The New Humanitarian

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

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector's inequalities. ___ What happens when a stateless activist sits down with one of the UN refugee agency's highest-ranking officials? What if they had the chance to tell him what it's like to lose everything, to have...

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

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector's inequalities. ___ In the second episode of Power Shift, we continue our candid conversation between Grand Bargain ambassador Michael Köhler, formerly a senior leader of the EU's humanitarian aid arm, and Nadine S...

Power Shift is an experiment in dialogue that puts decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions in honest, one-on-one conversations about the aid sector's inequalities. ___ Michael Köhler and Nadine Saba are just two of the many people tasked with advancing the goals of the Grand Bargain – one of the most ambitious attempts at delivering humanitarian aid more effec...

The Trump administration's aid freeze is a pivotal moment for the humanitarian sector. Veteran aid worker and TNH CEO Tammam Aloudat doesn't believe that simply restoring funding will fix a broken system. While imagining what remaking humanitarianism might look like, he makes a plea: "Let's start shifting the conversation." The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seeker...

The US aid freeze has exposed not only the fragility of humanitarian funding but also longstanding dependencies, vulnerabilities, and power dynamics that demand a broader reckoning. This event will explore the urgent need for structural change, seeking clarity and ideas amid the chaos. In what we hope will be one conversation of many, we reimagine the future of humanitarian aid in an era of mounti...

The fallout from the US aid funding freeze continues. In Haiti, one of USAID's largest recipients, could this actually be a moment for optimism?  "My instinctive reaction was, maybe now we can take better care of ourselves," Haitian anthropologist and aid reform advocate, Isabelle Clérié tells What's Unsaid host, Obi Anyadike.  What's Unsaid is a podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore o...

People affected by crises, and the people who respond to them, have been calling for change and equity for years, but for every reform pledge in Geneva or New York, there's little movement in Yangon or Juba.   Changing an entire sector is a tall order. But how can an entire system change? In reality, it has to begin with conversations between people.  For months, The New Humanitarian and the Cente...

The term 'decolonising aid' is everywhere. And yet, many decisions about aid are made behind closed doors in the West, and those most affected by aid policies have little power in shaping them. But what if people who are rarely in the same room together sit down and talk? No talking points. No self-censorship. Just open, honest, and moderated one-on-one conversations. Introducing Power Shift: A ne...

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

Can power truly shift in a sector whose origins are rooted in colonialism? If not, what lies beyond the international aid system as we know it? On the sidelines of UNGA 2024, The New Humanitarian, the Center for Transformational Change, and Refugees International convened a panel to examine the systemic limitations of the current global aid architecture, whether it can evolve for the better, and w...

The New Humanitarian's new CEO, Tammam Aloudat, sits down with our Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod for a special episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism. In a wide-ranging and intimate conversation, Slemrod digs into Tammam's childhood in Damascus, his decades-long career as a humanitarian worker, and his expansive views on decolonising aid. If you want to know more about his vision for The New Hum...

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

Ever wondered what daily life in Afghanistan, Syria, and Venezuela have in common? In this episode, What's Unsaid host Ali Latifi, who lives in Kabul, speaks to Reporting Fellows Zeina Shahla in Damascus and Iván Reyes in Caracas to discuss dealing with conflict, threats of violence, and economic instability, while also buying groceries, having coffee with friends, and listening to music. It can m...

"We constantly urge each other to remain tender toward one another".  Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Nour ElAssy, a poet and writer, reflects on a year since Israel began a total war against the entirety of the Gaza Strip and its population. From Deir al-Balah, where she now lives with 27 other family members after fleeing her home on...

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

"We came mainly seeking safety, seeking to live a decent life. But then we found another war" Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. This episode tells a story of the 15,000 Sudanese people living in Egypt's Masaken Osman area. When the war broke out in April 2023, these tower blocks on the dusty outskirts of Cairo became home to a group of refugees. Meet the...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Zeina Shahla, a reporting fellow with The New Humanitarian based in Damascus expresses what it is like to live in the shadow of war. With everyone in Syria living on edge since the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated last month in Tehran, Shahla worries if a regional war is going...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Ali Latifi, The New Humanitarian's Asia Editor and co-host of the What's Unsaid podcast, marks the anniversary of the creation of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate in his home country, Afghanistan.  Three years on, the country is still in the throes of a humanitarian crisis, with 23.7 million people in need...

Our First Person narratives dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Mahmoud Shalabi describes the difficult reality of life in his home, Beit Lahia. When the Israeli military issued orders last October for 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate their homes in the north of Gaza, Shalabi refused to leave. "I believed that remaining in my home would be a form of resistance,"...

Our First Person narratives aim to dig into the humanity of humanitarian challenges. In this episode, Yusuf Sa'adu, a shopkeeper in Warawa in Nigeria's Kano state, points out that "whoever has abundant water has wealth". He shares how water scarcity made him lose out on education and still impacts personal relationships. "If you are experiencing water stress, you will not be able to do a lot of th...

*This episode was originally published on November 9, 2023. Palestinian peace activist Nivine Sandouka discusses the difficult way forward for building trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Hosted by Irwin Loy. What's Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world's conflicts and disasters.   

Iyad Agha, a Syrian now living in Germany, has been working on his country's humanitarian crisis for nearly a decade. The United Nations itself recently said that "Syria is in danger of being forgotten", while noting that the country is facing the highest levels of humanitarian need since the start of its 13-year war. Some 7.2 million people have been forcibly displaced inside the country, and ano...

*This episode was originally published on September 27, 2023.  Aid worker and psychologist Imogen Wall tells host Ali Latifi that the way humanitarian organisations are run, can do as much damage to aid workers' mental health as being confronted with war, hunger, and rights abuses.  What's Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths...