Talking Humanitarianism

How can we best provide education to children and young people displaced by conflict and natural disasters around the world? In what ways can education be tailored to meet unique needs? How can educational approaches be adapted to foster resilience?  In this episode, Dr. Ritesh Shah (Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland) joins Işınsu Acar for a thought-provoking conversation on the emergence of...

Localisation of humanitarian action calls for better inclusion of local actors and affected populations in all phases of the humanitarian response. In this episode, Arbie Baguios, a researcher and the founder of Aid Re-imagined shares his insights on the challenges and ethics associated with the localisation agenda. This is the second in a two-part series on this topic. Listen to the first part he...

Since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, localisation, in the form of engaging or empowering local responders to deliver humanitarian assistance, has been firmly on the agenda. To gain a better understanding of the challenges and ethics of localisation, this discussion explores the dynamics that unfold between local and international actors of humanitarian response. Can humanitarian action remain...

Please be aware this episode discusses the topics of suicide and sexual abuse. Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos has come to symbolise the failure of modern European refugee policy. After the notorious camp burned to the ground in September 2020, a new and supposedly safer and temporary camp was built to house refugees seeking asylum in Europe. Three years on, how is life in the ‘ne...

Reflections from outgoing Permanent Representative of the IFRC to the African Union, Mr. Itonde Kakoma, in conversation with Dr. Salla Turunen, International Relations specialist. In this episode Dr. Salla Turunen and Itonde Kakoma reflect on how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is situated within the humanitarian landscape, particularly with regards to h...

In this episode, Amali Tower, Executive Director and Founder of Climate Refugees , delivers her keynote address titled ‘Living in a changing climate: Dynamics of forced migration and displacement’ to open the NCHS Humanitarian Futures conference held in Oslo on 7 June 2023. In her address, Amali provides a landscape view of forced displacement today and the role climate change plays in driving mig...

In this episode, humanitarian practitioner and researcher Simon Robins joins Işınsu Acar for a conversation on the shortcomings, boundaries, trends and evolution in the operationalisation of justice within humanitarianism. Based on his broad experience in Africa and Asia relating to humanitarian protection, human rights and transitional justice, Simon provides a detailed account of engagement stra...

Digital technologies like mobiles, biometric devices, wearables, drones, big data and AI carry significant potential for enhancing the capacity of humanitarian agencies and the efficacy of humanitarian assistance. Yet, the reliance on digital systems and data in humanitarian crises also involves substantial risks. What are the risks of digital technologies in humanitarian action and what responsib...

This episode features a conversation between Kristoffer Lidén (Senior Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo) and Jan Egeland (Secretary-General, Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC) on the topic of humanitarian negotiations. Egeland has longstanding experience with humanitarian negotiations - both as Secretary-General of the NRC and from work on humanitarian issues at the UN and other humanitarian...

What was the role of moral duties in Western responses to Covid-19? How were vaccines distributed globally by states and pharmaceutical companies? And which lessons can be drawn for the ethics of humanitarian action? These are questions that were discussed in this conversation between Simon Reid-Henry and Jonathan Wolff, with comments by Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée and Kristoffer Lidén. The convers...

This episode features a discussion on engaging with the Taliban then and now, and in particular what has the international aid community learned from past experiences and what are the consequences for the Afghan population. Based on his experience in Afghanistan since 1988 first as a United Nations (UN) aid worker and later as a researcher, ⁠Antoio Donini⁠ discusses the similarities and difference...

In this episode, independent humanitarian consultant and Senior Fellow at SOAS (University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies) Marc DuBois is invited to share his reflections on the culture, architecture and politics of humanitarian action. Bringing his expertise in policy, advocacy and humanitarian affairs as a former Director of Médecins sans Frontières-UK (MSF or Doctors Without...

As United Nations agencies and international humanitarian NGOs negotiate with the Taliban over the ban on women aid workers, this virtual roundtable explores where to draw red lines for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Ought humanitarian operations be halted in response to the Taliban decree of 24 December 2022? Which new guidelines on this issue from the Afghan authorities would be acceptable? In...

This episode features a roundtable discussion on the principle and practice of humanitarian neutrality during the Syrian civil war since 2011. Humanitarian operations during the Syrian civil war were subject to much controversy and criticism. This criticism is reflected upon and carefully discussed by Carsten Wieland in his book Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitaria...

In this fourth and final episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series , Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, facilitates a discussion between: · Halvard Buhaug, a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo and a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, · Rahma Hassan, a PhD candidate at the...

In this third episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series , Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences meets with Jackson Wachira, a PhD candidate at the University of Nairobi. They examine the historic realities and enduring narratives on the arid and semi-arid lands in Kenya, the changing conflicts and livelihoods dynamics in Sambu...

In this second episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series , Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, explores recurring difficulties in operationalising inclusive long-term climate change programmes and humanitarian responses in Turkana, Kenya with Dennis Ochieng Ong’ech. Ochieng Ong’ech is the Turkana observatory coordinator for...

In this first episode of the Climate Resilient Development and Humanitarianism mini-series , Edwige Marty, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, explores the concept of climate resilient development together with Siri Eriksen, a Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and a lead author in the IPCC Sixth Assessment report, Working Group II.  Eriksen expla...

What does it mean to move beyond the humanitarian grain? In this episode, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the University College London, delivers the NCHS Annual Lecture titled ‘Against the humanitarian grain’ at the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies Annual Conference, held in Bergen on 4 November 2022. In her lecture, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh proposes moving...

Now the world has moved out of a liberal international order, where does that leave humanitarianism? In this episode, Michael Barnett, University Professor at George Washington University, delivers the keynote address titled ‘Humanitarianism in a post-liberal age’ to open the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies Annual Conference, held in Bergen on 4 November 2022. In his address, Barnett arg...

What role do communities play in accessing energy in humanitarian settings? In this fourth episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Long Seng To, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Development and Joint-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy, Environment & Resilience (S...

What is humanitarian energy and how does it operate in the contexts of displacement? In this third episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, explore the current state of access to electricity in huma...

How does energy politics work in conflict-affected states? In this second episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Kristin Doughty, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Rochester in the United States, discuss the competing perceptions of environmental risk in conflict-affe...

How do we comprehend and act upon environmental destruction beyond reason? In this first episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-carbon Future miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and David Bond, Associate Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College in the United States, discuss the limitations of the co...

Should existing models of community resilience be challenged? In this fourth and final episode of the Intersecting Vulnerabilities in Humanitarian Disasters miniseries, Roberto Barrios, Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans shares his experiences conducting research in hurricane affected areas of Honduras with Ekatherina Zhukova, Researcher at Lund University, and explains how...