The New Humanitarian: Recent Episodes

The New Humanitarian

The New Humanitarian brings you an inside look at the conflicts and natural disasters that leave millions of people in need each year, and the policies and people who respond to them. Join TNH’s journalists in the aid policy hub of Geneva and in global hotspots to unpack the stories that are disrupting and shaping lives around the world.

Humanitarianism evolves, whether the system is ready or not. This six-episode series explores how.

Ben Ramalingam has spent 20 years thinking and writing about the complexity of the humanitarian system and what makes it shift.

His conclusion? It changes the wrong way around.

"We've tended to evolve not through trial and error, but through error and trial. So we respond to what goes wrong, we absorb the shock through processes which are often very painful, and then we return to something that's not too far removed from what we had before."

In this first collaborative episode between Rethinking Humanitarianism and Start Network, hosts Tammam Aloudat and Christina Bennett set the stage for a series that explores how the humanitarian system can change for the better as it faces a crisis of legitimacy and funding.

Guests Ben Ramalingam, author of Aid on the Edge of Chaos Nadine Saba, president of the Akkar Network for Development

Key moments 07:11 – "Error and trial" and doing the right thing too late 11:18 – Was the Grand Bargain ever really "grand"? 21:13 – Reforming policies vs changing mindsets 23:30 – Cash as a disruptive force 36:06 – How systemic change actually happens (in three steps) 43:23 – "People don't care about our jargon" 50:18 – Fear, funding, and the myth of neutrality 53:13 – If the system is so misaligned, why keep it? 59:31 – Tammam and Christina discuss why this podcast collaboration came to be

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

This episode was made in collaboration with Start Network as part of a series that explores what really drives change in the humanitarian system, and what it tells us about future efforts to transform the system for the better.

What are we getting right, what are we getting wrong, and how could we do better? A recent live webinar hosted by Patrick Gathara, with historian Assal Rad and media critic Sana Saeed, digs into the framing of the genocide and wars in the Middle East with the goal of drawing lessons that could be applicable to a wide range of crises.

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

We've diagnosed the problem. What comes next? On the podcast: what it takes to change how crises are spoken about in newsrooms and aid organisations.

Researcher Jess Crombie and journalist Chika Oduah encourage "uncomfortable conversations" to confront colonial legacies.

"Really, what we're talking about is about acknowledging power and making efforts to undermine existing power structures," Crombie says.

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Across newsrooms, stages, screens, and funding tables, there's a growing movement to reshape how migration and displacement are understood. So what does it look like when the people at the heart of these crises tell their own stories, and could it influence the systems that shape their lives? The New Humanitarian hosted a night of film and conversation with journalists, artists, and cultural funders to explore these very questions.

This event was moderated by Eric Reidy, Migration and Special Coverage Editor at The New Humanitarian, and featured:

Bridgit Antoinette Evans | Artist, culture change strategist, and CEO of the Pop Culture Collaborative
Arian Moayed | Actor, writer, director, and co-Founder of Waterwell
Mazin Sidahmed | Co-Founder and Executive Director, Documented
Annie Slemrod | Journalist, storyteller, and Middle East Editor at The New Humanitarian

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This event was presented in partnership with the New York Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

NGO ads don't have to be a balance between dignity and donations. A look at the ethics and power dynamics of crisis communications, and how humanitarian agencies can do better for the communities they serve, with Levis Nderitu, a Kenyan DEI specialist, and Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, a Haitian-American community development expert.

"At the core of your communication should be people, should be dignity, should be: how would I want to be portrayed myself?"

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Humanitarianism in the West Bank: Structures, Power, and the Limits of Aid

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What does it mean to "do no harm" in a context where aid can both alleviate suffering and entrench the very systems that produce it?

In this critical conversation on the state of humanitarianism in the West Bank today, we examine what it means for humanitarian actors to operate within a broader landscape of occupation, violence, and structural injustice.

This event was moderated by Layth Hanbali, Researcher at Institute for Palestine Studies and PhD candidate, who was joined by:

Tammam Aloudat | CEO, The New Humanitarian
Matiangai Sirleaf | Nathan Patz Professor of Law, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Bushra Khalidi | Global Humanitarian Policy Lead, Oxfam
Lubnah Shomali | Palestinian human rights defender and activist, BADIL

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This event was convened by The New Humanitarian in collaboration with BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, The Third World Approaches to International Law Review, Birzeit University Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights and Birzeit University Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies.

The first African to lead the BBC's African service, Joseph Warungu, and The New Humanitarian's Head of Editorial, Andrew Gully, have over half a century's worth of experience working in and leading newsrooms. Why do both use the word "battle" to describe their efforts to produce decolonised journalism with local perspectives?

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Every year, people in the diaspora send hundreds of billions of dollars home. It is one of the single most important streams of assistance, far outweighing all official foreign aid.

So why does it get less attention when it outpaces aid flows? And can it – or should it – better complement international humanitarian response?

Host Tammam Aloudat discusses the wide-reaching role of diaspora aid in Gaza, South Sudan, and beyond, its strengths and potential in crisis response, and its limitations.

Guests:

Hala Sabbah, co-founder of The Sameer Project Daniel Mayang Mayen, researcher at the Sudd Institute

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Does it really matter whether a journalist is a local or a foreigner? The distinction between "local" or "international" journalists raises questions about trust, credibility, and control in global news.

In this episode of Decolonise How? Patrick Gathara sits down with The New Humanitarian's Ali Latifi and Ahmer Khan to discuss power dynamics in crisis reporting, and why it matters.

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Saving lives is a choice, and that makes it hard for humanitarianism to be completely apolitical despite long-running debates about neutrality and impartiality. But what does being political look like? On this episode: Flotillas and White Helmets, the difference between speaking out as individual humanitarian actors or as a unified collective, moving beyond simply being in "solidarity with communities", and finding a diversity of voices to build a future version of humanitarianism.

Guests:

Shatha Elnakib, faculty and deputy director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University, and lead author of The Lancet's article, The humanitarian system: politics can not be avoided.

Jonathan Whittall, executive director and founder of the KEYS Initiative

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

In the latest Decolonise How? podcast, we ask whether ethical journalism is possible when individual ideals collide with institutional realities. "In school, we are taught: Don't be too close to the story, because then how do you maintain objectivity?" says Kenyan journalist Njoki Chege. "But on the ground, things are very different."

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Like many local aid workers living through war, Hind Obeid is surviving a crisis while responding to it. Obeid works for an NGO that supports refugees in Lebanon, but since 2024 Israeli attacks have forced her to fulfill her obligations while experiencing multiple displacements, the fear of airstrikes, and the constant sound of drones.

Obeid, who wrote about her experiences for The New Humanitarian, joins the podcast to reflect on the mental anguish of delivering aid under Israeli bombardment, how the humanitarian system can better support local staff, and why showing up in a crisis feels like resistance.

Guest:

Hind Obeid, safeguarding officer and PSEAH focal point at Basmeh & Zeitooneh

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

In this episode of Decolonise How?, host Patrick Gathara sits down with journalist Jane Ferguson to debate what role foreign correspondents should have in telling stories from crises, and why she now describes herself as a "recovering war reporter".

"I had grown up with this sense of what a foreign correspondent was… but what I learned early on was that my impression was very self-absorbed," Ferguson says.

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Philippe Lazzarini has ended his term as head of UNRWA, the UN agency that provides essential services to Palestinians. In an exit interview, Lazzarini describes "the most brutal experience" of his career, his anger when atrocities are met with silence, and the "slippery slope" waiting for humanitarians in Gaza.

Guest:

Philippe Lazzarini, departing commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

There's more than one way to cover crises, says Professor Martin Scott. In the second episode of Decolonise How?, host Patrick Gathara sits down with Scott, who studies media and global development, to discuss the ethics, practice, and impact of media coverage of crises. Scott popularised the term "humanitarian journalism". He explains what makes it different from mainstream journalism, and why the labels matter.

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

"The first place that people are dehumanised is in stories." - Sophie Otiende

The way we tell stories about humanitarian crises can distort the realities of the people living through them. From news coverage and research to aid donation appeals, there is a tendency to simplify, decontextualise, and even dehumanise – to portray locals as suffering and helpless, and the outsiders riding to their rescue as heroic and selfless.

In Decolonise How? host Patrick Gathara brings together journalists, humanitarians, researchers, and affected communities, to understand why this happens, and how to change it.

For his first podcast, Gathara is joined by Kenyan teacher, activist and advocate for survivors of human trafficking, Sophie Otiende, and Kelsie Kilawna Marchand, a Syilx journalist from Canada. They discuss community, consent, what to do differently – and just what is a "coyote" move?

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Is it problematic to call human suffering a "tragedy"? Even well-intentioned humanitarian language can harm, says Heidi Mogstad, senior researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway. She argues that the language humanitarians use can perpetuate systems of violence that cause crises. In this episode, Mogstad gives examples of counter-productive language, and discusses ways to improve.

Guests:

Heidi Mogstad, senior researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway.

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Show Notes:

Oppressive Language and Humanitarian Complicity: Reflections on Gaza and European Border Violence

Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that examines the stories we tell about humanitarian crises.

Join host Patrick Gathara as he gathers journalists, humanitarians, researchers, and affected communities into the same conversation. They debate the crisis in crisis reporting – and talk about how things could be done differently.

AI and new tech in crises: When is technology a force for good, and when are we piling on the problems in humanitarian response? In this episode, experts unpack why technology is never neutral, the fallback on "techno-utopian" solutions, and the risk of "techno-colonialism" and why it matters.

Guests:

Mirca Madianou, professor in the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of "Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful".

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.

Rana F. Sweis, journalist and founder and managing director of WishBox Media.

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Humanitarians have a "burnout culture", experts say. They work long hours in difficult environments. They're trying to help people in the worst moments of their lives. In the middle of today's funding crisis, they're also deciding who gets aid and who does not. In this episode, humanitarians and experts in mental health or wellbeing talk about what's driving high rates of burnout, how people can identify it and take action, and what organisations must do better to help their staff.

Guests:

Javid Abdelmoneim, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières

Nancy Nyambura, regional staff counsellor at Médecins Sans Frontières

Gemma Houldey, author of The Vulnerable Humanitarian: Ending Burnout Culture in the Aid Sector

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Show notes:

The Vulnerable Humanitarian: Ending Burnout Culture in the Aid Sector

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X24000920

Protests have spread across Iran, and the fallout is rapidly evolving. In this episode, Hamid Dabashi, Iranian-American author and professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, explains the wider historic context and evolution of these protests. He helps host Tammam Aloudat think through the nuance of opposing an abusive government while also rejecting imperialism – whether that be in Venezuela, Iran, or the al-Assad regime in Syria. And Dabashi discusses what humanitarians might pay attention to as events unfold.

Guests:

Hamid Dabashi, Iranian-American author and professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The crisis of illiberalism. The global gender backlash. Aid blind spots. Gaza and the failure of international law. Our guests have taken on difficult topics, but they've also come up with ideas on how to move forward. In this episode: Key takeaways to navigate today's challenges, and the issues driving conversations in 2026.

Guests:

Anjali Dayal, assistant professor of international politics at Fordham University

Saskia Brechenmacher, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program

Sana Bég, executive director, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada

Hourie Tafech, director for refugee leadership and partnerships at Refugees International

Tammam Aloudat, CEO of The New Humanitarian

Levi Sharpe, Rethinking Humanitarianism producer

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The UN has a new refugee chief: Barham Salih is the former president of Iraq. He takes over as high commissioner for refugees in January 2026. Salih may be a surprise pick. The head of UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has almost always been a European. Just as rare: The new refugee chief has actually been a refugee.

