanitarian Xchange), serving over 635,000 learners across 190+ countries via five regional centres.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Humanitarian Capacity Building and Training

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (6117), Professional and Management Development Training (61143)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Emergency Education / Education in Emergencies (EiE) (BPADADAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Humanitarian Health & Emergency Medical Relief NGOs (HLAJAKAE), Refugee, IDP & Migration Humanitarian Assistance (BPAGAAAH), Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management & Needs Assessment (BPAGAAAL)

Keywords

• Humanitarian capacity building
• Humanitarian e-learning
• Digital badging credentials
• Disaster preparedness training
• Locally-led humanitarian action

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Learning Platform Services: Free access to Kaya e-learning platform with over 500 courses for humanitarian workers. Revenue derived from indirect funding from donors and institutional partnerships rather than direct user fees.
2. Training and Consultancy Services: Fee-for-service training programmes, consultancy services, and custom learning solutions for organisations. Commercial activities started June 2019 through Social Enterprise.
3. Grants and Donations: Funded by institutional donors including UK government (original funding), USAID (through READY initiative), and corporate grants (AWS Imagine Grant). Accepts donations through Save the Children UK.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy provides free, multilingual online learning and digital credentialing for humanitarian workers through its Kaya e-learning platform and HPass digital badging platform, complemented by face-to-face training programmes, the Humanitarian Xchange convening platform, and paid consultancy and capacity-strengthening services for humanitarian organisations. Its mission is to accelerate locally-led humanitarian action by equipping individual humanitarians and organisations in crisis-affected countries with skills, credentials, and connections.

Product overview

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy operates a platform-plus-services portfolio anchored by two digital learning platforms — Kaya (e-learning) and HPass (digital badging) — complemented by a convening platform (Humanitarian Xchange), professional consultancy services, and a suite of face-to-face training programmes including the Humanitarian Operations Programme (HOP), Education in Emergencies (EiE), Child Protection in Emergencies, and FIELD. Additional offerings include the Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives Podcast and HLA Webinar Series. The READY Learning Hub extends Kaya's reach into outbreak preparedness. Kaya serves over 650,000 learners with 450+ courses, while HPass has issued 160,000+ digital badges. The Academy also offers tailored training services through its network of five Regional Centres covering East and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kaya: E-learning platform for humanitarian learning and development
• HPass
• Humanitarian Xchange
• Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives

Products and services

• Kaya E-Learning Platform Kaya is HLA's flagship e-learning platform providing free online courses for humanitarian professionals. It offers over 450 courses in up to 12 languages to more than 650,000 registered users from over 190 countries, covering humanitarian response, preparedness, and professional development topics.
• HPass Digital Badging Platform HPass is HLA's digital badging and accreditation platform that enables humanitarian professionals to earn and display verified digital credentials. As of December 2022, HPass had issued over 160,000 digital badges to learners demonstrating competencies in humanitarian work.
• Humanitarian Xchange (HX) Humanitarian Xchange (HX) is HLA's convening platform that creates spaces for local humanitarian actors to connect, share knowledge, and collaborate on humanitarian challenges. The inaugural HX24 event was held in London and won Best Charity Event/Event for Positive Change in the Conference and Event Awards.
• Kaya for Organisations Kaya for Organisations is a version of the Kaya platform offered to institutional partners, allowing organisations to provide structured learning pathways and track employee progress using HLA's learning management system.
• HPass for Organisations HPass for Organisations enables organisations to issue and manage digital credentials for their staff and partners, providing a verifiable record of humanitarian training completion and competencies.
• Consultancy Services The HLA offers professional consultancy services to help organisations strengthen their humanitarian preparedness and response capacity through tailored training solutions, programme design, and capacity assessments.
• Humanitarian Operations Programme (HOP) The Humanitarian Operations Programme (HOP) is a flagship face-to-face training designed to help participants understand the fundamental principles of Humanitarian Action, including coordination, needs assessment, and emergency response management.
• Education in Emergencies (EiE) Education in Emergencies (EiE) training programmes, available as Fundamentals (50-hour facilitated course) and Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS), equip education and EiE staff with competencies to initiate, design, and implement quality education responses in emergency contexts.
• Child Protection in Emergencies Child Protection in Emergencies training aims to increase the child protection skills of humanitarian workers, focusing on immediate emergency response, minimum standards, and the development of adolescent support mechanisms.
• FIELD (Field Managers in Emergencies Learning and Development) FIELD is a face-to-face learning and development programme for field managers working in emergencies, covering planning, managing response, monitoring and learning, duty of care, safety and security, advocacy, and communications. It won bronze medals at the Learning Technologies Awards.
• READY Outbreak Readiness and Response Learning Hub The READY Learning Hub, hosted on the Kaya platform, is a curated collection of over 60 outbreak-related e-learning courses and the Outbreak READY! digital simulation, providing free resources for the humanitarian sector to prepare for and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.
• Ethical AI in Humanitarian Work Microlearning Microlearning on ethical AI in humanitarian work, co-created with global practitioners. Addresses responsible AI adoption, governance, and ethical considerations for humanitarians integrating AI tools into their work.

