The international humanitarian community faces an evergrowing range of complex crises and changing threats, from the challenges of protracted conflict and pandemics both old (HIV/AIDS) and potentially new (avian flu) to sudden and devastating natural disasters.For all its efforts, the international humanitarian system is still struggling to keep pace with the challenges it confronts. This paper examines the various strands of the 2005 humanitarian reform agenda and the relationship between them. It assesses the prospects for substantial change in the international system, and for better humanitarian outcomes as a result.