But does a change at the top really address the power imbalances refugees face in the aid sector? Revisit our series, Power Shift, which puts decision-makers – and those affected by their choices – at the same table.

In this episode, Hafsar Tameesuddin, a Rohingya activist and refugee, speaks to Raouf Mazou, a senior UNHCR official. They talk about passports and privilege, and try to find common ground.

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Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector's inequalities.

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Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search "The New Humanitarian" in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line 'POWER SHIFT".

When countries can commit genocide or invade neighbours with few repercussions, it's clear that international norms and laws are not working. On the podcast, three legal experts discuss the problems and some steps forward, from decentralised ways of enforcing criminal law, to including non-state actors, to erasing the legal loopholes used to justify violence.

Guests:

Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London and a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences. He has written extensively about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the bombing of healthcare facilities, and coined the term "medical lawfare."

Oona Hathaway, professor of international law at Yale Law School who has been a member of the Advisory Committee on International Law for the legal adviser at the US Department of State since 2005 and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2011. She is working on a book titled "War Unbound: Gaza, Ukraine, and the Breakdown of International Law".

Michael Addo, law professor at the University of Notre Dame and lawyer with expertise in international human rights law and international business policy. The UN Human Rights Council appointed him in 2011 to join its Working Group on Business and Human Rights, which he currently chairs.

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The UN's high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, finishes his term at the end of the year. As with most top UN roles, picking the next UN refugee chief is far from transparent. What's different this time around? Refugee-led organisations held rare public forums with some of the candidates. Co-organiser Hourie Tafech joins host Tammam Aloudat to talk about the race to lead the UN refugee agency, how to make the selection more transparent, and what refugees want from a new UNHCR boss.

Guests:

Hourie Tafech, director for refugee leadership and partnerships at Refugees International

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution backing US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza. It authorises an "international stabilisation force", and approves a "board of peace". Essentially, this would govern Gaza, and oversee reconstruction and humanitarian aid. It also follows a playbook similar to the occupation of Iraq, warns international law expert Shahd Hammouri: "The US using international legal mechanisms to normalise an unlawful occupation."

Guests:

Shahd Hammouri, lecturer in International Law and Legal Theory at the University of Kent, and an international legal consultant

Nour ElAssy, poet and writer from Gaza, Palestine

Riley Sparks, reporter covering migration and human rights

When aid funding is tight, education is often cut first. But schools offer more than just learning, and communities say education is their priority. "We have to believe that survival means more than just breathing," says emergency education expert Faiza Hassan. On this episode: Why disrupted schooling is the norm as climate change worsens, and the argument for prioritising education in an era of aid cuts.

Guests:

Faiza Hassan, director of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The UN climate summit, COP30, is getting under way in Brazil, with global temperatures rising – and global cooperation under deep strain. Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, the UN Secretary-General warns that the world has missed its targets to limit global temperature rise. The stakes are high. But do COP discussions match the urgency? The New Humanitarian journalists unpack what happens behind the scenes at COP, and what humanitarians and everyday citizens can do while negotiators wrestle over targets and funding.

Guests:

Will Worley, staff reporter and editor for policy at The New Humanitarian Namukabo Werungah, staff editor and reporter for breaking news and social at The New Humanitarian

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Global polls show citizens in many countries want their governments to fund humanitarian aid. But the US and other nations have gutted aid departments or shrunk budgets – with little public pushback. Has the aid sector gotten too wonky to connect with the public? On the podcast: Emergency aid's marketing problem, and ideas to win the battle for attention.

Guests:

Sana Bég, executive director, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada

Dr. Polly Pallister-Wilkins, political geographer and associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

The backlash against women's and LGBTIQI+ rights is growing – part of an organised movement that goes beyond one country or one president. But as Saskia Brechenmacher says on the latest episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism, concerned people – including civil society and non-governmental organisations – can take steps to counter the threats.

Guests:

Saskia Brechenmacher, senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

The New Global Struggle Over Gender, Rights, and Family Values
Rethinking Humanitarianism | The aid sector's LGBTQI+ blindspot

Global funding cuts are worsening emergency aid’s weaknesses when it comes to the LGBTQI+ community. The Trump administration is explicitly targeting trans people. And gender-related programming is among the first to be cut as humanitarian groups scale back. But there are steps humanitarians can take today – even amid widespread budget cuts – to better respond to the needs of LGBTQI+ people in emergencies.

Guests:

Emily Dwyer, co-founder of the humanitarian and development organisation, Edge Effect.

Jasmin Lilian Diab, director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University. ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

Edge Effect

The moral imperative to protect Lebanon’s LGBTIQ+ displaced

Institute for Migration Studies

Remaking humanitarianism: Dispatches from the future

How can we reimagine the international humanitarian system so that it builds on – rather than undermines – the response communities are already creating? What would it take to align funding and infrastructure? And what is standing in the way?

The New Humanitarian and Refugees International have taken these questions around the globe, producing a series of dispatches from the future that highlight the strategies, values, and visions guiding community-driven responses to crisis – and show what’s possible.

We brought these dispatches to the heart of UNGA to grapple with what it will take to remake humanitarianism – and what must change for the system to have any future at all.

The 80th UN General Assembly should be consequential given all that’s happening: the genocide in Gaza, spiralling emergencies, aid cuts, the crisis of trust in the UN system. But does the rhetoric in New York match the urgency we see across the globe?

From UNGA’s high-level week in New York, producer Levi Sharpe and host Tammam Aloudat unpack events, contrast the Gaza flotilla with the suits at UN headquarters, and discuss what it all says about where humanitarian action is heading.

Guest:

Tammam Aloudat, CEO of The New Humanitarian, and host of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast. ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

United States of America - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 80th Session

Brazil - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 80th Session

Colombia - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 80th Session

Syria - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 80th Session

Remaking humanitarianism: Dispatches from the future

As world leaders gather for the 80th UN General Assembly, we’re digging into the past to illuminate the present. What UN reforms are needed? Historian Thant Myint-U talks about how the UN became sidetracked from genuine multilateralism, where it should focus, and why the selection of the next secretary-general in 2026 is crucial.

Guest:

Thant Myint-U, historian and author of “Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.” ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
UN 80
UN General Assembly High-level Week 2025

As the genocide in Gaza continues, humanitarian organisations face mounting pressure and unprecedented constraints. Famine has been declared, access remains heavily restricted, and international mechanisms have failed to prevent mass civilian suffering. Frustration is growing across the sector – with some questioning whether traditional humanitarian approaches are fit for purpose in the face of atrocity crimes.

This event brought together humanitarian leaders, legal experts, and Palestinian voices to reflect on the urgent question: What should humanitarian actors do to stop the genocide in Gaza? The discussion examined the limits and responsibilities of humanitarian action, what humanitarian efficacy means in this context, the risks and consequences of different forms of engagement, and the potential for alternative strategies when established mechanisms appear paralysed.

Ahead of the UN General Assembly, this event provided a critical space for reflection and debate.

The event was moderated by TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat, who was joined by:

Freddie Carver, Director of the Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI Global
Dr Shahd Hammouri, Palestinian-Jordanian lecturer in International Law and Legal Theory, University of Kent
Dr Philip Proudfoot, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, and Co-founder of The Accountability Archive

When is the UN a force for good, and when is it a fig leaf? CEO Tammam Aloudat speaks with Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal – hosts of the podcast To Save Us From Hell – about the global rise in illiberalism. They discuss the crisis of how liberalism is practiced, what it means for the future of humanitarianism, and what a better way forward might look like.

Guests:

Mark Leon Goldberg, editor-in-chief of UN Dispatch, host of Global Dispatches and co-host of To Save Us From Hell

Anjali Dayal, author, assistant professor of international politics at Fordham University, and co-host of To Save Us From Hell

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

UNDispatch
Global Dispatches
To Save Us From Hell
UN chief on Ukraine: Military offensive by Russia is wrong | United Nations

“It's not just our finances that are under attack, but it's also our morale and our legitimacy.”

In a fresh season of the podcast, TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat, our new host, sits down with people who have something important to say about the future of aid. In this episode, he’s joined by the UN’s emergency aid chief, Tom Fletcher, to discuss the humanitarian reset, the need for more mental health support given “enormous amounts of trauma”, and whether he should be the last white British man in the role.

Guests: Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

If not a humanitarian “reset”, then what?
Reset, reform, or repeat? Humanitarianism’s reboot searches for the right script
Inklings | Why a reset is not reform
My husband was nearly killed trying to get aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
What’s Unsaid | Aid worker trauma is preventable
So…Yalla, Bye

On 7 October 2023, Rita Baroud was a 20-year-old in Gaza thinking about doing a master’s degree. Today, evacuated to France after surviving nearly 20 months of genocide, she’s a journalist who recently met with Macron and told him, “You have to stop this bloodshed”.

In a special What’s Unsaid episode, she speaks to Eric Reidy, our editor managing coverage of Gaza. They have been working together for the past year on a series of first-person articles about how lives in Gaza have been torn apart. These have now been collected into a series titled “Don’t look away”. Please take a moment to read them.

What’s Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector’s inequalities. ___

In the latest episode of Power Shift, Hafsar Tameesuddin, a stateless Rohingya refugee and LGBTQ+ rights activist, and Raouf Mazou, one of the UN refugee agency’s highest-ranking officials, navigate the complex dynamics of global refugee protection, the righteous anger of refugees and stateless people, and the challenges of supporting the more than 122 million people around the world forced to leave their homes.

Although their conversations took place before USAID’s dismantlement sent the humanitarian sector into a tailspin, both Mazou’s and Tameesuddin’s proposals for a better refugee response strike right at the heart of the international aid system’s current limitations, calling for more equitable cooperation between global and grassroots organisations, more support for refugee self-reliance, and, consequently, for less reliance on a sector facing major cuts.

“I'm a believer of collective leadership,” Tameesuddin reflected. “In a lot of ways, I feel there is goodwill from UNHCR, from the communities, and all of us. We all want to do good things and want to accomplish something great.

“What is missing from my observation is that human interaction and relationship, and really building relationships with the grassroot.”

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Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

After a decade of fighting jihadist groups in the Sahel – and losing – isn’t it time for governments to try dialogue? Speaking about her research project Negotiating with Islamist and jihadi armed groups: practices, discourses and mechanisms across Asia and Africa, Laura Berlingozzi tells What’s Unsaid host Obi Anyadike she’s detected a “timid openness” from the region's military juntas for dialogue.

What’s Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector’s inequalities. ___

What happens when a stateless activist sits down with one of the UN refugee agency’s highest-ranking officials? What if they had the chance to tell him what it’s like to lose everything, to have to depend on aid, and what it would take for refugees to have more agency? Can the decisions he makes in Geneva affect the lives of refugees on the other side of the world? And could their conversation change how those decisions are made?

Listen in as Rohingya refugee rights activist Hafsar Tameesuddin and UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou candidly discuss what needs to change in refugee response, and who has the power to change it.

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Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

Daylight abductions of permanent residents. Mass deportations with no due process. Homelessness at a record high. Outbreaks of previously eliminated childhood diseases. Sounds like a humanitarian crisis could be unfolding in the US. “When is the UN going to come in?” asks Carlos Menchaca, a legislator, activist, organiser, and former New York City council member.

What’s Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector’s inequalities. ___ In the second episode of Power Shift, we continue our candid conversation between Grand Bargain ambassador Michael Köhler, formerly a senior leader of the EU’s humanitarian aid arm, and Nadine Saba, founder of a Lebanese grassroots NGO. As the global humanitarian system faces unprecedented challenges – from donor cuts to accusations of colonial structures – they explore whether the system can truly be reformed, and if reform is enough.

