Trumanitarian: Recent Episodes
Trumanitarian
If you are passionate about all things humanitarian and you are looking for new answers, you will enjoy listening to Trumanitarian's smart, honest conversations
Wigdan Seedahmed joins host Lars Peter Nissen for a conversation that drifts between code and Sudanese music, and into the quiet art of translating magic into data - without letting magic slip.
Wigdan is not on autopilot. In a sector often dominated by compliance and performative intellect, she carries a rare kind of mind - one that doesn’t just react or repackage, but thinks. Her intelligence is quiet, original, and layered - the kind that allows her to interact within the wild, magical, messy reality without flattening it or abstracting herself from it.
We talk about how she uses music as a dataset. How the hum of old Sudanese voices carries a politics that spreadsheets can’t capture. And how data, when reclaimed from its colonial grammar, can become a language of intimacy, resistance, and radical imagination.
It’s about paying attention and letting different kinds of intelligence – logical, intuitive, ancestral – speak. Wigdan calls herself a Mathemagician. After listening, you’ll understand why.
Wigdans Substack post on Sudans Sonic Archive:
Wigdans Zanig playlist for Trumanitarian:
What is the role of cash distributions in the humanitarian reset? That is the question that Cate Turton, the Director of the Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) Network), Yolande Wright, the VP for Partnerships at GiveDirectly and Alessandro Bini the Director of the Somali Cash Consortium discuss with Lars Peter Nissen in this weeks episode.
The conversation focuses on the current state and future potential of cash-based humanitarian assistance. The participants discusses the barriers and opportunities for further leveraging cash distributions in the humanitarian sector, particularly in light of the current resource constraints. Key topics included the evidence base for cash, the need to shift power and decision-making to affected populations, the challenges of integrating cash within the existing humanitarian coordination structures, and the role of localization in cash programming.Explore key insights from a high-level conversation on the future of humanitarian cash assistance. Learn about systemic barriers, localization, UN roles, and innovative cash delivery methods like lump-sum transfers.
What happens when a philanthropist shows up differently? In this episode, Maya Ghosh Bichara joins host Lars Peter Nissen to reflect on what it means to fund, partner, and build trust with integrity.
Maya isn’t running a billion-dollar foundation - she gives small but catalytic grants, drawing on her experience from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to reimagine what money can do.
They explore trust-based philanthropy, the need for humility, and how to move beyond extractive funding models. What would it take to let go of control, trust leaders on the ground, and how could we try to decolonize funding flows?
Mayas biggest advice for change is to start implementing it yourself. This episode is a must for anyone curious about what a new generation of philanthropy might look like.
In this special crossover episode, Lars Peter Nissen (Trumanitarian) and Carla Vitantonio (Living Decoloniality) sit down in Doha to explore the deep fault lines in humanitarian work — and why they’ve both turned to podcasting as a space for honest conversation.
Carla unpacks the concept of decoloniality — the lingering structures, mindsets, and behaviors that survive long after formal colonialism ends. Together, they explore how power, bureaucracy, and hero narratives shape the humanitarian sector — and why we’re so often stuck tweaking language while avoiding the hard work of dismantling systems.
They discuss the limits of reform, the danger of dressing failure as progress, and the need for new actors, voices, and institutional diversity. And they ask the question: If the big institutions can’t change, who can?
These discussions extends too to podcasting and humanitarian events; how different formats, structure and diversity of people could create different reflections and outcomes.
This is an episode about inquiry over certainty, and humility and small acts over heroism.
Notes and Links:
• The theory referred to in Carlas podcast: the theory of the colonial matrix of power by Aníbal Quijano
• Living Decoloniality (Carlas podcast). The highlighted episodes: Episode with Michelle Lokot; Episode with Karishma Shafi; Episode with Themrise Khan
• Trumanitarian episodes highlighted in the convo: Episode with Dr. Rola Hallam; Ukraine episode with Care SG); Episode with Themrise Khan
In this episode of Trumanitarian, recorded on the sidelines of the Center for Humanitarian Leadership Conference in Doha, host Lars Peter Nissen sits down with two sector heavyweights: Sofía Sprechmann, former Secretary General of CARE International, and Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. Together, they confront some of the humanitarian sector’s most uncomfortable truths.
The aid sector is full of elephants—entrenched power dynamics, outdated models of partnership, performative reform, and organizations that may simply be too big to change. This conversation takes those challenges head by examining the Pledge for Change, a joint commitment by major INGOs to decolonize aid through equitable partnerships, ethical storytelling, and systemic transformation.
But the discussion also goes deeper—into the contradictions of leading large organizations while trying to dismantle the very systems that sustain them.
On December 8, Syria saw a major turning point: the fall of the Assad regime and the emergence of a new government. For the White Helmets, this moment opened the door to expand operations from 800 to over 4,600 communities—nationwide.
In this episode, the White Helmet’s Chief of Programs, Ahmed Ekzayez, shares how the group has evolved from frontline rescue to tackling climate change, protecting human rights, and strengthening civil society, all while fending off disinformation and facing the USAID funding cuts.
For Ahmed, success isn’t measured by project metrics—but by lives changed: “This isn’t a 9-to-5 job. This is our country.”
The Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan have, over the past couple of years, become the backbone of humanitarian action in Sudan. As community-based informal organizations, the ERRs provide mutual aid to more than 2 million people in Sudan.
In this week's episode Hajooj Kuka and Justin Corbett discuss the work of the ERRs with co-hosts Mabala Nyalugwe and Lars Peter Nissen.
We are at a pivotal moment for the humanitarian sector. The freeze of US foreign aid, the dismantling of USAID and aid cuts from a number of the major donors has sent shockwaves through the system.
But how do we move forward and strike the balance between ensuring continuity of lifesaving humanitarian assistance while addressing serious and well-known issues with the existing humanitarian system – do we opt for reform or disruption?
Dominik Stillhart is the the Head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit and the Deputy Director of Swiss Development Cooperation and in this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he speak directly to the need for changing the way we do business and finding a new way to work. The conversation was recorded on the last day of the 2025 Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) in Geneva and the sprawling ecosystem of actors at the conference serves as the point of departure for the conversation.
You can support Trumanitarian financially through a one-off or a monthly contribution on our website.
Happy international women’s day !
When women connect across generations and experiences, heart to heart, incredible things happen.
In this special episode, Maeva Fages joins Rigmor Tholstrup for a heartfelt conversation about humanitarianism, yoga and resilience. Maeva, a humanitarian health specialist, yoga teacher, and Senior Country Manager for Afghanistan and Syria, shares experiences on leading with softness and finding strength in vulnerability.
They discuss the pressures to “toughen up” in professional settings, the unspoken impacts of such expectations, and how our bodies often hold truths our minds resist. Maeva reveals how yoga became her path to reclaiming an authentic way of leading and being in the world.
As two privileged women, they want to acknowledge the privilege of even being able to have such a conversation. On this day, all women worldwide should be honored: those who have protested, spoken out, and fought for collective rights; those achieving remarkable things and making a difference; those simply existing amidst challenges; and those enduring oppression under oppressive systems and capitalism.
This episode is about unlearning, reconnecting with what seems real, and celebrating the women - before us, beside us, and after us - who make it all possible.
When women connect, things change.
The ethos of 'move fast and break things' doesn't work for humanitarians. If we break things, we break people.
But technology is changing the nature of conflict. International Humanitarian Law cannot evolve to meet these challenges without input from the private tech actors shaping the battlefield.
This week's guest, Philippe Stoll, Senior Techplomacy Delegate at the ICRC, works to connect humanitarians to tech entrepreneurs and other relevant minds over the dilemmas presented by new technologies in conflict.
From biometric systems to the ethical risks of data misuse, Philippe shares how the ICRC is developing cautious, problem-driven tech policies aimed at protecting vulnerable populations. He also discusses his obsession with giving concrete meaning to abstract ideas and how immersive “Digital Dilemmas” installations can help tech developers and humanitarians understand each other's worlds.
Questions about how to handle tech in conflict zones aren't going anywhere. For anyone interested in the future of humanitarianism, this conversation is essential.
In this episode, Tamam Aloudat and Richard Blewett join Lars Peter Nissen to ask the hard questions: What’s worth saving? What needs to go? Who gets to decide?
...And are we the right guys to discuss this?
Tammam argues that tinkering with the system isn’t enough - we need a “non-reformist reform,” a radical reimagining of what humanitarianism even is. Richard reflects on decades of failing attempts to change from the inside and whether this crisis is the moment to go back to the basics of principled humanitarian action, led by local actors, cutting the expensive middlemen.
