This rapid review provides examples of what has worked to include people in humanitarian assistance who experience heightened vulnerability during crises, due to social inequalities and discrimination relating to gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, and sex characteristics; and religious belief . Overall, robust evidence is limited for what are, in most cases, relatively new areas of practice in challenging crisis situations. However, the literature does identify promising practices. Emerging themes from the research on what has potential for improving inclusion in humanitarian assistance include: affected people’s meaningful participation in intervention planning and design; whole-of-community approaches while maintaining accountability to the targeted beneficiaries; multi-component approaches combining complementary strategies (e.g. economic empowerment with social norms change programming); longer-term, pre-crisis investment in relationships with, and capacity building of, local organisations; and disaggregating data and undertaking intersectional analyses to include those hardest to reach.