Saba speaks passionately from the front lines, sharing how communities are losing faith in a system that often delivers only "Band-Aid" solutions while failing to address – and often instigating – root causes. Köhler acknowledges the system's shortcomings while defending its foundational merits.

“Would anything be better without the Grand Bargain? I think no. Would it be worse without the Grand Bargain? I believe, yes,” Köhler says of the major humanitarian reform process, “because we wouldn't have this kind of platform that reminds us [of] the need to get better, to reform, to open up, to share power.”

Saba, who represents Global South NGOs, expressed doubt that there was sufficient will for the Grand Bargain to live up to its potential.

"When things get difficult, people go back to old habits,” she argued Saba. “I do see that change is incremental. But I fear that it's getting so much incremental that it's not happening.”

Their conversation reveals a fundamental tension between Köhler’s technical approach to humanitarian response, and Saba’s close-range exposure to the politics of crises.

As this experiment in dialogue came to a close, Israel’s campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon loomed, lending greater urgency to Saba and Köhler’s attempts to come to a common understanding of what it would take to shift power in humanitarian response. ___

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector’s inequalities.

___

Michael Köhler and Nadine Saba are just two of the many people tasked with advancing the goals of the Grand Bargain – one of the most ambitious attempts at delivering humanitarian aid more effectively and efficiently.

As such, they often log into the same meetings by videoconference. And yet, Köhler, one of three ambassadors tasked with overseeing the process, and Saba, a Grand Bargain sherpa representing Global South NGOs, have never spoken one-on-one. Until now.

Over the course of seven weeks in mid-2024, Köhler and Saba met over Zoom as part of the Power Shift experiment – one leading high-level meetings from Brussels, and the other contending with real-life humanitarian crises on the ground as both a local organisation leader, and citizen.

Much has changed in the aid sector since these initial meetings, but the spirited, yet convivial, debates between Köhler and Saba have taken on a new urgency as the world reacts to the loss of major Western humanitarian funding.

“Are we relinquishing power? Are we keeping it in the hands of the donors?” Saba challenged Köhler, “And if we're keeping it in the hands of the donor, how much are they attuned to what is happening on the fields? Not much.”

Listen in to the no-holds-barred conversations between Köhler and Saba as they take on a range of topics, from the yawning gap between headquarters-level decisions and realities in the field, to the dilemma of donor countries’ competing obligations to constituents and affected people, to the need to treat the Grand Bargain – and other attempts at change – with a lot more urgency.

___

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

The Trump administration’s aid freeze is a pivotal moment for the humanitarian sector. Veteran aid worker and TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat doesn’t believe that simply restoring funding will fix a broken system. While imagining what remaking humanitarianism might look like, he makes a plea: “Let’s start shifting the conversation.”

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Listen to more First Person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

The US aid freeze has exposed not only the fragility of humanitarian funding but also longstanding dependencies, vulnerabilities, and power dynamics that demand a broader reckoning. This event will explore the urgent need for structural change, seeking clarity and ideas amid the chaos.

In what we hope will be one conversation of many, we reimagine the future of humanitarian aid in an era of mounting challenges and transformative opportunities.

SPEAKERS

The event was moderated by TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat, who was joined by:

Deborah Doane – Author of The INGO Problem: Power, privilege and renewal.
Dustin Barter – Acting Director of the Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI.
Dr. Lata Narayanaswamy – Associate Professor in the Politics of Global Development, University of Leeds.
Nidhi Bouri – Former Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID.
Stella Naw – Kachin human rights activist.

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on our socials using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

____

The fallout from the US aid funding freeze continues. In Haiti, one of USAID’s largest recipients, could this actually be a moment for optimism?

“My instinctive reaction was, maybe now we can take better care of ourselves,” Haitian anthropologist and aid reform advocate, Isabelle Clérié tells What’s Unsaid host, Obi Anyadike.

What’s Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

People affected by crises, and the people who respond to them, have been calling for change and equity for years, but for every reform pledge in Geneva or New York, there’s little movement in Yangon or Juba.

Changing an entire sector is a tall order. But how can an entire system change? In reality, it has to begin with conversations between people.

For months, The New Humanitarian and the Center for Transformational Change sent out invites to people across the power spectrum in the aid world: heads of international humanitarian agencies, environmental, and refugee right activists, you name it. The goal? To set up one-on-one dialogues between people with the power to make decisions and mobilise resources and people who are affected by such decisions.

“People need to be listened to, and when they come in with their own stories, that is a form of power,” argues Lina Srivastava, Power Shift’s moderator and founder of The Center for Transformational Change.

In this first episode of Power Shift, host Melissa Fundira, Adeso executive director Degan Ali, and Srivastava set the stage for conversations to come by highlighting how power inequalities prevent us from addressing humanitarian crises adequately and fairly, and by discussing whether dialogue can ever truly shift power.

___

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

The term 'decolonising aid' is everywhere. And yet, many decisions about aid are made behind closed doors in the West, and those most affected by aid policies have little power in shaping them.

But what if people who are rarely in the same room together sit down and talk? No talking points. No self-censorship. Just open, honest, and moderated one-on-one conversations.

Introducing Power Shift: A new podcast from The New Humanitarian and the Center for Transformational Change that presents moderated conversations between decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions.

Can they use honest and sustained dialogue to create shared visions for fairer humanitarian responses? Find out on Power Shift.

___

Participants & Interviewees Nadine Saba: Grand Bargain Sherpa; Co-founder and Director of Akkar Network for Development Michael Köhler: Grand Bargain Ambassador Hafsar Tameesuddin: Co-Secretary General of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN); Rohingya activist and refugee Raouf Mazou: Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at UNHCR Degan Ali: Executive Director of Adeso Lina Srivastava: Founder of the Center for Transformational Change

Production Team Host: Melissa Fundira Moderator: Lina Srivastava Producers: Lina Srivastava, Frederica Boswell, Melissa Fundira Editor: Irwin Loy Theme song: “Chill 2.0” by Barno Sound engineer: Tevin Sudi ___

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.

Since the early days of the American west, World War Two, the Cold War, or the war on terror, conflict has been presented in the movies as having two sides: good guys and bad guys. Host Ali Latifi and Idrees Ahmad, a journalism, film, and culture professor, dig into why we brand groups and people in such binary terms – and ask what role Hollywood and the media play in ignoring the complexity of conflict and crisis.

What’s Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Can power truly shift in a sector whose origins are rooted in colonialism? If not, what lies beyond the international aid system as we know it?

On the sidelines of UNGA 2024, The New Humanitarian, the Center for Transformational Change, and Refugees International convened a panel to examine the systemic limitations of the current global aid architecture, whether it can evolve for the better, and what comes next.

SPEAKERS

Lina Srivastava, founder of the Center for Transformational Change (moderator)
Hanin Ahmed, Emergency Response Room volunteer and Sudanese activist
Alex Gray, Director, International Funds at The Center for Disaster Philanthropy
Aarathi Krishnan, Founder of Raksha Intelligence Futures and former Head of Strategic Foresight at UNDP Asia-Pacific
Nadine Saba, Co-founder and director of Akkar Network for Development-AND; Grand Bargain Sherpa

* This panel was part of a doubleheader event on Navigating the Limits and Evolving Role of Humanitarian Aid held on 27 September, 2024.

____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

____

SHOW NOTES

From Gaza to Sudan: The limits and future of humanitarian aid

The New Humanitarian’s new CEO, Tammam Aloudat, sits down with our Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod for a special episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism.

In a wide-ranging and intimate conversation, Slemrod digs into Tammam's childhood in Damascus, his decades-long career as a humanitarian worker, and his expansive views on decolonising aid. If you want to know more about his vision for The New Humanitarian, listen in.

Guest: Tammam Aloudat, CEO of The New Humanitarian

Eighteen months of war have forced more than 10 million Sudanese from their homes, created the world’s largest hunger crisis, and triggered terrible war crimes. It’s a conflict in which regional and global powers are dabbling, arming both sides, intent on pursuing their own geopolitical interests. We ask Solomon Dersso, founding director of Amani Africa, what it will take for the fighting to end?

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Ever wondered what daily life in Afghanistan, Syria, and Venezuela have in common? In this episode, What’s Unsaid host Ali Latifi, who lives in Kabul, speaks to Reporting Fellows Zeina Shahla in Damascus and Iván Reyes in Caracas to discuss dealing with conflict, threats of violence, and economic instability, while also buying groceries, having coffee with friends, and listening to music. It can make for a strange duality: life is normal - but also not.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

“We constantly urge each other to remain tender toward one another”.

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Nour ElAssy, a poet and writer, reflects on a year since Israel began a total war against the entirety of the Gaza Strip and its population. From Deir al-Balah, where she now lives with 27 other family members after fleeing her home on 7 October last year, she contemplates “what it means to have a family, to be a human, and to support each other selflessly”.

Read Nour’s story: Amid all the darkness: How kindness helped me survive one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Listen to more First Person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

When violent gangs moved into her neighbourhood in April, Haitian journalist and former UN official Monique Clesca left the Caribbean nation. She returned home a few months later, and in this episode, she describes what daily life is now like. “We are in more than a crisis situation”, she says. “The gangs are at war with us”.

The ongoing turmoil in Haiti is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets have been cut or are insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

“We came mainly seeking safety, seeking to live a decent life. But then we found another war”

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. This episode tells a story of the 15,000 Sudanese people living in Egypt’s Masaken Osman area. When the war broke out in April 2023, these tower blocks on the dusty outskirts of Cairo became home to a group of refugees. Meet them as they gather to discuss their current challenges and collective efforts to overcome them.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges.

In this episode, Zeina Shalha, a reporting fellow with The New Humanitarian based in Damascus expresses what it is like to live in the shadow of war. With everyone in Syria living on edge since the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated last month in Tehran, Shalha worries if a regional war is going to break out.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges.

In this episode, Ali Latifi, The New Humanitarian’s Asia Editor and co-host of the What's Unsaid podcast, marks the anniversary of the creation of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate in his home country, Afghanistan.

Three years on, the country is still in the throes of a humanitarian crisis, with 23.7 million people in need of assistance. Latifi says: “We're in a situation full of paradoxes”. He paints a picture of how traders, TikTokers, and the Taliban co-exist, while noting: “In the Islamic Emirate, everything seems fine – until it's not”.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges.

In this episode, Mahmoud Shalabi describes the difficult reality of life in his home, Beit Lahia. When the Israeli military issued orders last October for 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate their homes in the north of Gaza, Shalabi refused to leave. “I believed that remaining in my home would be a form of resistance,” he says. Now, nearly 11 months later, the Deputy Director for programs for the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians, explains why he is ‘exhausted’.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

Our First Person narratives aim to dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges.

In this episode, Yusuf Sa’adu, a shopkeeper in Warawa in Nigeria’s Kano state, points out that “whoever has abundant water has wealth”. He shares how water scarcity made him lose out on education and still impacts personal relationships.

“If you are experiencing water stress, you will not be able to do a lot of things”, Yusuf explains.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org.

*This episode was originally published on November 9, 2023.

Palestinian peace activist Nivine Sandouka discusses the difficult way forward for building trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Hosted by Irwin Loy.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Iyad Agha, a Syrian now living in Germany, has been working on his country's humanitarian crisis for nearly a decade. The United Nations itself recently said that “Syria is in danger of being forgotten”, while noting that the country is facing the highest levels of humanitarian need since the start of its 13-year war. Some 7.2 million people have been forcibly displaced inside the country, and another 5.1 million are refugees in neighbouring countries. Türkiye is host to 3.3 million refugees who are increasingly subjected to harassment, not to mention arbitrary arrest, detention, and deportation by authorities. In this First Person account, he narrates his experiences as an aid worker in Türkiye, and laments how many times Syrians have had to rebuild their lives.

