Ban Ki-moon, in his five-year action agenda released in January 2012, set out his vision to develop a humanitarian system that was more global, accountable, and robust.

[2] World leaders were expected to come to the summit and announce the actions they will take to end the suffering of millions of women, men and children affected by armed conflicts and disasters.

The summit convened 9000 participants from 173 countries, including 55 heads of state and government, hundreds of private sector representatives, and thousands of people from civil society and nongovernmental organizations.

The secretariat was funded and supported by a wide range of donors including the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection.

Gwi-Yeop Son, Director of OCHA Corporate Programmes, was placed in charge of all aspects of the summit logistics, including liaisons with the Government of Turkey.

[17] In March and April 2016 OCHA reassigned over 140 of their staff from existing emergency operations such as South Sudan and headquarter functions, to support the Summit preparations.

[23] However, separate to the actual summit proceedings, 61 countries including the United States, Canada and other major donors endorsed a political communiqué, committing to support the "five core responsibilities" of the Secretary-General's "Agenda for Humanity."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment that the world's most powerful leaders did not attend, notably those from the G7 countries except for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

[24] However, at the closing press conference, Ban Ki-moon said "The absence of these leaders from World Humanitarian Summit does not provide an excuse for inaction.

The initiative is a collaboration between the V20 (a group of ministers of Finance of the Climate Vulnerable Forum which represents 43 high risk developing nations), the UN and the World Bank.

The partnership will help 20 most at-risk countries attain a basic level of readiness by 2020 for future disaster risks, mainly caused by climate change.

The Secretary-General and eight UN agencies signed a "commitment" to work in new ways across their humanitarian and development efforts in order to meet and reduce human suffering.

[31] Oxfam International and Save the Children, along with a number of other agencies, also expressed concern that adapting humanitarian action to the differing needs of gender, age, and disability was not given high enough priority.

Some have said that discussion of UN reform was resisted by senior UN leadership during the regional consultations process,[37] and the UN's aid chief Stephen O'Brien stating in an interview that the UN doesn't need to fundamentally change, but to "build on the best" and bring in additional innovation and skills.