They wrap up by tackling the question: What is each of us going to do differently in the next few months?
As the sector scrambles, priorities are being set. The decisions being made right now will define the future of humanitarianism. So what comes next? Who will (and should) take the lead?
Listen in. The system is shaking. Let's make sure it doesn’t just settle back into place.
Humanitarian tech initiatives fail when they start with a "shiny object" rather than a defined problem. Solutions are imposed rather than developed based on actual needs. A ‘graveyard of bad tech’ is expanding. Should humanitarians just admit they’re bad with technology?
During the International Red Cross Movement Conference in Geneva in October 2024, Host Lars Peter Nissen found a quiet corner to discuss pitfalls and opportunities in humanitarian tech with Heather Leson (Digital Innovation Lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and Omar Abou Samra (Director of the Global Disaster Preparedness Center at the American Red Cross). Heather and Omar believe in technology’s usefulness to the industry, but stress that it must be integrated into humanitarian work with the same rigor applied to non-digital interventions.
This conversation is a call for better co-design between humanitarians and technologists to ensure impact measurement goes beyond vanity metrics like downloads. Heather and Omar pitch an approach similar to venture capital, where ineffective projects are shut down rather than endlessly sustained, and where human-centered design and cross-disciplinary collaboration are embraced. They discuss the secret sauce for better humanitarian tech, and that maybe it's time humanitarians to rethink their role—not as central actors, but as collaborators in a larger system.
Over the past week, the 90-day freeze of US foreign assistance has sent a shockwave through the humanitarian and development communities.
If you ask this weeks guests on Trumanitarian the crisis will not be over in three months - Harpinder Collacott, Michael Barnett, and Meg Sattler come to the conclusion that the consequences of the aid freeze will last for years. The real question is: as the old system fractures, what new models of humanitarian action will emerge?
Meanwhile, communities are not idly waiting for external interventions. Can aid evolve to truly support them in building stronger institutions that can withstand the shocks to come?
No grand narratives. No easy solutions. Listen in for a clear-eyed, smart and honest perspective on the disruption of the humanitarian sector.
Dr. Rola Hallam - a doctor, humanitarian, and Syrian advocate - joins host Lars Peter Nissen for a personal conversation on the resilience of humanity amidst chaos. Against the backdrop of Syria’s profound suffering and the fall of the Assad regime, Dr. Rola shares her journey of healing, hope, and service.
She dismantles the idea of the untouchable hero humanitarian, laying bare the fragility and vulnerability of frontline workers. She recounts her burnout and her path to rebuilding through healing, spirituality, and psychedelics - moving from clever to wise.
Dr. Rola envisions a healing-centred approach for Syria (and beyond), one that empowers its people to dream and rebuild. And she calls for all of us to help make such futures realities. It's about embodying the change we want to see. Listen in – its deeply vulnerable and we hope you will love it as much as we do.
What happens when you mix cyber warfare, climate collapse, and humanitarian action with a dash of whiskey? You get Emerson Tan - a man who started as a hacker, turned humanitarian, and now designs fintech for the apocalypse.
Dive into chaos: how disasters, misinformation, and the climate crisis are forcing us to rethink everything from technology to social systems. Emerson explains why the difference between a war zone and a flood is six feet of water and how mutual aid and grassroots are bubbling up as antidotes to our crumbling centralised structures.
Along the way, we explore the dark and occasionally hopeful lessons learned from decades of edge-case disasters. What can the humanitarian sector learn from Bellingcat or AA meetings? Lots, Emerson thinks.
Grab a whiskey and join us for a convo that’s terrifying, fascinating, and oddly uplifting.
Listen now. Share widely. Embrace the chaos. Brace yourself for our dear friend, Emerson, just don’t expect him to sugarcoat the challenges ahead.
In an early episode this year, Dr. Hugo Slim warned that he would challenge the most fundamental humanitarian principle: humanity. This week, he does just that. As a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford and a policy advisor specializing in the ethics of war and humanitarian aid, Hugo brings a unique philosophical lens to the conversation, drawing on his doctorate in theology.
In this conversation, host Lars Peter challenges Hugo to assess the practicality and effectiveness of his landscape-based approach. Could it disrupt the established Western liberal framework of human rights—and might that disruption be exactly what we need to confront impending climate-related humanitarian crises?
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at trumanitarianpod@gmail.com
This episode discusses 'community engagement': recent wins, as well as the continued struggle to move beyond tokenism to achieve meaningful change – and whether 'bureaucracy engagement' might better reflect the complexities of the engagement.
In this episode, Kristin Vestrheim (Moderator), Eminenur Çınar (Board Member), and Yakzan Shishakly (Board Member) discuss their network – the Interagency Community of Practice on Community Engagement in Displacement Response. They explore the consequences of treating community engagement as a narrow, technical problem –rather than a political one — and suggest more radical and integrative solutions to help shift power back to the people.
The forum is part of the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster and you can check it out here.
In his 2021 book, Night on Earth, Davide Rodongo, professor of international history and politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, writes about humanitarian action during the 20th century interwar period. “What they aimed to do was delusional”, he told Lars Peter. “The reality is they did a few little good things in a few places…And they aimed to civilize the entire Near East.”
According to Davide, historians often argue that the past teaches us nothing. And yet, his recounting of the humanitarian sector’s inter-war period rhymes with the major themes we talk about on this podcast: localization, professionalism, paternalism and technology. Together, he and Lars Peter talk about what (and who) has changed, cracks in the humanitarian narrative, and how to tell the story right.
Davide’s book:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/night-on-earth/2BB5FC4E3AAE925C0AD6875F519BFD4B
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at
trumanitarianpod@gmail.com
The Humanitarian Club - members only!
Is the humanitarian sector run by an elite network that controls the vast majority of resources and power within the sector, a closed circle that excludes outsiders? This week Trumanitarian welcomes Michael N. Barnett, Professor of international affairs and a leading scholar on humanitarianism. In one of his pieces ‘The Humanitarian Club’ (we love it), Barnett uses sociological and economic theory to describe humanitarianism as a club where the few hold the economic, symbolic, social, and cultural capital. It leaves outsiders in the cold and permits members to control pooled funds, influence, and decision-making.
If you're ready to confront the harsh realities of the humanitarian sector, tune in and let Michael Barnett guide you through the systemic barriers that define the sector. It’s time to ask ourselves who really benefits, and who’s left outside the gates of the Humanitarian Club.
Don't forget to explore Michael’s chapter in the 2021 book “Global Governance in a World of Change” here - chapter 5.
Simon Western, founder of the Eco-Leadership Institute, joins host Lars Peter Nissen, to explore how to bring some soul into the humanitarian space as they know it. And how the “helpless helping” tendency currently plagues it. Simon draws on his experience from psychiatric nursing to corporate leadership, and explains how his eco-leadership model - rooted in ecosystemic thinking and mutualism - could re-enchant individuals and organisations, helping to break free from outdated, bureaucratic structures.
Simon argues that real transformation won’t come from top-down reforms but from the fringes - through leadership that disrupts and dismantles the bloated machinery from the edge. You’ll leave questioning the systems you work within and inspired by the potential of a more connected and dynamic energy. He inspires us to get to work, all of us, to push, alone but collectively, from the edges of our individual realities. Tune in for more insights and check out Simon’s podcast Edgy Ideas, as well as his blog on Helpless Helping.
Neil Smyth, the founder of Alkemio, a tech startup challenges the dominance of major digital platforms. Alkemio seeks to create safe spaces for collaboration, offering an open-source platform designed to serve societal interests, rather than shareholders. Tune in to learn about the steward ownership model which puts purpose before profit and ensures that control remains with the mission of the platform, not external investors. Neil explains the significant challenges of scaling a platform that aims to fundamentally change how society works together and compete against well-established tech giants.
This conversation unpacks the potential to address some of the most pressing problems in the digital age, where Neil’s answers might just inspire you to rethink the digital tools you use every day. For example, Neil challenges how society has allowed major platforms to control the very infrastructure of our space today, comparing it to building a house where someone else controls the plumbing, layout (and ultimately tenants)?
Check out Alkemio here.
Also, if you're interested, Pierrick Devidal from ICRC brings additional perspective to the discussion in episode 76. The Technophobe
What does NASA have to do with humanitarianism?
Strap in as host Lars Peter Nissen takes off with Rhiannan Price and Laura Guzman from NASA Lifelines to explore the groundbreaking intersection of satellite technology and humanitarian action. Can the very data that orbits our planet revolutionize how we respond to crises and save lives? This episode explores how Lifelines dismantles the barriers between scientists and humanitarians, creating a community dedicated to leveraging satellite data for real-world impact.