The continuing conflict in Syria is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets have been cut or are insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

*This episode was originally published on September 27, 2023.

Aid worker and psychologist Imogen Wall tells host Ali Latifi that the way humanitarian organisations are run, can do as much damage to aid workers' mental health as being confronted with war, hunger, and rights abuses.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

When crises hit, a host of questions arise, among them: Who needs humanitarian aid? How much? Who delivers it? And who has the power to make all of those decisions?

How aid agencies and the media choose to frame this information doesn’t always help.

For the last year, researchers at ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) have been trying to understand narratives and the role they play in humanitarian response and policy. What they’re finding so far is that human stories are more powerful than data when it comes to influencing change in the sector, and yet humanitarians don’t take their role as storytellers seriously enough.

In this bonus episode, we get a snapshot of HPG’s ongoing exploration of humanitarian narratives from one of its main researchers, and we bring together a local organisation founder, a researcher, and a journalist to discuss the power humanitarians have to shape the stories that affect crisis response.

Guests: John Bryant, research fellow at ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group; Leen Fouad, research officer at ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group; Mohamed Ali Diini, founder of Iftiin Foundation and chair of the Shaqo Platform; Patrick Gathara, senior editor for inclusive storytelling at The New Humanitarian.

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SHOW NOTES

Understanding the role of narratives in humanitarian policy change | ODI
What is a humanitarian crisis, really? | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Gaza: a litmus test for the humanitarian sector’s commitment to decolonisation? | ODI
How do you break the mould around international aid? Try genuine trust

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Exiled from a country plagued by decades of civil war, allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and limits on basic democratic rights, Maung Zarni, an academic, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace prize nominee, explains why the Rohingya cannot rely on protection from within the country. “I'm Burmese myself,” he tells host Ali Latifi. “We have proven incapable of maintaining peace and stability in our own country for the last 75 years”.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Viewed from Western aid capitals, the international humanitarian system is overwhelmingly secular. But for much of the rest of the world, people’s lived realities are very different. As Amjad Mohamed Saleem, a development and peacebuilding entrepreneur tells host Obi Anyadike, being a person of faith in the aid industry is a “dynamic struggle”.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

One and a half million people have been uprooted by the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the national army in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many are now living with host families, little-heralded frontline responders who play a central role in relief efforts across the region. Nicholas Bahati Ndoolé, a humanitarian worker based in the city of Goma, is one such host. In this First Person essay, he shares the many challenges his family faces, and explains why he feels he must shelter his relatives.

The continuing conflict in the DRC is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets have been cut or are insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

*As Martin Griffiths serves his last month at the helm of OCHA, take another listen to this episode from January 26, 2022 on his vision for the future of humanitarian aid, and his hopes for a non-British successor.

____

In the final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly sits down with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to discuss his priorities in the role, how he intends to address unequal power dynamics in the aid sector, the increasing influence of donors, and why humanitarians should push back against an ever-expanding scope of activity.

____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

____

SHOW NOTES

Griffiths steps down as relief chief
UN aid chief seeks more focused and inclusive humanitarian efforts
The next UN humanitarian chief should be picked on merit

India’s incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of hate speech against Muslims during the election campaign. But Harsh Mander, a writer and peace worker, tells host Ali Latifi that Muslims are being mistreated and discriminated against at all levels of civil and political society. With results looming, he warns that Modi’s India is starting to head in the direction of Nazi Germany.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

After 25 years as an international humanitarian worker, Susana Raffalli returned to Venezuela only to find herself at the centre of a humanitarian, political, and economic crisis in her own backyard. She describes the devastating impact that 10 years of crisis has had on Venezuelans and argues that the Latin American country has been largely neglected by the international aid sector.

The ongoing turmoil in Venezuela is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets have been cut or are insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

Humanitarian organisations often push an image of refugees as passive victims in need of help. But refugees themselves say they have voices and need to be listened to. Refugee advocate Jean Marie Ishimwe tells host Obi Anyadike why it’s time for the refugee-led organisation, or RLO, ‘revolution’.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

*This episode was originally published on December 14, 2022.

The call for reparations, which has long reverberated in former colonies, is now gaining momentum in the aid and philanthropy sectors, too.

It’s a call that rejects the idea of aid as charitable giving, and instead reframes it as justice for the ravages of colonialism and imperialism.

But like similar conversations in the United States around slavery, the idea of international reparations for colonialism is a political hot potato. This, despite the many precedents for reparations programmes, including German reparations paid to Holocaust survivors.

Can international reparations be a way forward towards a more equitable world order, or are they too politically charged to succeed, perhaps even counter-productive?

To discuss these thorny questions, Rethinking Humanitarianism host Heba Aly is joined by Uzo Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center; Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at University of Connecticut; and Kizito Byenkya, director of campaigns for the Open Society Foundations.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27
Will countries hit by climate change finally get payouts at COP27?
Why climate justice requires reparations
Reparations as Philanthropy: Radically Rethinking 'Giving' in Africa | Le Monde
Imperial Reckoning, The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
The New Reparations Math | UConn Magazine

A visit to Inzargai refugee registration centre in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province prompts host Ali Latifi to explore how governments around the world are weaponising anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Economic and security “frustrations are absolutely real”, Professor Muhammad Zaman, director of the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University, tells him. “The outsider is an easy and convenient way to let some of that steam out, without really solving the problems.”

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Today’s First Person story comes from Moussa Kondo, executive director of the Sahel Institute. Moussa recounts how drastically life has changed for everyday people in Mali, where years of conflict, climate change, and political isolation have left more than 7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

The worsening political instability in the Sahel is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets have been cut or are insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

Young girls and women are leading the way in driving systemic change, and supporting their communities, but a new report, titled “We need to know the humanitarian sector stands with us”, shows the extent to which they’re being overlooked and underfunded – and makes a plea directly to the sector to change this. The report’s co-author Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah tells host Obi Anyadike that “a real revolution” is required.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

*This episode originally aired in October 2023, and includes new interviews recorded days before the first anniversary of the war in Sudan. Hajooj Kuka, external communications officer for the Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms, updates host Melissa Fundira on how mutual aid groups are scrambling to avert a famine, how badly needed funding continues to be bogged down by bureaucracy, and why he believes Sudan’s emergency response rooms should inspire a change in how humanitarian aid is delivered worldwide. We also get an update from Francesco Bonanome, humanitarian affairs officer with OCHA Sudan, on the international community’s latest efforts to support mutual aid groups in Sudan.

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It has been six months since a military conflict in Sudan began claiming thousands of lives and triggered, according to the UN, the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis.

As international NGOs and the UN struggle to access certain areas, decentralised mutual aid networks – known as emergency response rooms (ERRs) – have stepped in to fill the vacuum.

In acknowledgement of this reality, donors, international NGOs and UN agencies are trying to shift their programmes to support these local volunteer-led networks, but deep-seated bureaucracy – standing in stark contrast to mutual aid groups’ nimbleness and agility – has meant that only a fraction of the millions of dollars promised to them have been received by ERR volunteers.

Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to two guests about unprecedented levels of collaboration between ERRs and the international humanitarian system, how they are trying to overcome the challenges, and how mutual aid groups are spurring a broader shift of power within Sudanese society.

Guests: Hajooj Kuka, external communications officer for the Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms; Francesco Bonanome, humanitarian affairs officer with the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, in Sudan, focal person for the ERRs

____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

____

SHOW NOTES

How mutual aid networks are powering Sudan's humanitarian response
Khartoum State ERR
Mutual aid in Sudan: the future of aid? | Humanitarian Practice Network
From an assistance model to a community-based aid
EXCLUSIVE: Sudanese aid workers face hundreds of job losses
Sudan Humanitarian Fund Dashboard 2023

Israel has continued to choose violence, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, an independent journalist of Palestinian descent, tells host Ali Latifi that “this is not just a humanitarian crisis. It’s a global moral crisis.”

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Today’s First Person story comes from Fatma Jaffar, a Yemeni humanitarian worker and the policy and advocacy lead for Oxfam Yemen. Fatma describes the dire humanitarian situation in her country and how Yemenis have kept each other alive throughout nine years of war.

The ongoing conflict in Yemen is featured in The New Humanitarian’s annual list of ten crises that demand your attention now, which highlights places in the world where needs are rising, aid budgets are cut or insufficient, and where people feel forgotten by the international community. Over the coming months, our First Person series will feature aid workers and people affected by the crises on this year’s list.

On the nine-year anniversary of the war in Yemen, The New Humanitarian also launched The Yemen Listening Project, which highlights stories from more than 100 Yemenis answering one question: “How has the war impacted your life?

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org

As Yemen’s war continues, a new project by The New Humanitarian shares personal testimonies that show how the devastating conflict has changed life for millions, while the rest of the world wasn’t paying attention. And how important it is that we keep listening.

Nuha al-Junaid, project coordinator for the The Yemen Listening Project, tells her own story of war and migration with guest host and Middle East Editor, Annie Slemrod.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

For nearly 40 episodes, Rethinking Humanitarianism has been hosted by Heba Aly. But this time around, Aly joins the podcast as a guest.

Since 2007, Aly has worked with The New Humanitarian, and IRIN News before, in many different roles. It’s a journey she started as an intern, and recently finished as the CEO.

In this season finale, Aly joins host Melissa Fundira to reflect on her career and the evolution of humanitarian journalism, how the humanitarian sector has (or hasn’t) changed, and which episode is inspiring her next move. She also fields questions from colleagues and podcast guests.

Guest: Heba Aly, former CEO of The New Humanitarian ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

CEO Heba Aly to step down from The New Humanitarian
The New Humanitarian welcomes new CEO Ebele Okobi

SOME OF HEBA’S FAVOURITE RETHINKING HUMANITARIANISM EPISODES

COVID-19 and BLM: A new era for aid?
An interview with the UN’s humanitarian chief
‘Give us the money’: Aid as reparations
What science fiction teaches us about imagining a better world
Is ‘decolonised aid’ an oxymoron?
What could an alternative to the UN look like?

A project to turn Kenya's refugee camps - some of the largest in the world - into self-reliant communities where refugees can live, work, and set up businesses among their local hosts was recently launched.

Host Obi Anyadike asks Victor Nyamori, a researcher and adviser for Refugee and Migrants’ Rights at Amnesty International, what he thinks of this idea, dubbed the Shirika Plan. Given his work on legal protection for Kenya’s refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps, is he optimistic that it will improve their lives?

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

A Mercy Corps staff member describes life in the sliver of southern Gaza where 1.2 million people are sheltering in desperate conditions.

The author’s name is being withheld for safety given the security situation in Gaza. Their First Person essay is read out by The New Humanitarian's Freddie Boswell.

This essay was written before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to prepare plans for a ground invasion of Rafah and for the ‘evacuation’ of the population from the area. With nowhere left for people to flee in Gaza, there is growing international alarm about the humanitarian impact of an assault.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org

Medical missions are a lifeline to stressed health systems, usually in developing and post colonial states, but they can also be caught up in, and manipulated by, the politics of the powerful. Host Ali Latifi asks Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal, a medical NGO, whether dismissal over medical neutrality is getting worse.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

They say two things in life are certain: death and taxes. But taxes – and how they’re collected – are anything but certain, and certainly not fair.

