Change is so incremental that it’s not happening | Power Shift
Release Date: 04/10/2025
Why emergency education saves lives | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
When aid funding is tight, education is often cut first. But schools offer more than just learning, and communities say education is their priority. “We have to believe that survival means more than just breathing,” says emergency education expert Faiza Hassan. On this episode: Why disrupted schooling is the norm as climate change worsens, and the argument for prioritising education in an era of aid cuts. Guests: Faiza Hassan, director of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social...
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What’s behind the COP climate circus | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
The UN climate summit, COP30, is getting under way in Brazil, with global temperatures rising – and global cooperation under deep strain. Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, the UN Secretary-General warns that the world has missed its targets to limit global temperature rise. The stakes are high. But do COP discussions match the urgency? The New Humanitarian journalists unpack what happens behind the scenes at COP, and what humanitarians and everyday citizens can do while negotiators wrestle over targets and funding. Guests: Will Worley, staff reporter and editor for policy at The...
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How to make people care? Emergency aid’s marketing problem | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
Global polls show citizens in many countries want their governments to fund humanitarian aid. But the US and other nations have gutted aid departments or shrunk budgets – with little public pushback. Has the aid sector gotten too wonky to connect with the public? On the podcast: Emergency aid’s marketing problem, and ideas to win the battle for attention. Guests: Sana Bég, executive director, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada Dr. Polly Pallister-Wilkins, political geographer and associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the...
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The global backlash on gender rights | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
The backlash against women’s and LGBTIQI+ rights is growing – part of an organised movement that goes beyond one country or one president. But as Saskia Brechenmacher says on the latest episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism, concerned people – including civil society and non-governmental organisations – can take steps to counter the threats. Guests: Saskia Brechenmacher, senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ____ Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or post on social media...
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The aid sector’s LGBTQI+ blindspot | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
Global funding cuts are worsening emergency aid’s weaknesses when it comes to the LGBTQI+ community. The Trump administration is explicitly targeting trans people. And gender-related programming is among the first to be cut as humanitarian groups scale back. But there are steps humanitarians can take today – even amid widespread budget cuts – to better respond to the needs of LGBTQI+ people in emergencies. Guests: Emily Dwyer, co-founder of the humanitarian and development organisation, Edge Effect. Jasmin Lilian Diab, director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the...
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UNGA Event | Dispatches from the future
The New Humanitarian
Remaking humanitarianism: Dispatches from the future How can we reimagine the international humanitarian system so that it builds on – rather than undermines – the response communities are already creating? What would it take to align funding and infrastructure? And what is standing in the way? The New Humanitarian and Refugees International have taken these questions around the globe, producing a series of dispatches from the future that highlight the strategies, values, and visions guiding community-driven responses to crisis – and show what’s possible. We brought these dispatches to...
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Bonus: Rethinking UNGA | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
The 80th UN General Assembly should be consequential given all that’s happening: the genocide in Gaza, spiralling emergencies, aid cuts, the crisis of trust in the UN system. But does the rhetoric in New York match the urgency we see across the globe? From UNGA’s high-level week in New York, producer Levi Sharpe and host Tammam Aloudat unpack events, contrast the Gaza flotilla with the suits at UN headquarters, and discuss what it all says about where humanitarian action is heading. Guest: Tammam Aloudat, CEO of The New Humanitarian, and host of the Rethinking Humanitarianism...
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The UN’s 20th-century diplomacy for 21st-century problems | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
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...
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Event | What should humanitarian actors do to stop the genocide in Gaza?
The New Humanitarian
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...
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The UN and the crisis of liberalism | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The New Humanitarian
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...
info_outlinePower Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector’s inequalities.
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In the second episode of Power Shift, we continue our candid conversation between Grand Bargain ambassador Michael Köhler, formerly a senior leader of the EU’s humanitarian aid arm, and Nadine Saba, founder of a Lebanese grassroots NGO. As the global humanitarian system faces unprecedented challenges – from donor cuts to accusations of colonial structures – they explore whether the system can truly be reformed, and if reform is enough.
Saba speaks passionately from the front lines, sharing how communities are losing faith in a system that often delivers only "Band-Aid" solutions while failing to address – and often instigating – root causes. Köhler acknowledges the system's shortcomings while defending its foundational merits.
“Would anything be better without the Grand Bargain? I think no. Would it be worse without the Grand Bargain? I believe, yes,” Köhler says of the major humanitarian reform process, “because we wouldn't have this kind of platform that reminds us [of] the need to get better, to reform, to open up, to share power.”
Saba, who represents Global South NGOs, expressed doubt that there was sufficient will for the Grand Bargain to live up to its potential.
"When things get difficult, people go back to old habits,” she argued Saba. “I do see that change is incremental. But I fear that it's getting so much incremental that it's not happening.”
Their conversation reveals a fundamental tension between Köhler’s technical approach to humanitarian response, and Saba’s close-range exposure to the politics of crises.
As this experiment in dialogue came to a close, Israel’s campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon loomed, lending greater urgency to Saba and Köhler’s attempts to come to a common understanding of what it would take to shift power in humanitarian response.
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