Learn about the innovative programs available to practitioners like you, from the Earth Science Review Board that offers free expert consulting to humanitarian organizations, to chatty supper clubs, to an immersive humanitarian simulation designed to showcase the power of satellite imagery in crisis scenarios. Unpack the challenges of building trust between these two worlds and why Lifelines believes it’s more than worth the effort.
Be a part of the collaboration today via these links:
Have your program reviewed for free by the Earth Science Review Board
Get in touch to host your own Supper Club
Check here for Humanitarian Simulation updates
David Galbraith and Trumanitarian's host Lars Peter Nissen's parenting skills declined the moment they met and tuned their attention from their kids' soccer practice to geeky tech conversations. David is the founder of a number of startups and claims he knows nothing about the humanitarian sector. He is, however, well-versed in how technology has transformed the world and this makes for a truly interesting conversation about the link between technology and crises and how technology can both create and alleviate crises, from environmental degradation to societal issues.
David has a deep dislike for bureaucracy as illustrated in this fight with Lockheed Martin, where cute animal pictures play a central roles. Interestingly he sees AI as a counter measure to the increasing burden of bureaucracy.
Its a wide-ranging, complex conversation about a future that may or may not be scary in the long run, but which for sure is going to be a bumpy ride in the coming decades.
In the third and final episode on ACAPS' participation in the AI for Changemakers Bootcamp Ali, Yevhen and Lars Peter are joined by Konrad Pabianczyk who ran the Bootcamp for Tech to the Rescue (TTTR).
The Bootcamp is over and ACAPS has been matched with a tech company in order to develop an AI that can strengthen forecasting of crises.
Welcome to a candid convo from March 2024 exploring the complexities of being independent. Lars Peter Nissen hosts Meg Sattler, Ed Schenkenberg, and Adelina Kamal in the studio. When can you truly claim to be independent and what does it really mean when you’re submerged into a world full of political shenanigans and blurred ethical lines?
Listen in as the guests struggle to find the right balance between standing firm in their resolve for change and getting entangled in the day to day business of humanitarian action. When does collaboration become complicity, and how do you avoid barking yourself out of the conversation altogether?
This episode is more than a call to listen – it’s a call to ACTION, to expose the nonsense, to challenge the norms, and dare to envision a humanitarian practice where independence isn’t just a strategic ideal; it’s a vital, lived experience.
In this 2020 episode, Mabala Nyaluwge, a Research Designer at the British Red Cross, joins her father, host Lars Peter Nissen, for a heart to heart conversation on racism and colonialism in aid. Following global outcry at George Floyd's murder, Mabala and Lars Peter explore whether the humanitarian space is free from colonial legacy.
Mabala speaks about how the aid sector, while well-intentioned, often perpetuates colonial dynamics and racism. She discuss cultural communication styles and workplace hierarchies between local staff and expatriates, saying it's almost like experts are viewed as more delicate. Is your presence in crisis affected areas truly meaningful if you simply go there, hang out with expat friends in expat bars, but neglect to learn from and mentor your local colleagues?
As they navigate these complex issues, they ask: are Western humanitarianism truly prepared to hand over power and break colonial cycles of dependency?
Meg Sattler sits down with Beth Eagleston and Kate Sutton, the co-founders of the Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG), a Melbourne based social enterprise that seeks to use research to challenge the status quo of humanitarian aid. It’s a discussion steeped in reflection; Who owns the knowledge? What does it mean to listen, trust and truly aim to make difference?
The privilege of knowledge meets the urgency of lived experience. For Beth and Kate, it's not just about the research they produce, but about the change it has to inspire, it's about impact, placing knowledge back into the hands of those who need it most, and staying conscious to avoid harmful habits in humanitarian dynamics.
This episode was first published in 2021. You can read more about HAGs work on their website: https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/
Hugo Slim is one of the best known and most interesting thinkers in the humanitarian space. He works at Univeristy of Oxford on the ethics and practice of humanitarian action and currently focus on answering the question “What is Climate Humanitarianism?” In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen, Hugo discusses how we should define and prioritise humanitarian needs. The two papers that form the basis of the conversation can be found here:
- How should we define and prioritise humanitarian need?
- Painful Choices: How Humanitarians Can Prioritize in a World of Rising Need - A Conversation Starter for the Climate Emergency
Clionadh Raleigh is not only an accomplished academic, she is also and founder of ACLED - the most comprehensive and timely datasets on armed conflict, registering over 300,000 events annually.
Tune in and hear why Clionadh couldn’t care much about AI and why it triggers Lars Peter - who spent the past five weeks in Bob-the-AI-Builder mode (check episodes 84 and 87). You will also hear why Clionadh considers to send her husband to an ISIS controlled area to study climate adaptation!
On a more serious note, the conversation debunks the humanitarian business myths on climate change and conflict. And explores how thinking about yourself as “the good guys” is harmful.
Check out ACLEDs great work here and enjoy the conversation !!!
In the second episode on ACAPS' participation in the Tech to the Rescue AI Bootcamp for Changemakers (aka from ACAPS to AICAPS) Chiara, Ali and Lars Peter discuss the progress made over the past couple of weeks. Since the first episode focus has been on using design methods to come up with a clearer approach to AI. This part of the bootcamp has been facilitated by the legendary design company IDEO.
Ali, Chiara and Lars Peter agree that they have learned and that their thinking has shifted significantly over the course of the bootcamp, but they don't agree on what they want to do or whether ACAPS is in good shape or not when it comes to AI.
Cassandra was the Trojan priestess described in Homer's Iliad condemned to have prophecies that are never believed.
Dennis King, a veteran analyst with over 30 years of experience in the Humanitarian Information Unit of the US State Department, USAID, and OCHA, is in a sense a modern day Cassandra. Together with host Lars Peter Nissen, they unravel the transformation of information management in the humanitarian sector. They discuss the gains and losses brought by technological advances, what can be learned from the cultural contrasts between humanitarian and intelligence communities, and the new chaos paradigm. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in Cassandra’s predictions for the future of humanitarian analysis.
Goma Karki is on a mission to bridge the gap between science and public policy. At the Youth Innovation Lab in Nepal, she mobilises passionate youth to work in municipalities, tackling climate change by closing technical and knowledge gaps and promoting data-driven decision-making. Learn about the challenges and successes of integrating young leaders into local systems and the importance of local context in climate action.
In this first episode of the mini-series on ACAPS' journey in the Tech to the Rescue AI bootcamp, Chiara Rizza, Ali Arbia and Lars Peter Nissen discuss what to do with AI. It is early days in the bootcamp and Ali and Lars Peter are quite confused, but Chiara seems to know what she is doing so everything will be OK.
The hero humanitarian is dead. And Joël Glasman is glad. In his new book “Humanitarian Humanities”, Glasman advocates for a more reflective and empirically informed approach to humanitarian action, emphasizing the importance of social sciences, local ties and contextual knowledge in the field. Listen in to Joël discussing his findings, callling for a shift from the heroic era of humanitarianism to a more scrutinized and regulated approach.
The book:
“Petit Manuel d’Autodéfense à l'Usage des Volontaires”
Kuldeep Bandhu Ayral, co-lead of BRAC's Social Innovation Lab wants humanitarian innovators to hurry, slowly, to reap the benefits of co-designing interventions with end users.
He and host Lars Peter Nissen discuss the journey and impact of the BRAC, one of the world's largest NGOs originating from the Global South, and the design-based thinking of its Social Innovation Lab. They examine the limits of most localization practices and the challenges of integrating innovation in humanitarian aid. Kuldeep also shares insights from BRAC's 'failure reports', why humanitarian interventions must aspire beyond meeting basic needs, and why the phrase "lessons learned" needs to be ejected from the sector.
Meet Sean Lowrie and Christina Bennett – the dynamic former and current CEOs of the START Network, which unites over 90 different-sized NGOs across five continents to foster local-led humanitarian action.
With host Lars Peter Nissen they explore how Sean and Christina's leadership styles influenced START's growth strategies, reflecting on the complexities of transitioning from a startup to a bigger organization. They debate whether START should operate stealthily or form alliances with existing players and if a vision of systemic change should be pitched transparently to system incumbents.
Check out START here:
Meet Sean Lowrie and Christina Bennett – the dynamic former and current CEOs of the START Network, which unites over 90 different-sized NGOs across five continents to foster local-led humanitarian action.
With host Lars Peter Nissen they explore how Sean and Christina's leadership styles influenced START's growth strategies, reflecting on the complexities of transitioning from a startup to a bigger organization. They debate whether START should operate stealthily or form alliances with existing players and if a vision of systemic change can be pitched transparently to system incumbents.