Every year, nearly $500 billion in tax is lost to corporate and individual tax abuse, enough to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 three times over, or provide basic sanitation to 34 million people. Another $5 trillion is projected to be lost in the next 10 years as multinational corporations and the ultra-wealthy use tax havens to underpay taxes.

But the international tax justice movement is picking up steam, buoyed by a recent vote at the UN General Assembly to start negotiations on an international tax treaty. The move, spearheaded by The Africa Group and largely opposed by the OECD, which groups some of the world’s wealthiest countries, has been described as “the biggest shake-up in history to the global tax system”.

What are the implications for humanitarians? And what could it mean for aid-dependent countries to recoup trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue?

Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira also share listener reflections from the podcast’s last episode on Westerners stepping aside from top positions in favour of historically marginalised leaders. They also share a long-awaited statement from the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), the NGO network whose executive director spoke openly about wanting to be replaced by a non-male, non-Western candidate, only to be succeeded by another white man.

Guests: Hassan Damluji, co-founder of Global Nation; Alvin Mosioma, associate director of climate, finance, and equity at Open Society Foundations

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

UN Moves Toward a Global Treaty on Tax
Developing countries and Europe in dispute over global tax role for UN
What does the OECD global minimum tax mean for global cooperation?
OECD tax reforms risk violating human rights law, UN experts warn in special intervention
Lost government revenues due to tax abuse – the impact on the determinants of health and mortality rates
Global Solidarity Report 2023

When danger comes, foreign aid workers are often flown out, leaving behind local staff to risk their lives. Othman Moqbel is the CEO for Action for Humanity, an international aid agency trying to provide protection equally to all staff.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Crises are mounting, and their impacts are overlapping and rippling across the globe. Emergency response has grown more complicated, and more costly. What’s the way forward?

Each year, The New Humanitarian publishes our list of trends driving humanitarian needs and shaping crisis response. From military sieges and water scarcity to ‘deterrence’ migration policies and governments’ refusal to deal with ‘pariah’ states, we unpack some of the key factors that will see an estimated 300 million people need emergency aid this year.

On 31 January, we brought together a range of voices from across the humanitarian sector to discuss what’s driving crises, and the next steps in addressing them. This is a recording of that discussion.

Migration policies are making borders tougher to cross and pushing people to risk their lives along ever more dangerous routes. Is there a way to stem the rising number of migrant deaths? Eric Reidy, The New Humanitarian’s migration editor, and host Ali Latifi discuss why we’re likely to continue to see a high number of deaths in 2024 and explore better policies to keep people safe.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

For as long as the international humanitarian sector has existed, its top jobs have been overwhelmingly occupied by white Western men.

And yet, most of the people affected by their decisions come from the global majority.

One, rarely exercised, tactic to address this power differential is for Western leaders to step aside or be willing to turn down coveted top positions in favour of historically marginalised leaders – especially those whose lived experience gives them a better understanding of the very issues international organisations aim to address.

Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira are joined by two guests who voluntarily relinquished their roles in efforts to make way for more representative leadership. They reflect on the defining moments that led to their decisions, how they prepared their exits, the triumphs and disappointments that followed, and how the sector as a whole can operationalise “stepping aside” as a tactic to shift power.

Guests: Ignacio Packer, Executive Director of the Initiatives of Change Switzerland Foundation and former Executive Director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA); Diana Essex-Lettieri, consultant and former Senior Vice President of Asylum Access. ____

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____

SHOW NOTES

Ignacio Packer on changing aid leadership: Privilege, power, and leaving ICVA
Ten efforts to decolonise aid
From refugee inclusion to shifting power
UN aid chief seeks more focused and inclusive humanitarian efforts
The next UN humanitarian chief should be picked on merit
Offboarding: The Diplomatic Way To Achieve Critical Board Turnover

*This episode was originally published on November 23, 2023. Human rights lawyer and war crimes investigator Yasmin Sooka joins host Ali Latifi in a conversation about using the word “genocide”, and why language matters – in the middle of a crisis, and in the aftermath of mass violence.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

*This episode was originally published on January 11, 2023.

Time and again, guests on this season of Rethinking Humanitarianism have called for systemic changes to the humanitarian system and global governance – from alternatives to the UN to revolutionised global climate financing.

But how can you imagine something you’ve never seen before, while being grounded in the realities of today?

In many ways, this is the domain of science fiction. The writer and activist Walidah Imarisha once said: “Any time we try to envision a different world – without poverty, prisons, capitalism, war – we are engaging in science fiction.” With science fiction, she added, we can start with the question “What do we want?” rather than the question “What is realistic?”

In this first episode of the New Year, host Heba Aly looks to the future to explore how science fiction can bring about paradigmatic change by helping us believe a better world is possible.

She is joined by sci-fi authors whose work speaks directly to the future of global governance and how to better address crises. Kim Stanley Robinson is the acclaimed science fiction writer behind the Mars trilogy, and, more recently, The Ministry for the Future. Malka Older is the author of Infomocracy and The New Humanitarian short story Earthquake Relief. Mexico City. 2051.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Disaster response 2.0: What aid might look like in 30 years time (by Malka Older, for The New Humanitarian)
Decolonising Aid: A reading and resource list
Why Science Fiction Is a Fabulous Tool in the Fight for Social Justice | The Nation
Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change ... a message from the year 2071 | TED Countdown

BOOKS AND AUTHORS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future (2020)
Malka Older, Infomocracy (2016)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888)
H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905)
Ursula K. Le Guin (see The Dispossessed, 1974)
Walidah Imarisha (see Octavia’s Brood, 2015)
Joanna Russ (see The Female Man, 1975)
Cory Doctorow, Walkaway (2017)
Neon Yang, The Tensorate series (2017-19)
Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries series (2017-21)

Refugees International, The New Humanitarian, and Asylum Access hosted an event on the sidelines of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva for a candid conversation about how to truly include refugees in the policy decisions that shape their lives.

SPEAKERS

Sana Mustafa, Asylum Access CEO (moderator)
Ana Maria Diez, President of Coalición por Venezuela and Fellow at Refugees International
Matai Muon, South Sudanese refugee and graduate student
Mohammed Naeem, Deputy Director of Strategy and Partnerships at American Immigration Council, and Advisor on the U.S. Refugee Advisory Board
Farhad Shamo Roto, Founder of Voice of Ezidis and Fellow at Refugees International
Hafsar Tameesuddin, Co-Secretary General, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN)

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

Flipping the Narrative
The roots of the refugee protection system are colonial and racist by Sana Mustafa
Let refugees be economic contributors by Matai Muon

From new conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, to flood disasters in Libya and East Africa, to earthquakes in Morocco, Syria, and Türkiye, humanitarian crises around the world drove more than 350 million people to need help in 2023. While funding to address those needs reached record levels, so too did the funding gap. Only a third of the $57 billion that humanitarians appealed for this year was actually received – the largest shortfall in years.

For the last episode of 2023, we reflect on the year that’s been, Rethinking Humanitarianism-style. Which events have forced a rethink in aid? Have any lines been drawn in the sand? And how has 2023 been a turning point in the way aid is delivered?

Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira convene a roundtable for a wide-ranging discussion on everything from humanitarianism’s more prominent role in the climate agenda, to shifting ideologies on neutrality and mutual aid networks, and of course funding.

Guests: Nazanine Moshiri, senior analyst (Climate, Environment & Conflict, Africa) at the International Crisis Group; Irwin Loy, senior policy editor at The New Humanitarian; Dustin Barter, senior research fellow at ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

Inklings | The Gaza effect, 2024 budgets, obscure acronyms
What happened on COP28’s big humanitarian day?
Myanmar, Gaza, and why it’s time for humanitarian resistance
For some aid workers, internal Gaza tensions unearth long-overdue debates
How mutual aid in Sudan is getting international support
Why the Africa Climate Summit can’t afford to overlook conflict
Global Humanitarian Overview 2024: UN launches $46 billion appeal for 2024 as global humanitarian outlook remains bleak

Could talking about aid diversion actually help people who need aid? Ashley Jackson is the co-director of the Center on Armed Groups and a former aid worker. She has researched aid diversion in Afghanistan, Somalia, and elsewhere, and joins host Irwin Loy for a candid conversation.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Ala Majid Khayrullhah, a medical student and climate activist, shares what he witnessed in Libya a month after the devastating floods.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories on TheNewHumanitarian.org

Human rights lawyer and war crimes investigator Yasmin Sooka joins host Ali Latifi in a conversation about using the word “genocide”, and why language matters – in the middle of a crisis, and in the aftermath of mass violence.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Even before Israel’s current siege, 80% of Gazans relied on international humanitarian aid for survival, according to the UN. But under international law, it’s the occupying power’s responsibility to provide food, shelter, medicine, and other essential needs.

Have aid agencies historically let Israel off the hook by failing to challenge the very thing that creates the need for aid in the first place: Israel’s occupation? And if decades of humanitarian response in the region have failed Palestinians thus far, as some argue, but halting it would be catastrophic, as others say, then how should aid agencies pivot?

Guests: Yara Asi, assistant professor in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida, co-director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, US Fulbright scholar to the West Bank; Chris Gunness, former UNRWA spokesperson

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

____

SHOW NOTES

Aid to Palestinians has failed. Here's how to fix it.
In freezing aid to Palestinians, donors trample a well-worn path
What's Unsaid | The media's silencing of Palestinians
Prior to current crisis, decades-long blockade hollowed Gaza's economy, leaving 80% of population dependent on international aid | UNCTAD
Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Damned if you do... Damned if you don't!

Palestinian peace activist Nivine Sandouka discusses the difficult way forward for building trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Hosted by Irwin Loy.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

An anonymous aid worker reflects on their time in Palestine as they watch Israel's bombardment and siege of Gaza and the escalating violence in the West Bank.

Today's First Person essay is read out by The New Humanitarian's Elise Campbell-Bates.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org

Palestinian-American writer and journalist Mariam Barghouti joins host Ali Latifi to discuss how both mainstream media and aid policy help muffle Palestinian perspectives.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

It has been six months since a military conflict in Sudan began claiming thousands of lives and triggered, according to the UN, the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis.

As international NGOs and the UN struggle to access certain areas, decentralised mutual aid networks – known as emergency response rooms (ERRs) – have stepped in to fill the vacuum.

In acknowledgement of this reality, donors, international NGOs and UN agencies are trying to shift their programmes to support these local volunteer-led networks, but deep-seated bureaucracy – standing in stark contrast to mutual aid groups’ nimbleness and agility – has meant that only a fraction of the millions of dollars promised to them have been received by ERR volunteers.

Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to two guests about unprecedented levels of collaboration between ERRs and the international humanitarian system, how they are trying to overcome the challenges, and how mutual aid groups are spurring a broader shift of power within Sudanese society.

Guests: Hajooj Kuka, external communications officer for the Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms; Francesco Bonanome, humanitarian affairs officer with the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, in Sudan, focal person for the ERRs

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

How mutual aid networks are powering Sudan's humanitarian response
Khartoum State ERR
Mutual aid in Sudan: the future of aid? | Humanitarian Practice Network
From an assistance model to a community-based aid
EXCLUSIVE: Sudanese aid workers face hundreds of job losses
Sudan Humanitarian Fund Dashboard 2023

Conflict analyst Hisham Al-Omeisy joins host Irwin Loy to explain how war has become a profitable business in Yemen, even as millions of Yemenis struggle.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

What’s Unsaid is our new bi-weekly podcast exploring the open secrets and uncomfortable truths that often surround the world’s conflicts and disasters, hosted by staff editors Irwin Loy and Ali Latifi.

A podcast by The New Humanitarian.