Quantifiable outcome

• 635,000+ learners trained on Kaya platform
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• The MHPSS CollaborativecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2026Formalised partnership announced May 2026 for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support collaboration in humanitarian settings.
• Ashoka PolandminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partnership for Youth Leadership for Emerging Future (YLEF) Programme, bringing together young leaders to create change in their communities.
• ISAR Ednannia (Ukraine)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Joint SOLVE: Strengthening Organisations for Lasting Voice and Effect project. ISAR Ednannia delivered Organisational Development School for civil society organisations across Ukraine.
• Balkan Migration and Displacement Hub (BMDH)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024BMDH is a programme initiative within Save the Children North West Balkans Country Office. Collaborated with HLA to implement HX Sarajevo workshop on building resilience in protracted crises.
• Kuchnia Konfliktu and Queer Without BordersminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Polish LGBTQI+ refugee support organisations. Conducted workshops for Polish Office for Foreigners and webinars on working with LGBTQI+ refugees.
• READY InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023READY is funded by USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and led by Save the Children with consortium partners including Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, UK-Med, and Humanitarian Leadership Academy. HLA hosts the READY Outbreak Readiness and Response Learning Hub on Kaya.
• UnileverminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2015First private sector partnership signed in December 2015, working on Business Continuity Planning in the Philippines.
• IKEAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2015Partnership signed in May 2015 alongside the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) for humanitarian preparedness activities.
• Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2015Joint partnership with IKEA and DEPP signed in May 2015 for humanitarian preparedness and emergency response training.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves14 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Bioforce: Bioforce is a France-based humanitarian training institute delivering certificate programmes and capacity-building for humanitarian logisticians and project managers. It overlaps directly with HLA on face-to-face humanitarian professional training and credentialing.
• RedR UK: RedR UK is a humanitarian training and capacity-building organization offering face-to-face and online courses for humanitarian professionals. It is highly comparable to HLA's flagship HOP and FIELD programmes in target audience, content focus, and UK base.
• DisasterReady.org: DisasterReady is a free e-learning platform for humanitarian and development workers, offering curated online courses similar to HLA's Kaya. It is the closest functional competitor in the humanitarian e-learning niche, often appearing on the same procurement lists.
• Professional Humanitarian Assistance Programme (PHAP): PHAP provides professional certification and online learning for humanitarian practitioners, including a Certified Humanitarian Professional credential. It is directly comparable to HLA on humanitarian professional certification, similar to HPass.
• Humentum: Humentum is an international NGO capacity-building organization offering learning, certification, and organizational development services for humanitarian and development organizations. It is highly comparable to HLA on training delivery, competency frameworks, and institutional partnerships.
• Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE): INEE is an open network of organizations working on education in emergencies, curating resources, standards, and training materials. It overlaps with HLA's Education in Emergencies (EiE) flagship programme on content, standards, and target audience.

Emerging players

• Data Friendly Space: Data Friendly Space is an emerging humanitarian data and analytics organization that has partnered with HLA on the 2026 Humanitarian AI Pulse Survey. It overlaps on the data and AI capacity-building frontier within humanitarian work, positioning both organizations in adjacent emerging niches.

Broad incumbents

• Coursera for Nonprofits / Impact: Coursera is a broad online learning platform that increasingly offers humanitarian, social impact, and NGO management courses through partnerships. It is a broader incumbent that competes for the same learners but lacks HLA's humanitarian specialization, credentialing, and field network.
• IFRC Learning Platform: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies operates a global learning platform and a vast network of training programmes for Red Cross volunteers and staff. It serves a much larger base but overlaps with HLA on humanitarian volunteer training and credentialing.

Others

• ReliefWeb / OCHA Training: ReliefWeb is a humanitarian information hub operated by OCHA that also curates training resources for humanitarian workers. It is adjacent to HLA as an information/training resource rather than a direct learning platform competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/HumanitarianLA
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@humanitarianleadershipacademy
• Facebookfacebook.com/humanitarianleadershipacademy
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/humanitarian-leadership-academy

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Humanitarian Leadership Academy