The New Humanitarian

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

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 ____ 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!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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