Menaal Munshey shares how dubious blasphemy accusations in Pakistan make people feel unsafe and lead to vigilante violence. Today's First Person essay is written and read out by Menaal Munshey.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories on TheNewHumanitarian.org

Aid worker and psychologist Imogen Wall joins host Ali Latifi to discuss how the way humanitarian organisations are run can do as much damage to aid workers' mental health as being confronted with war, hunger, and rights abuses.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

What is a humanitarian crisis, as it’s commonly understood? What’s the historical weight of that term? What happens if we change our common understanding of it?

It may seem like a game of semantics, but the answers to those questions are more consequential than we may realise, because they reveal something deeper about who we believe will perpetually be an underclass, what’s deserving of an urgent reaction, and who we see as capable of providing humanitarian assistance.

These are questions Patrick Gathara has been contending with as The New Humanitarian’s first Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling. On the season 4 premiere of Rethinking Humanitarianism, co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to Gathara about the colonial weight of the term ‘humanitarian crisis’; why events in the Global North are rarely described as such; and how the definition of a crisis can mask – or perpetuate – the deeper systemic injustices that lead to crises in the first place.

Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

Guest: Patrick Gathara, The New Humanitarian’s Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling

The UN overstates its claims of climate neutrality and purchases junk carbon credits that do little to cut emissions. This is revealed in a new investigation by The New Humanitarian and Mongabay. Investigations reporter Jacob Goldberg explains why the UN’s climate neutrality claims are problematic, how the investigation evolved, and what the next steps for the UN may be.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast that explores the open secrets and uncomfortable truths that surround the world’s conflicts and disasters, hosted by staff editors Irwin Loy and Ali Latifi.

Journalist and filmmaker Abdirahman Ahmed Aden is a Somali refugee who left the camp in Kenya where he had lived most of his life to go back home to Somalia. In his essay, he shares what he experienced after returning made him reconsider his decision. Due to a lack of internet access, the author is not able to read the essay himself. Instead, you’ll hear the voice of The New Humanitarian’s senior Africa editor, Obi Anyadike.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

To read more first-person stories, go to TheNewHumanitarian.org

If the aim is to see real change in Afghanistan, shouldn’t the Taliban be included in the conversation?

In this first episode of What’s Unsaid, we speak to Afghan human rights defender Madina Mahbobi, who says it’s time for the international community to start listening to local voices like hers that are calling for increased engagement with the Taliban. Despite being roundly condemned after making this unpopular case on a recent UN panel, Mahbobi is adamant that people like her must not be deterred: “We should speak about things that are controversial but still a solution to the situation.”

Guest: Madina Mahbobi, Afghan human rights defender, and founder of the women-led Vision Development Organization NGO in Afghanistan.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast that explores the open secrets and uncomfortable truths that surround the world’s conflicts and disasters, hosted by staff editors Irwin Loy and Ali Latifi.

Laura, a Colombian refugee living in Ecuador explains why narratives around migration in Latin America need to change. In her essay, Laura shares her experience of how people displaced within Latin America are overlooked as the dominant media narrative is about those heading north for the United States.

In order to protect their security, the author uses a pseudonym, Laura, and her essay is read out by The New Humanitarian’s Sofia Kuan.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster – placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

To read more first-person stories, go to TheNewHumanitarian.org

A refugee in Malawi shares how their treatment makes them worry about their security and feel like they don’t belong.

Today’s essay was written by a refugee living in Malawi. In order to protect their security, the author’s name is not public. Therefore, their essay is read out by The New Humanitarian’s Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling, Patrick Gathara.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

To read more first-person stories, go to TheNewHumanitarian.org

Matai Muon shares how policies suppress the economic potential of refugees, which forces many into a situation of dependency instead of allowing them to contribute to the societies they’re currently living in.

Today’s essay was written and read out by Matai Muon. He is a South Sudanese refugee. Although he is currently studying in the United Kingdom, this essay was recorded from his home country of South Sudan where he is conducting research.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Read more first-person stories on TheNewHumanitarian.org

San Thai Shin is a Rohingya researcher and volunteer teacher in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. In his essay, San looks at how restrictive policies suppress refugees’ economic potential, forcing many into a situation of dependency rather than allowing them to contribute to the societies they live in.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

Hala al-Karib shares how the days unfolded when the violence started in Sudan, and what some of the root causes are according to her, including the failings of the international community. Today’s essay was written and read out by Hala al-Karib. She is the regional director of SIHA - the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

Today’s essay was written and read out by Liban Mahamad. He is a freelance journalist and writer from Somalia. In his essay, Liban looks at the limitations of international aid in Somalia, and in particular at how its short-termism risks perpetuating a cycle of need for millions of Somalis. Liban’s recording also features the natural sounds of Dolow in southern Somalia, where he recorded his essay:

The New Humanitarian

Flipping the Narrative is an ongoing series by The New Humanitarian. It aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives.

Today’s essay was written and read out by Sana Mustafa. She is a feminist human rights defender and CEO of Asylum Access. In her essay, Sana looks at power imbalances within the international refugee protection system, and calls for those who have been forcibly displaced themselves to have much more say in the decision-making.

Read more from The Flipping The Narrative series here.

Christian Saunders was appointed as the UN’s special coordinator on improving the response to sexual exploitation and abuse in July.

The New Humanitarian’s Investigations Editor Paisley Dodds spoke with him on 19 April following his recent trip to South Sudan, where allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation surfaced last year at a UN-run camp for civilians in the northern city of Malakal.

In their wide-ranging interview, Saunders says he believes in “radical transparency”, he doesn’t think the UN should be investigating itself, and he agrees it’s time to retire the phrase “zero tolerance”.

Read more: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations

and more on this interview here:

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interview/2023/04/24/interview-fixing-un-sex-abuse-problem

Does the humanitarian sector have something to learn from this celebrity’s approach to relief work?

Chef José Andrés took his cooking skills to disaster zones and began distributing hot meals to people in need, via the NGO he founded: World Central Kitchen.

Their model is simple: Respond quickly after a disaster by tapping into resources already available in affected communities – local chefs – and without all the bureaucracy of a big aid organisation.

In this episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism, we explore the pros and cons of taking a different approach to humanitarianism: José Andrés says he treats his beneficiaries like “guests” at a restaurant. He speaks of the need for smaller, more specialised, more agile organisations that don’t try to be everything to everyone and pursue endless growth. And he advocates for an approach where people feel they are not working for an organisation, but for their own communities. Humanitarianism, he says, can’t remain about throwing crumbs to the poor.

Guest: José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen

At the European Humanitarian Forum, The New Humanitarian's CEO Heba Aly moderates a panel on principled humanitarian action in Ukraine.

Are more equitable trade policies possible at a time many countries are turning to protectionism?

Why have developing countries and emerging economies not benefited as much from the globalised trade architecture as multinational corporations and international investors? And what needs to change for global trade to be more equitable?

This episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism explores whether a re-imagined global trading system could reduce aid needs in the Global South.

Guests: Nick Dearden, Director Global Justice Now; Gyude Moore, former Liberian Minister of Public Works and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that the current global health architecture is not fit for purpose. While rich countries hoarded vaccines, low and middle income countries were left behind, coping with massive global healthcare inequalities.

Despite lofty promises, COVAX, the global initiative launched during the pandemic to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of tests, treatments, and vaccines failed to deliver on its promises.

This episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism explores how the global health architecture can be adjusted to make it more inclusive, and better placed to respond in a more equitable way during a future pandemic.

Guests: Petro Terblanche, managing director of Afrigen; Fifa Rahman, civil society representative at the ACT-Accelerator

For one week every year, some of the world’s richest business people and most powerful politicians descend on the Alpine ski town of Davos, Switzerland. They’re here for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, which bills itself as the premiere global forum for the public and private sectors to join forces to “drive tangible, systemic change for the future”.

But systemic change would require them to give up some of their wealth and power, like paying their fair share of taxes, or ending the stranglehold a few, mostly Western countries have over the UN’s Security Council. All the proposals for a more equitable world order that we’ve heard on this season of the podcast depend on those who have power giving some of it up. Are they willing to do so?

Critics say the global elite’s eagerness to solve the world’s problems lasts only as long as the solutions don't threaten their said wealth and power.

So how are movements to reshape global governance landing with those who represent the status quo? And can advocates and campaigners for change ever really sway the global elite?

Host Heba Aly takes the pulse at Davos to find out.

Hear from UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, Opens Society Foundations President Mark Malloch Brown, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation Vilas Dhar, director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Patricia Danzi, and others.

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If you have thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Director’s Dispatch: Aid and the elite
Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years | Oxfam International
UN boss to Davos: You’re the problem | POLITICO

The effects of the war in Ukraine continue to ripple across the globe. We are near the point of no return for those on the front lines of the climate crisis. Soaring public debt is preventing governments from being able to prepare for crises. These trends are shaping the world – and humanitarian needs – in 2023. But what are policymakers doing about them?

Listen to policymakers from both donor and national governments as they discuss their priorities for the year ahead with civil society representatives in this online conversation hosted by The New Humanitarian on 13 January.

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If you have thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Trends driving humanitarian crises in 2023 (and what to do about them)
Key humanitarian aid policy trends to watch in 2023
Why these 10 humanitarian crises demand your attention now

Time and again, guests on this season of Rethinking Humanitarianism have called for systemic changes to the humanitarian system and global governance – from alternatives to the UN to revolutionised global climate financing.

But how can you imagine something you’ve never seen before, while being grounded in the realities of today?

In many ways, this is the domain of science fiction. The writer and activist Walidah Imarisha once said: “Any time we try to envision a different world – without poverty, prisons, capitalism, war – we are engaging in science fiction.” With science fiction, she added, we can start with the question “What do we want?” rather than the question “What is realistic?”

In this first episode of the New Year, host Heba Aly looks to the future to explore how science fiction can bring about paradigmatic change by helping us believe a better world is possible.

She is joined by sci-fi authors whose work speaks directly to the future of global governance and how to better address crises. Kim Stanley Robinson is the acclaimed science fiction writer behind the Mars trilogy, and, more recently, The Ministry for the Future. Malka Older is the author of Infomocracy and The New Humanitarian short story Earthquake Relief. Mexico City. 2051.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Disaster response 2.0: What aid might look like in 30 years time (by Malka Older, for The New Humanitarian)
Decolonising Aid: A reading and resource list
Why Science Fiction Is a Fabulous Tool in the Fight for Social Justice | The Nation
Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change ... a message from the year 2071 | TED Countdown

BOOKS AND AUTHORS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future (2020)
Malka Older, Infomocracy (2016)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888)
H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905)
Ursula K. Le Guin (see The Dispossessed, 1974)
Walidah Imarisha (see Octavia’s Brood, 2015)
Joanna Russ (see The Female Man, 1975)
Cory Doctorow, Walkaway (2017)
Neon Yang, The Tensorate series (2017-19)
Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries series (2017-21)

The call for reparations, which has long reverberated in former colonies, is now gaining momentum in the aid and philanthropy sectors, too.

It’s a call that rejects the idea of aid as charitable giving, and instead reframes it as justice for the ravages of colonialism and imperialism.

But like similar conversations in the United States around slavery, the idea of international reparations for colonialism is a political hot potato. This, despite the many precedents for reparations programmes, including German reparations paid to Holocaust survivors.

Can international reparations be a way forward towards a more equitable world order, or are they too politically charged to succeed, perhaps even counter-productive?