Check out START here:
https://startnetwork.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6uWyBhD1ARIsAIMcADoeGDu-KEXVHWHKEwwmDarK6glV0J_naBVjLVl7VGs5a5tUF2zSdDcaAgwiEALw_wcB
Nick Parker and Paul Taylor from REACT has shown up in their civilian outfits to discuss how they’ve repurposed from military careers to humanitarian action. REACT leverages discipline, structure, and skills of volunteering veterans and civilians to respond rapidly to crises.
In the second part of the conversation, Nick Parker and host Lars Peter Nissen discuss years in Afghanistan. They reflect on how croissing paths, with Nick Parker as military actor and Lars Peter Nissen as humanitarian actor likely would be less cordial back then, with Nick as a military actor and Lars as a humanitarian, compared to this week’s Trumanitarian chat.
Nick Parker and Paul Taylor from REACT has shown up in their civilian outfits to discuss how they have repurposed themselves from soldiers to humanitarians. REACT leverages discipline, structure, and skills of volunteering veterans and civilians to respond rapidly to crises.
In the second part of the conversation Nick Paul and Lars Peter discuss their experience of humanitarian - military coexistence in Afghanistan. They discuss how past encounters might not have been as cordial as this week’s Trumanitarian chat and reflect on the issue of whether humanitarian and military actors should be better at talking? Listen in and make your mind.
Colin Rogers is the CEO of MapAction. MapAction is a lean, mean, mapping machine that turns complex data into clear, actionable maps to support frontline workers and decision-makers during crises. With about 100 volunteers, some of whom have been with the organisation for two decades, MapAction shows a unique, geeky charm. They work closely with partners like the UNDAC to alleviate the pressure on those calling the shots in crisis situations.
Tune in to hear how MapAction translates complex humanitarian data into the language of action, supplementing the gut feelings of decision makers.
The challenges of the humanitarian sector have been identified over and over again but some problems seem to be unsolvable. In this first episode Marc DuBois and Lars Peter Nissen discuss whether there is a need to disrupt the sector and how to "clear the forest" so new solutions can be grown.
This episode was first published in September 2020.
In this episode Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen is joined by Giselle Gonzales, founder of Equal Reach. By speaking the corporate language, Giselle convinced her Fortune 500 company to incorporate a project that lets tech-talented displaced individuals enter the digital gig world. Just like hiding your kid’s broccoli in a brownie.
Giselle uncovers invisible barriers that prevent skilled individuals on the move from working and accessing freelance opportunities—and how Equal Reach is breaking them down one project at a time. Tune in for an inspiring blend of reluctant entrepreneurship and impact.
In this conversation, Lars Peter Nissen hosts a dialogue with humanitarian thought leaders: Meg Sattler (Executive Director of Ground Truth Solution), Ed Schenkenberg (Executive Director of HERE Geneva), and Adelina Kamal (former Executive Director of ASEAN AHA Centre).
This episode tackles independence, accountability and effectiveness, and the challenges that shadow their interplay. And it does so with honesty and integrity. The dialogue shed light on the critical balance between cooperation and the autonomy necessary to critique, improve, and innovate.
Tune in to an episode that promises an honest examination of the dynamic tensions that shape humanitarian work.
This conversation between host, Lars Peter Nissen and Pierrick Devidal, Senior Policy Adviser at the Law, Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy Division at ICRC debates on whether the sector’s excitement about AI is a progressive step or a dangerous diversion.
We discuss ethical considerations and the potential for tech to overshadow fundamental humanitarian principles. How do we distinguish meaningful innovation from harmful overreliance? What are the pitfalls of datafication and AI fixation in humanitarian efforts, and when should we not take part in the race?
Join this conversation that seeks to navigate strategies for evaluating AI technologies for real added value in humanitarian efforts.
In this thought-provoking episode, host Lars Peter Nissen and guest Sarah Spencer, Consultant specialized in AI explore the complex relationship between AI and humanitarian aid. They discuss the critical issues of transparency in AI-driven decision-making, the management of digital identities of aid recipients, and the ethical aspects of using AI to find ‘legitimate’ targets in conflict zones.
The conversation wraps up with Spencer’s brighter and grimmer envisioned scenarios of how the digital integration in humanitarian work could look two years from now, emphasizing the need for technology to serve humanity in ethical and empowering ways.
Listen in and check the pulse of the evolving role of technology in humanitarian efforts.
Also check out the last episode with Sarah and Lars Peter from 2021. Listen here: https://trumanitarian.org/episodes/arms-race-for-data/
William Shoki is the Chief Editor of Africa is a Country. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses the western media's narratives of Africa and the political impact of such.
A key point of the discussion is South Africa's groundbreaking case filed against Israel to the ICC. William reflects how it relates to South African history and stance of doing the right thing over economic interest.
Discover how Poetic Unity is transforming norms with healing and powerful poetry. Poetic Unity addresses mental health, community cohesion, and challenges traditional societal expectations of masculinity. Join us as we dive into a refreshing conversation about the potential for creativity and vulnerability to revolutionize humanitarian work and leadership.
Don't miss your opportunity to dream into this episode and reflect if these unconventional approaches can lead to profound changes in the international humanitarian sector.
Hugo Slim is one of the best known and most interesting thinkers in the humanitarian space. He works at Univeristy of Oxford on the ethics and practice of humanitarian action and currently focus on answering the question “What is Climate Humanitarianism?” In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen, Hugo discusses how we should define and prioritise humanitarian needs. The two papers that form the basis of the conversation can be found here:
- How should we define and prioritise humanitarian need?
- Painful Choices: How Humanitarians Can Prioritize in a World of Rising Need - A Conversation Starter for the Climate Emergency
Tech to the rescue (TTTR) is based on the simple idea, that the tech sector, just like most law firms, should do pro-bono work. So they have built a platform where non-profits and tech companies can be matched - a Tinder platform for social impact, where non-profits and tech companies can swipe right.
In this frank conversations TTTR CEO Jacek Siadkowski and Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen explore:
- How to connect tech companies with nonprofits to innovate together and bridge the technological gap for good, emphasizing the potential for technology to scale up the impact of nonprofit organizations.
- The frustrations and limitations within the humanitarian sector, particularly around funding, engagement, and the scalability of interventions.
- The potential impact of SMEs in the tech and nonprofit sectors and how large organizations often receive the majority of resources and attention, while SME and mid-sized NGOs has an undervalued role to play in responding to crises and implementing innovative solutions.
- The importance of digital preparedness for crisis response and the transformative power of technology in addressing urgent humanitarian needs.
Sarah Boukhary works with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on the peace process in Yemen. Yemen is not only one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, it is also at the very bottom of statistics on gender equality. So what is it like to be a woman, speaking up for peace, in the midst of a very male dominated world? How do we decolonize the aid sector, what's the problem with traffic culture in Sanaa, and why is chewing qat important? These are the some of the questions Sarah covers in this powerful conversation with Lars Peter Nissen.
This episode is a recording of the closing panel of the Humanitarian Xchange (Hx) conference which took place in London on 20 February 2024. The panel participants are: Harpinder Athwal Collacott, CEO of Mercy Corps Europe, Francis Iwa, Co-founder and Executive Director of CAFOMI, Jacek Siadkowski, CEO of Tech to the Rescue (TTTR) and Andrew Jackson, professor of Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford. The panel was moderated by Lars Peter Nissen, Director of ACAPS and host of Trumanitarian .
This is the second episode of two on the issue of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) in a humanitarian context. The Episodes are co-hosted by: Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque, Co-Founder of Verent Solutions. and Trumanitarian's usual host Lars Peter Nissen.
This weeks guests are:
For Puerto Rico: Dr. Ana Christina Gomez Perez, a professor at the School of Law at the University of Puerto Rico and an advisor to Habitat for Humanity in Puerto Rico.Community Land Trusts featured by: Habitat for Humanity Puerto Rico, the Land Trust Alliance, and World Habitat.
For Ukraine: Yuliya Panfil – Director of the Future of Land and Housing Program at the New America Foundation. Their report : Can Ukraine Transform Post-Crisis Property Compensation and Reconstruction? Other relevant articles in Foreign Policy, and Slate.
Global Progress on the recognition of Indigenous and Local Community Land Rights
Conference on Housing Land and Property in Crises: A Dialogue on Community and Collective Land – April 02-04, 2024, University of San Juan, Puerto Rico
This is the first of two episodes on the issue of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) in a humanitarian context. The Episodes are co-hosted by: Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque, Co-Founder of Verent Solutions. and Trumanitarians usual host Lars Peter Nissen.
The guests in Part 1 are: Irantzu Serra Lasa, the Senior Director for Disaster Risk Reduction and Response from Habitat for Humanity International, Ibere Lopes the Housing land and Property Advisor for the Global Shelter Cluster and Shezane Kirubi, a Housing land and Property specialist with IOM Somalia.
For more information on the Conference Series on HLP in Crisis Contexts which is discussed in the episode see Outcomes from Inaugural Global Conference in 2023.
The next conference will be the Dialogue on Community Land Trusts for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Responses - April 2-4 2024, in Puerto Rico. Second Global Conference on HLP in Crisis Contexts - May 15-17, 2024, in Washington DC. For information about any of these conferences contact Juli King – jking@interaction.org
To learn more about the work in Somalia see The Danwadaag Initiative.
Jeremy Konyndyk is the President of Refugees International. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses how we can reform the humanitarian sector and how far we have come.
Brendan Lawson is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at Loughborough University. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses his recent book: The Life of a Number - Measurement, Meaning and the Media. The conversation also covers the article by Ten Things We Know about Humanitarian Numbers which was published in Journal of Humanitarian Affairs and that Brendan has written with with Joel Glassman (our guest on episode 8: Needology).
If you are have any comments or questions Brendan would love to hear from you. He can be reached on email b.b.lawson@lboro.ac.uk.
Humanitarian Xchange is a new conference organised by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA). In this conversation Dominic Courage from HLA and Francis Iwa from the Ugandan NGO Care and Assistance For Forced Migrants (CAFOMI) discuss Hx with Lars Peter Nissen.
Raphael Gorges has spent the past couple of years analysing the work of the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) over past 30 years. I this episode Raphael discusses his findings with Lars Peter Nissen.
You can find Raphael's report here: https://here-geneva.org/evolution-of-the-humanitarian-sector/
Raphael Gorges from the Geneva based think tank HERE-Geneva has spent the past couple of years analysing the work of the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) over past 30 years. I this episode Raphael discusses his findings with Lars Peter Nissen.
You can find Raphael's report here.
Raphael Gorgeu, Senior Research Associate at the Geneva based think tank HERE-Geneva, has spent the past couple of years looking at how change unfolds in the humanitarian sector.
In this episode Raphael presents his approach and discuss his findings with Lars Peter Nissen.
You can find Raphael’s report here.
Stephen Webster is one of the architects behind first response mechanisms such as the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and the IFRCs Field Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT).
In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he shares his experience from close to 40 years of disaster management and comes to the conclusion that in the end mercy triumphs!
This weeks episode is the recording of a panel discussion on Ukrainian organiations access to international funding. The discussion was held on 14 March 2023 with the title: Small fish in a big pond: Ukrainian organisations’ (lack of) access to international funding. The panel is a co-production by HERE Geneva and Trumanitairan. You can find more information about the panel on HERE Geneva's website: https://here-geneva.org/small-fish-big-pond/
Val Hambye-Verbrugghen from HERE-Geneva moderated the discussion between the three panellists:
Yuliia Chykolba the co-host of the Trumanitarian podcast series on Ukraine. Yuliia was born in Dnipro, Ukraine and first became involved with humanitarian action when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. And has since then worked with humanitarian mine action in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Yulia is a Chevening scholar and an alumna of the Department of War studies from King's College London.
Marco Rotelli, who is the former UN deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, although Marco is speaking in his personal capacity at today's event. Prior to this role in Ukraine, Marco served as representative for Africa of the global NGO network ICVA, and in operations with NGOs and the UN in most of the major humanitarian crises since the early 2000s.
Robert Serry, who is the former first ambassador of the Netherlands to Ukraine, and chairman of the foundation opendoorukraine.nl, who are currently actively involved in humanitarian early reconstruction activities in Ukraine. He has past experience in international crisis management, and sorry, is an international crisis management expert who has served in senior positions both with with NATO and the UN.
The panel explored the following questions:
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What has been your experience of Ukrainian NGOs benefiting from the promptness and generosity of the international funding response? What have been enablers or obstacles to their access to funding? To what extent are the rules and bureaucracy in place at the international level suited to fund informal/volunteer initiatives?
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What needs to be done to ensure a better connection between traditional agencies’ efforts and those of local volunteer groups in this crisis?
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How has the funding volume impacted the relationship between national and local NGOs and international actors? How complementary are they?
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An additional cut of the funding has gone to support States that neighbour Ukraine: what are the perceptions around this by different actors (local and national NGOs on either side of the border, coordination mechanisms, contributors to appeals such as those mentioned above)?
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Is there a moral obligation to stop collecting funds in scenarios such as these, where the amount raised is enormous?
Accountability to crisis affected populations is high on the humanitarian policy agenda. Alex Ross, Avianto Amri and Robert Wambu work with a new accountability project called Talk to Loop. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen they explain how their tech platform improves the way the humanitarian sector works with feed back mechanisms and accountability, the disruptive potential of the project and how to position it vis-à-vis the existing humanitarian architecture.
Can the humanitarian sector be fit for todays challenges without revisiting its purpose? And are the humanitarian principles an obstacle for this important conversation to take place? These are two of the central issues that Paul Skinner and Lars Peter Nissen discuss in this episode.
Paul is the founder of the Agency of the Future, which helps clients drive purpose-led change and better mobilise stakeholders for lasting success. He advises global businesses and pioneering charities and social enterprises as well as institutions of international and global governance. He is also the founder of MarketingKind, a membership community which brings together business leaders, marketers and change-makers to tackle social and environmental problems through their businesses, volunteering and advocacy.
Paul's recent book The Purpose Upgradeis the point of departure of this essential and complex .conversation.
In the fourth episode of the Ukraine series Yuliia and Lars Peter take stock of the discussions so far and agree that the two main themes emerging from the conversations are around purpose - the role that humanitarian action plays in Ukraine - and Power - the relationship between and relative power of the national and international actors. To explore these issues, and to round off the series they speak to Frederic Larsson from the NGO
Resource Center in Ukraine and Ewa Wieliczko the ACAPS team lead in Ukraine.
In episode three Yuliia and Lars Peter explore the relationship between civil society and government in Ukraine and asks the question: How does a vibrant civil society, which in normal time advocate and challenge the government, pivot to adapt its role when war breaks out? The hosts speak to Yuliya Sporych, CEO of the national Ukrainian NGO Divchata and with Oleksandr Riabtsev, Head of Demining in the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories.
The first Russian invasion in 2014 led to a nation-wide grassroots mobilization of Ukrainians to support military effort and provide humanitarian aid. The 2022 invasion propelled these efforts to new heights and mobilized overwelming levels of international support for humanitarian action.
In the second episode on Ukraine Yuliia Chykolba and Lars Peter Nissen explore how the organic, agile and evolving Ukrainian civil society response and how it interacts with the international humanitarian sector. They talk to actors from very different ends of the humanitarian sphere: Anastacia Teplyakova, a Ukrainian teacher who has risked everything to support her fellow Ukrainians since 2014, and to Rasmus Sturh Jakobsen, the CEO of CARE Denmark who shares his thinking on Cares work in Ukraine. The gap between the work of Anastacia and Rasmus i the main theme of the episode.
In this first episode out of four on humanitarian action in Ukraine the hosts Yuliia Chykolba and Lars Peter Nissen explore what the humanitarian principles mean in Ukraine today. They agree that the principles of humanity and impartiality are the foundations of humanitarian action but have different position on neutrality. Yuliia argues that the principle is outdated and does not work in Ukraine. Lars Peter worry that letting go of the neutrality will erode the core of humanitarian action.
They speak to Marc Dubois an independent consultant and Fiona Terry from ICRC about the principles for humanitarian action.
This episode was produced with support from Care Denmark.
Paula Gil Baizan, Meg Sattler and Lars Peter Nissen struggle to make sense out of the humanitarian chaos of 2022 and try to figure out how 2023 might be different.
Dominic Naish has worked for various humanitarian agencies as a contextual analysts. The contexts were different, the organisations were different, but he always had the feeling of being more of an irritant than a help to the people he worked for. In the end he decided to leave the humanitarian sector. He has described his experience in a blogpost “Not a priority” for the Humanitarian Practice Network.
You can find the blogpost here: https://odihpn.org/blog/not-a-priority-the-lack-of-contextual-understanding-in-humanitarian-missions/
You can read more aobut Dominic on his linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-naish-a1524387/
In this episode Lars Peter Nissen - a practitioner - gets stuck into a discussion surrounding the use of data in humanitarian aid with Joël Glasman, an academic. Joel is a historian and author of the book Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Human Needs: Minimal Humanity.
Joel poses a strong and uncomfortable argument in his book, and in the conversation; humanitarian statistics is flawed and data of poor quality, and for some reason we hype our need (and our ability) for evidence-based decision making and the importance of statistical data.
The conversation is essentially about the quality of our data and knowledge and may lead you to question the data revolution in humanitarian aid. Moreso though, it is about biases in our system, about reliance on one type of evidence and about targeting the needs of humanitarian institutions, not affected populations.
It raises some fundamental questions about which intrinsic moral values humanitarian aid project in to into our statistics, tools and technology. And what this means for the decision we make and how we make them. Does our evidence base lead to better and more neutral, impartial, and independent aid, or have we become prisoners of our own thermometer and use our evidence to legitimize our actions more than to improve them.
This weeks episode is a recording of a keynote given by Benjamin Lang and Lars Peter Nissen at CartONGs GeOnG conference in Chambery on 24 October, 2022. The debate is moderated by Sandra Sudhoff, the technical director of CartONG.
You can watch the entire opening ceremony on CartONGs YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QteGAp8gD7Y
Siri Melchior Tellier had a long and varied career in international development cooperation, humanitarian action and teaching. She passed away in October 2022 and this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen was recorded in August 2020 during the Pandemic. It is a conversation about public health, data, standards, trust, learning and failing and having the courage to make yourself part of the mess and make a difference in the world.
Gareth Owen is the humanitarian Director of Save the Children UK. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses the trade-offs between quality and scale, between his humanitarian heart and his humanitarian realist. The fundamental question posed by the conversation is whether you “Can you change the master’s house with the master’s tools?” Gareth is in his own words “an establishment guy” who sits the “at the apex of the problem” but he still believes that is the right thing to do and that it is possible to achieve change from within the system.
Themrise Khan and Mabala Nyaluwge both work in the aid industry Themrise for more than 30 years in South Asia and Mabala for seven years in East Africa. Together with Lars Peter Nissen they explore the state of aid, the change that is needed and whether it is possible to achieve this change from inside the system, or whether it has to be done from the outside
Raj Kumar is the co-founder, President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community to discuss international development and humanitarian action. Together with Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen he explores the current state of play in the development and humanitarian industries. Raj brings a fresh perspective to the conversations engulfing the humanitarian ecosystem: localisation, the nexus, accountability, risk, and financing. Inspired by the disruption and innovation that has occurred in the Development sector over the past decades he asks for more risk taking and bolder leadership, and using technology smartly to drive a shift towards humanitarian action accountable and adapted to the needs and wants of the individual – a shift from wholesale to retail aid! Raj has written about this and many more ideas in his book https://www.amazon.com/Business-Changing-World-Billionaires-Entrepreneurs/dp/0807028401/ref=sr_1_5?crid=39SVM7KDW3ERB&keywords=the+business+of+changing+the+world&qid=1664437985&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjIzIiwicXNhIjoiMi4xMiIsInFzcCI6IjEuODUifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=the+business+of+changing+%2Caps%2C220&sr=8-5 (The Business of Changing the World)
The recent decisions regarding changes to cash coordination are ground breaking and they not not come out of nowhere. In this week episode Paula Gil Baizan explores how change happens together with Isabelle Pelly, Juliet Lang and Sophie Tholstrup. All of the guests played a key role in brining about the change in cash coordination, and together they explore the challenges associated with making change happen in highly change-resistant systems, why change is worth fighting for in spite of the obstacles, and how best to bring about change.
Evaluations are an essential part of human sharing accountability. And working with a good evaluator is a fantastic opportunity for learning and improving. However, often evaluations turned into painful confrontational accountability exercises, that leaves nobody satisfied and changes nothing. This week's guest on communitarian is Michael Patton who together with Lars Peter Nissen discusses what evaluations can do for the humanitarian sector, what they are and what they are not (an audit) and how to build trust with your clients while at the same time satisfying the need for accountability.
Procurement and logistics remain the backbone of humanitarian operations. But this crucial aspect of humanitarian action doesn't always get the attention it deserves. We spend a lot of time in the humanitarian sector speaking about issues like localization, decolonizing, aid, how to engage with the diaspora, how to change the coordination system, protection. All of these are really important and valuable discussions. But 65% of the humanitarian budget, namely on procurement and the implications of how procurement is done. This weeks guest is Claire Barnhoorn who is the founder of Solvoz a new project that is focused on transforming the way we do procurement in the humanitarian sector not only for the big established organisations but also for local NGOs. It's an interesting project with the potential to have a significant impact on the humanitarian sector.
Serious games and simulations can help us train and prepare for difficult and some times dangerous situations. Crisis are different from everyday life. Different rules apply, and you have to think and walk and talk differently. When you're in a teaching or training situation and you sit comfortably in your chair behind your desk. It's very easy to agree on policies and procedures, the way we behave when we're in the middle of a stressful situation is very different. Games can help us bridge the gap between how we think we work, how we actually work, and it can bring us insights on how we get closer to working the way we should be. In this episode Tom Fisher from Imaginetic.com discusses with Lars Peter Nissen what games can do for the humanitarian sector, why they are so powerful and how to use them right.
Humanitarian Action in Ukraine today is a mix between Government-led operations, international humanitarian action and a myriad of grassroots initiative providing essential support to vulnerable populations. But how do these very different types of aid come together? Can "Big Aid" connect with "Little Aid" and can the grassroots initiatives be scaled to become "Little Big Aid?" Lewis Sida has worked in the humanitarian sector for decades. In Ukraine he has gone rogue, become a "nutter" and is supporting a guy called Vlad who has some medical supplies and a couple of trucks. Lewis and Lars Peter Nissen explore together the space between big and small aid and contrast the Ukrainian operation with humanitarian action in Yemen.
Philanthropy is an important source of funding for humanitarian action, but how is it different from the money that comes from governments? Is it a drop in the bucket or a different kind of money? And have we been too silent as a humanitarian community when it comes to challenging and shaping our donors, and what is the cost of our silence? These and many other questions is the topic of this weeks conversation with Patricia (Patty) McIlreavy, the President and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (https://disasterphilanthropy.org/ (https://disasterphilanthropy.org/))
The International Planned Parenthood Federation may be the largest NGO you have never heard about. IPPF brings together more than 150 different organisations in a network promoting better access to sexual reproductive health services both within the development and humanitarian sphere. This weeks guest is Robyn Drysdale, the deputy director of IPPF in charge of humanitarian programs. It is a conversation about the challenges IPPF and its members meet in humanitarian settings, what has been achieved over the past decades and what the challenges are for the future. You can read more about IPPFs work on their website ippf.org
Homeboy Industries is the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. It works with formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated people, enabling them to redirect their lives. This weeks guest on Trumanitarian is Thomas Vozzo, who has written a https://shop.homeboyindustries.org/collections/books/products/the-homeboy-way-hardcover (book) about his experience as the CEO of Homeboys industries In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen and Thomas discuss leadership and management, how to balance profit and purpose, the role of spirituality in the workplace and how joy and focus on the individual should drive your work as a leader.
Mental health and humanitarians is an issue which has been surrounded by stigma. The fear of being seen as weak or not suited for humanitarian work has made many humanitarians reluctant to seek help. Some argue that speaking of our own mental health will detract attention from the people we serve. The issue has been receiving increasing attention in recent years, but it has been and continues to be difficult issue to get on the agenda. Imogen Wall is a humanitarian and an advocate for mental health. She is also the founder of the facebook group “50 shades of aid.” Imogen’s basic message is that you have to be well to serve well and that we need to talk more not less about how humanitarians are impacted by extreme situations and daily stress. You can read more more about humanitarians and mental health https://jhumanitarianaction.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41018-018-0046-3 (this acticle) by Young, Parkenham and Norwood: If you are struggling with mental health in one way or another, please seek help from those around you! Also, Imogen is more than happy to talk to you and help identify where you can get help. You can reach her either through her https://imogenwall.co.uk/ (website) or on https://www.linkedin.com/in/imogenwall/ (linkedin)
Disasters are not natural, far from it! The impact of a crisis is shaped by a wide range of societal factors and disasters replicate and amplify the inequalities that exist in society so that it is the marginalized communities tare hit the hardest. The Covid pandemic has once again taught us that lesson. Yet, we continue to refer to sudden onset crisis as “natural disasters” and that is not just a question of semantics, it is an indication of how we tell the wrong story of crisis and very often therefore also seek the wrong solutions. This weeks guests on Trumanitarian are Ksenia Chmutina and Jason von Meding. They are academics and co-hosts of the podcast “Deconstructing Disasters.” Ksenia and bring an important perspective to us as practitioners, and because I wanted to explore what we can use each other for. You can find the Disasters Deconstructed podcast here: https://disastersdecon.podbean.com
Are Humanitarian Organizations doing an amazing job with scare resources under impossible circumstances, or has international humanitarian assistance turned into a colonial, un-accountable, technocracy – disaster capitalism at its worst? And should we be more careful when criticizing this sector not to undermine morale and give the opponents of aid ammunition? This and many other questions is what Gareth Price-Jones, the Executive Secretary of SCHR and Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, the co-founder and Board President of Haitian Community Foundation discuss with Lars Peter Nissen in this episode.
The travel industry, just like the humanitarian industry, provides everything a person on the move needs. It is also one of the largest industries in the world with a turnover many thousand times that of the humanitarian industry. Gopinath Parayil wants to dual-purpose the assets of the travel industry for humanitarian response during climate-related disasters, thereby contributing towards creating more resilient communities.
This episode was first published in February 2021. It is with Fergus Thomas from the FCDO and deals with two important and very different issues: humanitarian reform and mental health. Together with Lars Peter Nissen, Fergus explores the development of the Humanitarian to Humanitarian (H2H) network and its potential as a change agent in the humanitarian sector. In the second half of the conversation Fergus talks about what it is like to live with bipolar disorder and how that fits with a hectic life as a humanitarian.
AI is transforming the world and will have profound implications for humanitarian action. But how? Will it lend itself to authoritarian regimes controlling their populations and will humanitarian organisations be complicit in this and create additional vulnerabilities for the populations we serve? Will be help us create a better user experience for "consumers" of humanitarian aid and will it help us ensure that we get spare parts for the generator just in time? Listen in as Sarah Spencer from humanitarianai.org and Lars Peter Nissen discuss these and many more questions. The episode was originally released in March 2021 and Sarah has since then written the HPN Network Paper Humanitarian AI: the hype, the hope and the future where she writes about the issues discussed in the episode. You can download the episode here: https://odihpn.org/resources/humanitarian-artificial-intelligence-the-hype-the-hope-and-the-future/
Paula Gil Baizan, Meg Sattler and Lars Peter Nissen review 2021 and look forward towards 2022 in the humanitarian world.
Timely, flexible funding is a bottleneck is most if not all humanitarian operations. Daniel Clarke has a solution to that problem. He is the co-author of the book Dull Disasters, and the director of the Center for Disaster Protection. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses how risk based financing and smarter financial instruments such as parametric insurance can enable us to fundamentally change the way in which crises are managed. You can learn more about the Center for Disaster Protection their http://disasterprotection.org/ (website) and find Dull Disasters by Daniel Clarke and Stefan Dercon https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dull-disasters-9780198785576?cc=fr&lang=en& (here).
Philippe Besson worked with the Swiss Development Cooperation for more than 30 years before he earlier this year retired from the position as head of the multilateral humanitarian division. In this conversation he provides a unique perspective on humanitarian action and how to be a "principled dinosaur" and a civil servant at the same time.
The Global Executive Leadership Initiative (GELI) is a new flagship initiative from the UN to promote leadership throughout the development and humanitarian sector. GELI is led by Assistant Secretary General Panos Moumtzis who in this weeks episode together with Lars Peter Nissen discusses the challenges of leadership, how being a leader at times can be a very lonely, and how GELI seeks to strengthen leadership. You can read more about GELI on their website www.geli.org and their twitter handle is @the_geli.
The weirdest humanitarian twitter conversation has just taken place between WFPs Executive Director David Beasley and the world's richest man Elon Musk. WFP is trying to get some money, Musk is not sure that humanitarian know how to solve problems, and David Beasley has offered to meet up in space. Hunter Thompson used to say "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" so that is exactly what Meg Sattler, Paula Gil Baizan and Lars Peter Nissen did in this episode.
Unsolicited in-kind donations is a major issues in many sudden onset crisis. Whether due to a genuine outpouring of solidarity or to get a tax write-off the volume and nature of stuff that are donated defies any logic. Ice-skates for a flooding in Bangladesh, sextoys donated after a storm in Vanuatu. A container full of old croissants for Kosovo or a 40ft container full of only left boots. The donations are not just ridiculous they are also an environmental problem and Travis Opocensky has found a solution. He has founded RightBoot, a humanitarian startup that applies the principles of circular economy to humanitarian action. RightBoot recycles unwanted donations and other waste to minimise the environmental footprint of humanitarian action. You can read more about RightBoot on their website www.rightboot.org and as you can hear in the episode Travis would love to hear your worst, funniest and weirdest experiences with in-kind donations. You can send your stories to solutions@rightboot.org. The report mentioned in the episode on packaging waste from humanitarian operations can be found here: https://eecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Final-Version_Publication.pdf (https://eecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Final-Version_Publication.pdf)
Field Ready is based on the simple idea that supplies needed in a crisis area should be made as locally as possible. The organisation works with empowering local production capacity across the world, and in this episode Field Ready's co-founder Eric James explains the approach the organisation applies and the impact it has. You can find the books Eric has written on his website www.ericbooks.com and read more about Field Ready on the organisations website www.fieldready.org.
Tina Tinde has worked in international organisations since she was in her mid twenties. Throughout her career she has fought for gender equality, inclusion and safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse and Sexual Harassment her entire career. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen she provides her perspective on how we can address these issues and the progress we have made over the past decades.
Dominic Naish has worked for various humanitarian agencies as a contextual analysts. The contexts were different, the organisations were different, but he always had the feeling of being more of an irritant than a help to the people he worked for. In the end he decided to leave the humanitarian sector. He has described his experience in a blogpost “Not a priority” for the Humanitarian Practice Network. You can find the blogpost here: https://odihpn.org/blog/not-a-priority-the-lack-of-contextual-understanding-in-humanitarian-missions/ You can read more aobut Dominic on his linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-naish-a1524387/
This weeks episode is a thought experiment. What would we do if we had to begin building the humanitarian sector from scratch? One of my ongoing frustrations have been that many of the reform attempt we have had in the sector are defined more by what is already there than by the problems we are trying to solve – so I thought it would be interesting to build from scratch. Arbie Bagois is the founder of Aid Re-imagined and is currently doing his PhD at London School of Economics. Arbie is a fresh and radical thinking and exactly the sort of companion you want to have when blowing up the box and thinking new thoughts. You should check out Aid re-imagined on their website https://medium.com/aidreimagined (https://medium.com/aidreimagined) And you can learn more about Arbie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arbiebaguios/
Hearts on Venezuela is a civil society organisation trying to bring more attention to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. This episode features Daniel Cooper Bermudez, the Director of Hearts of Venezuela talks about the crisis facing his country, how civil society learned to become humanitarian and how to use TikTok. Host: Lars Peter Nissen. You can read more about Hearts on Venezuela on their website: http://www.heartsonvenezuela.com and about their Director here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-cooper-bermúdez/
Meg Sattler sits down with Beth Eagleston and Kate Sutton the co-founders of the Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG), a Melbourne based social enterprise that seeks to use research to challenge the status quo of humanitarian aid. You can read more about HAGs work on their website: https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/ (https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/)
Paul Knox Clarke and Lars Peter Nissen discuss the implications of climate change for humanitarian action and the new initiative PREPARE, that Paul has launched on this issue. You can read more about Paul on his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-knox-clarke-0489905/ You will find information on PREPARE here: http://www.chcinitiative.org The work Paul did for ALNAP on change is available here: https://www.alnap.org/help-library/transforming-change Duncan Greens book on Change is available here: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/how-change-happens-consultation-draft-581366/
Distribution of cash instead of commodities is transforming humanitarian action. Cash distribution has grown quickly in past years and today represents roughly 20% of assistance is given. Cash gives crisis affected populations choices and agency but it also places the sector based humanitarian architecture under stress. There is clearly a need to review the current coordination arrangements for cash assistance, but this has profound implications for the most powerful agencies in the sector. To get things moving 95 organisations have sent a letter to the outgoing and the incoming Emergency Relief Coordinator to move the issue of cash coordination forward. You can find the letter here: https://www.calpnetwork.org/news/95-organisations-sign-letter-calling-for-strengthened-cash-coordination/ On this episode Lars Peter Nissen invites four guests to discuss why cash coordination is so difficult and what to do about it. The guests are: Sophie Tholstrup, Head of Technology for Development Policy Unit at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-tholstrup-93222311) Patrick Saez, Center for Global Development. https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-saez-143b3b9/ Edward (Ed) Fraser, Global Economic Recovery Adviser - Cash & Voucher Assistance Lead at Danish Refugee Council / Dansk Flygtningehjælp. https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-fraser-6055aa1/ Isabelle Pelly, Global Thematic Expert - Cash and Basic Needs at DG European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office - ECHO. https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-pelly-29a82244/ You can find the State of the World Cash report here: https://www.calpnetwork.org/state-of-the-worlds-cash-2020/ Patrick Saez research paper "Inclusive Coordination: Building an Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination Model" is available at this address: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/inclusive-coordination-building-area-based-humanitarian-coordination-model
The ecumenical movement has played a key role in shaping in the fight for a more just world. Christian Balslev-Olesen and Karsten Nissen have been at the forefront of the movement since the late 1960s. But what drove two young theology students to become activists? Where is the ecumenical movement today? What would they do today if they were just starting out? Listen as two (self-declared) boomers give a master class in how to stay committed for the long haul!
