IHDP-related research activities are funded by a large number of national, regional and international bodies around the world. IHDP's support structure carries out the essential networking and integrating activities and provides a base from which additional funding can be raised to carry out specific research activities.

IHDP's scientific and other activities are funded at two levels:

International Project Offices
Each International Project Office (IPO) of the four core projects receives an annual grant from IHDP's core budget. In addition, the IPOs are funded by national bodies and other sources. The annual budget of the IPOs varies, depending on special grants and circumstances. Funders include the Federal Office for Scientific and Technical Affairs of the Belgian Government (LUCC), the U.S. National Science Foundationa (IDGEC), a number of Canadian sources including industry sponsoring (GECHS), and The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the Netherlands Research Programme on Climate Change (IT). All IPOs receive in-kind support from their host institutions as well.

IHDP Secretariat
The total income of IHDP in 2003 was US$ 1,344,660. The International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), as joint scientific sponsors of IHDP, provide an annual financial contribution to the Programme. In 2003, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Research Ministry of Nort-Rhine Westphalia (MWF) granted the core funding for the IHDP Secretariat.

Specific activities such as capacity building workshops, meetings and publications were supported by a number of organisations and funding agencies, namely START, APN, IAI, the U.S. Consortium of Social Science Assoiations (COSSA) and the German National Research Centre for Environment and Health (GSF). Additionally in 2003, IHDP received national contributions from Austria, China Taipei, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. For 2004, Spain has also announced a national contribution to the Secretariat.

From 1996 to 2006, the Secretariat was hosted by the University of Bonn. Since January of 2007, the IHDP Secretariat has been hosted by the United Nations University on the UN Campus in Bonn. UNU provides important infrastructural and administrative in-kind support to the Secretariat.