To discuss these thorny questions, Rethinking Humanitarianism host Heba Aly is joined by Uzo Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center; Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at University of Connecticut; and Kizito Byenkya, director of campaigns for the Open Society Foundations.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27
Will countries hit by climate change finally get payouts at COP27?
Why climate justice requires reparations
Reparations as Philanthropy: Radically Rethinking 'Giving' in Africa | Le Monde
Imperial Reckoning, The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
The New Reparations Math | UConn Magazine

For many countries in the Global South, tackling today’s interlocking crises – climate change, the pandemic, the rising cost of living supercharged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is made practically impossible by sky-high interest rates on runaway government debt.

Enter Barbados.

No world leader is being invoked more at the moment than Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, along with her ambitious plan to change the global financial system to end crippling debt and build climate resilience: the Bridgetown Agenda.

For this episode of our podcast, Rethinking Humanitarianism, host Heba Aly sits down with two people close to the plan: Avinash Persaud, Mottley’s special envoy on finance and investment; and François Jackman, the island nation’s UN ambassador.

Launched in September, the Bridgetown Initiative (as it is also known) lays out a step-by-step roadmap that begins by pressing the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions to unlock financing on more palatable terms for crisis-hit countries so they can better prevent and respond to disasters. It also calls for the setting up of a global mechanism to accelerate private sector investment in mitigation and reconstruction.

Can this tiny Caribbean country of 300,000 people reform the international architecture around debt and disaster relief?

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

COP27: Diplomatic baby steps amid mounting humanitarian crises
Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27
The 2022 Bridgetown Agenda for the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture | Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade|
At the UN General Assembly, calls for fairer global governance grow louder
The Barbadian Proposal Turning Heads at COP27 | Foreign Policy
The Barbados Rebellion: An Island Nation’s Fight for Climate Justice - The New York Times

For the first time in the COP summits’ nearly 30-year history, a call for climate reparations championed by the world’s most vulnerable nations has made it onto the official agenda.

It’s formally called loss and damage, and it entails payouts from developed countries (who have profited the most from burning fossil fuels) to developing countries (who are suffering the worst from the impacts of climate change).

Will this notion be accepted by rich countries? Or will political realities and developed countries’ reticence water down the original vision of loss and damage?

As COP27 unfolds in Egypt, host Heba Aly unpacks the prospects for loss and damage financing, as well as other avenues to improve global governance of climate financing for the most vulnerable – from debt restructuring to climate claims at the International Court of Justice.

Hear from The New Humanitarian’s policy editor, Irwin Loy, and our Latin America editor-at-large, Paula Dupraz-Dobias, reporting from COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27
A humanitarian lens on COP27: Loss and damage, debt relief, and climate justice
Q&A: Behind the push to bring the climate crisis to court
Oh FFS: A guide to climate change acronyms
The Barbadian Proposal Turning Heads at COP27 | Foreign Policy
Climate disaster aid scheme ‘Global Shield’ launched at COP27 | The Guardian

All contribute, all decide, all benefit: the three pillars of a bold idea to transform how global public goods are financed. Once laughed off as a pie-in-the-sky idea, Global Public Investment (GPI) has been gaining traction in recent years and is increasingly seen as a plausible paradigm shift for a traditional aid system beholden to the whims of wealthy countries and stuck in a failing donor-recipient binary.

Host Heba Aly sits down with two people working to make GPI “technically sound” and “politically attractive”: Solange Baptiste, executive director of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), and Jonathan Glennie, co-founder of the Global Nation think tank and author of “The Future of Aid: Global Public Investment”.

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If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.

SHOW NOTES

How to begin fixing the ‘nonsensical’ humanitarian financing system
At the UN General Assembly, calls for fairer global governance grow louder
Global Public Investment Network
VIDEO | GPI Side Event UNGA 2022 - Transforming International Cooperation to Finance Common Needs

Soon after her interview with Degan Ali (Executive Director, Adeso) on whether decolonising aid is an oxymoron, our host, Heba Aly, moderated the launch of the Pledge for Change – a new set of commitments spearheaded by Adeso and other INGOs to reimagine their role in the aid sector by 2030.

Is decolonising aid a call for reform, or a call to end aid altogether? Are these two approaches mutually exclusive, or can they co-exist? Is decolonised aid even achievable within our current global governance system? Host Heba Aly discusses these tensions with one of the leaders of the movement to decolonise aid, Degan Ali, executive director of Adeso.

Calls to reform the UN Security Council – and the UN system as a whole – were more forceful at this year’s UN General Assembly, but will anything come of them?

This season, we’re proving a space to reimagine the global governance system – one that is rooted in justice for the most marginalised and capable of addressing the challenges of our times.

In his last month on the job, Maurer sits down with host Heba Aly to reflect on his decade as ICRC president.

In his last month on the job, Maurer sits down with host Heba Aly to reflect on his decade as ICRC president.

Nabil Alawzari is a Yemeni freelance photojournalist working on rights and freedoms.

This discussion was about the current situation in Yemen and Nabil's lived experience there.

Nabil Alawzari is a Yemeni freelance photojournalist working on rights and freedoms.

This discussion was about the current situation in Yemen and Nabil's lived experience there.

Anthony Langat is a Kenya-based reporter covering environment, climate change, health, and security.

Topics discussed included drought, climate change, conflict, impact on pastoralism in Kenya, and more.

Anthony Langat is a Kenya-based reporter covering environment, climate change, health, and security.

Topics discussed included drought, climate change, conflict, impact on pastoralism in Kenya, and more.

Megan Janetsky is a Colombia-based reporter and photographer covering migration, women's issues and human rights in Latin America.

Topics discussed included crises and trends in Latin America, the COVID-19 hangover, social media, migration, political shifts, emerging crises, and more.

Megan Janetsky is a Colombia-based reporter and photographer covering migration, women's issues and human rights in Latin America.

Topics discussed included crises and trends in Latin America, the COVID-19 hangover, social media, migration, political shifts, emerging crises, and more.

Thin Lei Win is an award-winning multimedia journalist specialising in food and climate issues for various international news media and also through her own newsletter Thin Ink.

Topics discussed included food security, climate issues, what's happening in Myanmar, social media’s hate problem, humanitarian challenges, and more.

Thin Lei Win is an award-winning multimedia journalist specialising in food and climate issues for various international news media and also through her own newsletter Thin Ink.

Topics discussed included food security, climate issues, what's happening in Myanmar, social media’s hate problem, humanitarian challenges, and more.

Calls for arms to take precedence over humanitarian assistance in Ukraine are driving renewed discussions over the limits of aid neutrality.

In this pop-up episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly sits down with Yevhenia Cravchuk, a Ukrainian member of parliament, Ukrainian first aid responder Fedir Serdiuk, and Robert Mardini, the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Russia's invasion has led to unprecedented levels of humanitarian support from big business. Leaders from the political and business world gathered in Davos, Switzerland in late May for the annual World Economic Forum, where the war in Ukraine topped the agenda. Since the start of the Russian invasion, companies have donated more than $1.4 billion in cash to support the humanitarian response, in addition to many other forms of assistance.

In this special episode, host Heba Aly explores whether the crisis in Ukraine is a game-changer for private sector engagement in humanitarianism.

Guests: Valerie Beaulieu, Adecco; Kareem Elbayar, Connecting Business Initiative.

The New Humanitarian hosted a debate on media coverage of humanitarian crises and why Ukraine has dominated Western media since the start of the war. Speaking with four panelist, TNH CEO Heba Aly discussed why some crises get more attention than others and what that tells us about our inherent biases. Panel guests: Patrick Gathara, media critic; Hugo Slim, humanitarian ethicist; Mel Bunce, City, University of London; Mustafa Alio, managing director R-SEAT.

How are mass surveillance, biometric data, and other high-tech border measures affecting refugees and migrants?

In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail speaks to a Latinx community organiser and migration researchers on the use of border and surveillance technology aimed at stopping refugees and migrants from crossing European and American borders. She also hears from people on the move who share what it feels like to be watched and tracked at all times.

Guests: Cinthya Rodriguez, national organiser at Mijente; Niamh Ni Bhriain, War and Pacification coordinator at the Transnational Institute; Petra Molnar, lawyer associated with the Migration and Technology Monitor and associate director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University.

Is it possible to accurately predict how many people will be forcibly displaced in the future? If so, how might this help aid responses?

In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail speaks to the Danish Refugee Council about the prediction tool they’ve developed with tech company IBM. Exploring both its potential and its limitations, she also hears from a Sahelian pastoralist organisation and a Syrian campaigner about the implications more precise forecasting has for providing better aid to people in need.

Guests: Alexander Kjærum, global adviser and senior analyst at the Danish Refugee Council; Jade Kahhaleh, coordinator at WeExist; Leila Adamou Arouna of Réseau Billital Maroobè.

Is there a better way to organise the many tech-based tools that popped up in Poland to help refugees from Ukraine? In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail hears from a Ukrainian refugee there about her difficulties in getting information and support to rebuild her life, and talks to a tech entrepreneur trying to help. Ismail also speaks to a non-profit that matches NGOs with pro bono tech support, and with an aid agency receiving this assistance. Guests: Michal Czekalski, CEO of Dialo; Zuzanna Gutkowska, NGO relations manager at Tech to the Rescue; Joanna Kucharczyk of Polish Humanitarian Action.

Is there an efficient and secure way for refugees and others who have had to leave their homes and documents behind to establish and access digital I.D.s? In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail hears from a student who had to flee Sudan without I.D. papers and how that complicated his journey towards claiming asylum. She also speaks to two blockchain technology startups that are working in humanitarian environments to try to create secure methods to access identification.

Guests: Khalid Maliki, co-founder of Tykn; Sharanya Thakur, project manager at Gravity.

When you’re a member of the diaspora community, it can feel helpless watching a crisis unfold in your home country. In this episode of our podcast series, Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail explores how a diaspora-led business turned global concern into emergency aid – delivered straight to families in the middle of Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.

Guest: Nasrat Khalid, founder of Aseel; Ihsan Hasaand, lead distributor Aseel

Why’s it so difficult for people who need aid to give feedback on what they’ve received – or what they really need? In the first episode of the new podcast series Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail hears from individuals in Somalia, the Philippines, and Zambia about their frustrations, and explores how existing technologies are being used to address their concerns. Guests: Alex Carle, founder of Loop; Nanette Antequisa, executive director of Ecoweb.

The New Humanitarian is launching a new 6-episode podcast series exploring innovations across the emergency aid sector. Hosted by award-winning innovations expert Alae Ismail, each episode will focus on people, projects, organisations, or start-ups working in new and creative ways to improve the lives of those affected by conflict and disaster. We will, of course, also be speaking to people on the receiving end of aid, to hear directly about the innovations they think could make things better.

In the final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly sits down with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to discuss his priorities in the role, how he intends to address unequal power dynamics in the aid sector, the increasing influence of donors, and why humanitarians should push back against an ever-expanding scope of activity.

An economic crisis, compounded by COVID-19 and the 2020 Beirut port explosion, has left middle-class families in Lebanon without food, medicine, and fuel. They are now depending on NGOs to get by.

In this episode, host Heba Aly looks at how humanitarians are being confronted with a new category of needs, and how it’s changing the way they have to respond.

Guests: Maya Terro of FoodBlessed, Nana Ndeda of Save the Children

The major part of the humanitarian response at the Poland-Belarus border is provided by volunteers.

In this episode, host Heba Aly speaks to a Polish activist leading the voluntary humanitarians, and the UN Refugee Agency on their role when it comes to providing humanitarian assistance in Europe.

Guests: Anna Alboth, Polish activist with Grupa Granica and the Minority Rights Group; Christine Goyer, Poland representative of UNHCR.

Traditional funding can’t keep up with the growing amounts of humanitarian aid dollars needed to help people in crises around the world.

In this episode, host Heba Aly speaks to three organisations who are meeting the funding crunch head-on by actively experimenting with different ways of financing their humanitarian programmes.

Guests: Jahin Shams Sakkhar of Uttaran, Juan Coderque of the ICRC, John Kluge of Refugee Investment Network.

Big UN-led peace processes are struggling to address today’s more fragmented conflicts.

In this episode, host Heba Aly explores whether hyper-local peace deals can be a viable alternative.

Guests: Danjuma Dawop, local peacebuilder at Mercy Corps in Nigeria. Obi Anyadike, senior Africa editor at The New Humanitarian.

In this episode, TNH CEO and podcast host Heba Aly discusses the difficult balancing act for aid agencies that want to speak out against government abuses in Ethiopia but are worried about the consequences of doing so on their perceived neutrality and their ability to continue delivering assistance to those who need it.

Guests: Addis Ababa-based journalist Samuel Getachew; Laura Hammond, professor of Development Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London; Awol Allo, senior lecturer in law at Keele University; David Del Conte, campaigner of Stop Tigray Famine at Refugees International.

To what extent are massive relief operations contributing to climate-related crises?

In this episode, TNH CEO and podcast host Heba Aly discusses the findings of The New Humanitarian’s eight-month investigation into the size of the aid industry’s carbon footprint. We also hear from two aid organisations trying to green their operations.

Guests: Journalist Léopold Salzenstein explains the TNH investigation. Kathrine Vad, climate change adviser at the ICRC, and André Krummacher, vice CEO of impact and accountability at ACTED, offer perspectives from two aid organisations faced with the challenge of trying to cut emissions.

More than a year after the renewed push for racial justice, what progress has the humanitarian aid sector made?

Amid the 2020 global movement for racial justice, aid organisations were criticised for their lack of diversity and colonial structures. Many published statements promising to do better. What tangible progress has the humanitarian aid sector made more than a year after the push for racial justice?

In this episode, TNH CEO and podcast host Heba Aly shares the outcomes of TNH questionnaires circulated among aid organisations and aid workers. We also hear from an initiative keeping the sector accountable, and from an executive trying to change the sector.

Guests: Lena Bheeroo from Charity So White and the Racial Equity Index, and Peter Walton, CEO of Care Australia.

Co-founder, former CEO and long-time editor Ben Parker is leaving The New Humanitarian after more than 25 years. In this special episode, host Heba Aly asks him to reflect on his years of humanitarian reporting.

Despite many years of reforms, progress towards more inclusive, efficient, and accountable humanitarian aid has been slow. But new recommendations, based on three years of research by the Centre for Global Development, propose four ways to more fundamentally reform the underlying architecture of the aid system.

In this episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly digs into proposed reforms to humanitarian accountability, coordination, financing, and governance.

Guests:

Patrick Saez, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development

Alix Masson, advocacy lead of the NEAR Network

Annika Sandlund, head of partnerships and coordination at the UN Refugee Agency

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB

The so-called war on terror has forever changed how aid is delivered in conflict zones, and Afghanistan is the perfect case study.

In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, many aid organisations have temporarily halted their operations or withdrawn non-essential international staff, just as Afghanistan’s many pre-existing crises are gearing up to become a humanitarian catastrophe.

In the season two premiere of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, TNH CEO and host Heba Aly looks back on 20 years of humanitarianism in Afghanistan to ask: Was the role of Western aid agencies helpful or hurtful? Were they impartial or complicit?

Guests Ashley Jackson, Afghanistan expert and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the Overseas Development Institute, and Joel Charny, former executive director of Norwegian Refugee Council USA, rethink the role of NGOs in counter-insurgency and offer some suggestions for the way forward.

A fictional take on tomorrow's disaster response - when cluster approaches, donor-funded appeals, and foreign-led responses are no longer part of humanitarian assistance.

As read by the author, Malka Older.

Produced by The New Humanitarian.

Starting September 15th, Rethinking Humanitarianism is back with new episodes exploring the future of aid.

In every episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, we ask our guests what they would do if they had millions of dollars – or perhaps a magic wand – to transform the way the world responds to people in need.

We’ve heard a panoply of pitches: from politicians sleeping in refugee camps to a global fund for social protection, from networked humanitarianism to the merger of UN agencies.

Now, as a wrap-up to our first season (don’t fret, we’ll be back), host Heba Aly puts these ideas to three people in positions to enact change:

Valerie Nkamgang Bemo, Deputy Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, UN Refugee Agency
Per Olsson Fridh, Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden

Listen in to hear which ideas pass muster and which get a hard “no”.

Podcast in partnership with the Center for Global Development.

COVID-19 dominated headlines in 2020. The pandemic shocked the world, exacerbating existing crises, overshadowing new ones, and creating all kinds of knock-on health, economic and social effects.

Against the backdrop of 2020, what can we expect in the year ahead? What will be the continued fallout from COVID-19? What other crises and trends are on the horizon?

For this online conversation, explored our annual Crises to Watch list and asked leading thinkers in the humanitarian space what should demand our attention.

Heba Aly, Director, The New Humanitarian (moderator)
Eilidh Kennedy, Director, IARAN
Julia Sanchez, Secretary General, ActionAid
Sherine El Taraboulsi-McCarthy, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute
Sudhanshu Shekhar Singh, Founder, Humanitarian Aid International
Comfort Ero, Program Director, Africa, International Crisis Group

So in this episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism, host Heba Aly sits down with donors to talk about humanitarian reform priorities from their vantage point – and how funding policies can be part of the problem.

Aly, director of The New Humanitarian, talks with Michael Koehler, deputy director general of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid arm ECHO, and Ruairí De Búrca, director general of Irish Aid, to find out what it’s like to be in their shoes: what does the political economy of UN reform and localisation look like from a donor perspective; and how would they address rising needs at a time of likely shrinking donor budgets?

What is the role of a $25 billion humanitarian aid industry in a trillion dollar problem? The size of the challenge is well beyond the humanitarian system.

So what kind of rethink is necessary for the way aid agencies work in the face of this impending threat?

To answer that question, TNH Director Heba Aly is joined by Paul Knox Clarke, the former head of research at the humanitarian network ALNAP who is now heading up the Complex Humanitarian Crises initiative, and Donna Lagdameo, the senior policy adviser and Asia Pacific focal point for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

The police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and several other Black Americans forced many around the world to look introspectively and critically at systemic power imbalances. The aid sector was no exception, with growing calls for it to be decolonised.

But movements often falter when it comes time for policy change. Now comes the hard part for both the humanitarian sector and for its critics. How does this dialogue begin to move from slogans to actual change?

As we close out a year in which the UN marked its 75th anniversary, we’re taking a hard look at whether reform of multilateral agencies has a chance.

Two guests with extensive backgrounds in diplomacy and international service are joining co-hosts Heba Aly and Jeremy Konyndyk on this sixth episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism, the podcast series exploring the future of aid.

Fabrizio Hochschild-Drummond, UN under secretary general and special advisor on the UN 75th anniversary, looks at areas of resistance as well as progress in the reform agenda, drawing on his long experience within the UN and in the field.

Ambassador Hesham Youssef, a career diplomat with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and now a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace, discusses power and the influence of southern blocs over the reform process and political agendas.

Join them in this episode to delve into just what it is about the governance and power structures of multilateral agencies that makes reform so difficult.

So many of the day-to-day realities of the humanitarian sector are driven by money: who gets it, how it's distributed, and what it's intended for.

Who benefits from the current models of financing aid? Can alternatives – from local pooled funds to private sector infrastructure – provide better value for money and better outcomes for people affected by crises? What gets in the way of change?

In this episode, we dive into how mistrust, monopolies, and perverse incentives are shaping humanitarian response.

Refugees from Ethiopia are currently fleeing across the border into Sudan. If this crisis plays out like many do, big aid agencies will soon begin setting up shop, organising camps, handing out food and water, and leading an organised response to those refugees. But what if things were done differently?

In this episode, Jeremy and Heba talk to three disruptors about their visions for alternative humanitarian action: Muthoni Wanyeki, the Regional Director for Africa at the Open Society Foundations; Paul Currion, recovering aid worker and reluctant innovator; and Simon O'Connell, the former head of Mercy Corps UK who is about to take on a role as CEO of SNV, an international development organisation based in The Netherlands.

After a few torturous days of suspense, Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential elections. In his victory speech, Biden said he seeks “to make America respected around the world again”. But how will the Biden administration show up in the world? Is this an opportunity to reimagine US foreign policy and its humanitarian implications? Join host Heba Aly for a special US election edition of Rethinking Humanitarianism, with guest Sarah Margon, director of US Foreign Policy at the Open Society Foundations.

If aid were a superhero, what would its origin story sound like? Which problems was it initially set up to solve and how are they different from the problems today? The answers to these questions should help us understand why efforts at reform have fallen short in the past.

In this episode, we ask whether COVID-19 is a wake-up call to rethink humanitarianism. Join hosts Heba Aly, director of The New Humanitarian, and Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, as they explore what change is possible, and what has been achieved.

For our first guest this series, we are pleased to pick the brains of Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam Great Britain, who will help us frame current events and pick apart what change in the aid sector might look like.

Rethinking Humanitarianism is a new podcast series from The New Humanitarian and the Center for Global Development. Join hosts Heba Aly and Jeremy Konyndyk as they explore the future of humanitarian aid at a critical time of transformation. New episodes every fortnight from Wednesday 21 October.

Tune in to the Rethinking Development podcast's new episode with The New Humanitarian. In conversation with Jessica Alexander, the editor of The New Humanitarian's #RethinkingHumanitarianism series.

The globalisation of vulnerability – made clear by the coronavirus pandemic and a global anti-racism movement – is putting into question traditional conceptions of humanitarian aid too.

As suffering and violations of rights in the West become more visible, it’s hard to argue that “we” are helping “them”. And many of those communities in need are looking for social justice and functioning institutions, not bags of rice and plastic sheeting.

Will this historic moment force a rethink of international solidarity?

With food for thought from Washington, DC and New York:

Candace Rondeaux, who spent years as an analyst with the International Crisis Group before joining the Center on the Future of War and New America’s International Security Program as senior fellow.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Uzodinma Iweala, CEO of The Africa Center.
Aid worker and member of Black Women in Development, Angela Bruce-Raeburn, regional advocacy director for Africa at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator.
Abby Maxman, CEO of Oxfam America.

And additional insights from Nairobi and Geneva:

Cartoonist and political commentator Patrick Gathara.
Degan Ali, CEO of Adeso.
Humanitarian foresight advisor Aarathi Krishnan.

Moderated by:
- Heba Aly, Director of The New Humanitarian

Aid agencies are scrambling to adapt as the COVID-19 pandemic is felt throughout the world. The New Humanitarian's Senior Editor Ben Parker discusses some of the most pressing issues with leading experts and practitioners from across the humanitarian sector:

Jeremy Konyndyk, Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development
Virginie Lefèvre, Program and Partnerships Coordinator, Amel Association
Suze van Meegen, Advocacy Manager, Norwegian Refugee Council in Somalia
Karl Blanchet, Director, Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH)

How will COVID-19 impact crisis-affected and already-vulnerable communities? How is the humanitarian sector adjusting to life under the shadow of a new global pandemic? Where should priorities lie? And what does this crisis reflect about the changing face of vulnerability?

The New Humanitarian brings you an inside look at the conflicts and natural disasters that leave millions of people in need each year, and the policies and people who respond to them. Join our journalists in the aid policy hub of Geneva and in global hotspots to unpack the stories that are disrupting and shaping lives around the world.