The traditional humanitarian architecture is centred around OCHA, the IASC and the clusters. But what is the complementarity between this setup and regional bodies with similar functions such as for example the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA centre). Adelina Kamal is the Executive Director of the AHA Centre. Together with Lars Peter Nissen she explores the ins and outs of humanitarian architecture, and we get the answer to what would be different if Adelina was working in the UN!
The idea of developing a humanitarian version of the tech platforms we have seen disrupt one industry after another is appealing. But is it realistic and possible to create the humanitarian Airbnb and can we deliver principled outcomes through an app? Is it possible to cut out the humanitarian middle man. These are some of the questions Natasha Fridus and Amanda Levinson explore together with Lars Peter Nissen in this episode. Check needslist.co to learn more and enjoy the conversation.
Translators Without Border work with enhancing the humanitarian sectors capacity to operate in the languages spoken by crisis affected populations. In this episode Ellie Kemp (twitter handle @EllKemp) from and Lars Peter Nissen explore the way in which the power of language fundamentally shapes humanitarian action. You can learn more about TWBs work on their website translatorswithoutborders.org.
The search for a new Emergency Relief Coordinator is on! There is a strong expectation that the UK again will get to fill the post, but not if William Chemaly, the Global Protection Cluster Coordinator has a say. He has decided to go for the post in spite of. being a somewhat different candidate. Learn more about him, why he is applying and whether he thinks he has a chance.
For more than a decade Yves Daccord was the face of ICRC. As Director General he held one of the most influencial positions in the humanitarian sector. Then he left and started doing something with pop-ups and the social contract at Harvard. In this conversation we touch on issues from art, security, the social contract and knowing when it is time to leave.
AI is transforming the world and will have profound implications for humanitarian action. But how? Will it lend itself to authoritarian regimes controlling their populations and will humanitarian organisations be complicit in this and create additional vulnerabilities for the populations we serve? Will be help us create a better user experience for "consumers" of humanitarian aid and will it help us ensure that we get spare parts for the generator just in time? Listen in as Sarah Spencer from humanitarianai.org and Lars Peter Nissen discuss these and many more questions.
Fleet Management may seem like a marginal, technical issue for humanitarians, But not only is fleet a key enabler for operations, the way we manage fleet tells us a lot about the issues facing the humanitarian industry. Rob McConnell has worked with most of the major humanitarian players advising them on how to manage their fleet of vehicles. In this conversation Rob and Lars Peter explore the way humanitarians manage fleet and also try to figure out how and why a huge number of new, yet 40 years old trucks, made it from Norway to Southern Africa in 2003-04.
How do we create change within in the humantiarian ecosystem? Paula Gil Baizan works with humanitarian innovation and she has got a few interesting ideas. in this wide-ranging conversation with Meg Sattler.
There is no simple answer to the question of how to achieve sustainable systemic change of the current humanitarian system. In this episode of Trumanitarian Fergus Thomas from FCDO and Lars Peter Nissen explore the potential of the H2H network (www.h2hnetwork.org) as a change agent. They also talk about being bipolar, dyslexic and a humanitarian.
Lana Wolf from Edgeeffect.org joins Lars Peter Nissen to discuss how to create a more inclusive humanitarian sector for LGTBQI+ people affected by crisis.
Jacob Kurtzer, the Interim Director and Senior Fellow, Humanitarian Agenda at the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) on the humanitarian policy of the Biden administration.
The Zimbabwean rapper Sibo made the theme song for Trumanitarian. In this episode we talk about growing up inside and outside Zimbabwe, being privileged in a struggling country, freedom of expression, the role of the aid industrial complex and much more. You can find Sibo on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/58pKTxUMVHOHmpIQQ8hrgH?si=ErvymC84QjOR6MoViXCM3g
Academics know a lot about the things we always get wrong when facing a crisis. However, we seem to be incapable of solving these problems. Why is that and is there nothing we can do? Christian Uhr is an associate professor at Lund University and studies emergency and disaster management.
The START network is one of the most ambitious and interesting attempts at changing the system in recent times. The Network strives to positively disrupt humanitarian action by developing a new humanitarian economy, shifting power to the edges of the system, and by convening a broad coalition of humanitarian actors from across the world This week's guest on Trumanitarian is Sean Lowrie the founder of the network. He tells the story of how the idea was conceived, what it took to get it off the ground and to what extend he feels like START has achieved sustainable change to the system.
Humanitarians say that they will base their interventions on needs. But how do you define needs? And how do standards and methodologies influence the way we think about humanitarian action? These are some of issues Joël Glasman and Lars Peter Nissen unpack in this episode. Joël is a historian and has written the book https://www.google.com/search?q=Humanitarianism+and+the+Quantification+of+Human+Needs:+Minimal+Humanity+Jo%C3%ABl+Glasman&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LVT9c3NEwqTyspNDc0VYJwM1Kq0lPi0820pLKTrfST8vOz9RNLSzLyi6xA7GKF_LycykWsoR6luYl5mSWJRZlAqjhXITEvRaEkI1UhsDQxryQzLTM5sSQzP08hP00BrFLBLzU1pdhKwTczLzM3MUcBqr1SwSv_8OocBfecxGKgwA5WRgBrij81lwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_z7Pb5cXsAhURO8AKHaFLArsQmxMoATAXegQICxAD (Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Human Needs: Minimal Humanity).
Refugees and immigrants are confronted with prejudism and negative publicity. The Worldwide Tribe has set out to count this by telling positive and personal stories about people on the move. The Tribe is a fascinating new type of humanitarian organisation that brings a different and powerful skillset to the table. Jasmin (Jaz) O'Hara is the founder of the tribe and in this episode she tells a powerful story about how she came up with the idea and how it is to be humanitarian influencer. You can find the tribe on www.worldwidetribe.com and follow it on instagram @theworldwidetribe.
The travel industry, just like the humanitarian industry, provides everything a person on the move needs. It is also one of the largest industries in the world with a turnover many thousand times that of the humanitarian industry. Gopinath Parayil wants to dual-purpose the assets of the travel industry for humanitarian response during climate-related disasters, thereby contributing towards creating more resilient communities.
Crowdsourcing can play a powerful role during assessment of crisis. During the 2015 Kathmandu Earthquake www.kathmandulivinglabs.org (KLL) played a pivotal role in collecting data from across the affected area and making it available to decision-makers. In this episode Nama Budhathoki, the founder and Executive Chairman of KLL, discusses the role that information and technology can play in shaping the humanitarian narrative and about the business model underpinning a small innovative organization such as KLL.
This is a conversation about data. How we use and misuse it. How we often make decisions without it. What you do when you don't have data but need to make a decision. It is also a conversation about standards and whether they make us less brave.
Strengthening accountability to affected populations is a priority for the humanitarian sector. Since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit the Grand Bargain has energized the accountability to affected populations (AAP) agenda and led to significant investments in strengthened accountability frameworks. The key question is to what extent this has changed the situation of crisis affected populations. In this episode Nick van Praag, the founder of Ground Truth Solutions gives his take on how much progress has been made and what is next.
Mabala Nyaluwge and Lars Peter Nissen talk about racism and colonialism in aid. Mabala is young, African and female. Lars Peter is middle-aged, Danish and male and Mabala's dad! The conversation pivots around the closeness and distance between their perspectives as colleagues and as family.
The challenges of the humanitarian sector have been identified over and over again but some problems seem to be unsolvable. In this first episode Marc DuBois and Lars Peter Nissen discuss whether there is a need to disrupt the sector and how to "clear the forest" so new solutions can be grown.