In this episode of Trumanitarian, host Lars Peter Nissen speaks with Sophie Tolstrup, Head of Policy and Climate at Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), about their 2025 report, Whose Priorities Count?. The conversation explores the disconnect between the formal humanitarian system and the communities it serves, the rise of mutual aid, and the urgent need to reimagine aid in a "messier" world.

• Doing "Less of the Same":As funding is slashed and conflicts intensify, the humanitarian system is often doing "less of the same" rather than adapting. This has increased the gap between what the system provides and what communities actually value, such as long-term self-reliance.
• The Danger of Prioritization Without Listening:Decisions made in "faraway rooms" often lead to egregious misalignments. In one instance in the Central African Republic, a community chased away an NGO that built unwanted latrines instead of refurbishing requested school rooms.
• A Shift Toward Mutual Aid:As formal aid contracts, community-led initiatives—such as neighbor-to-neighbor sharing, faith networks, and diaspora support—are stepping up. These networks are often seen as more relevant and emotionally resonant than international aid.
• Redefining Risk:There is a growing movement toward hyper-local funding. To move past the current "stalemate" on risk, GTS advocates for evidencing how local funding can be significantly more effective and sustainable than traditional top-down models.
• Breaking the Humanitarian "Bubble":In a world facing linked crises like climate change and out-of-control conflict, humanitarians can no longer afford to stay "in their lane". They must engage with the political realities and rights-based concerns that communities prioritize.

• Sudan:Despite negative perceptions of formal aid fairness (75% negative), the country features a powerful network of Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) that use hyper-local cash transfers to adapt quickly to community needs.
• Chad:A positive outlier where communities feel respected and able to provide feedback, though they remain concerned that aid is not sufficiently supporting their long-term self-reliance.
• Somalia:Communities are using sophisticated internal safety nets to navigate the drought, though acute, long-term crises are putting even these local strategies under immense strain.
• Northeast Nigeria:Examples of community-led security patrols that allow farmers to work their fields safely.

Sophie Tolstrup is the Head of Policy and Climate at Ground Truth Solutions. With a background in climate and 15 years of experience in the sector, she leads efforts to ensure the views of crisis-affected people shape the decisions of the humanitarian system.

• Ground Truth Solutions Report (2025):Whose Priorities Count?
• Organization:Ground Truth Solution

When the main oncology hospital in Kharkiv was bombed, patients started dying — not from the bombs, but from losing access to their chemotherapy. Ross Skobronski, a Spanish-Ukrainian mathematician who had come to Kharkiv to visit family just one month before the full-scale invasion, watched and waited for someone to respond. No one did. So he did it himself.

Today, Mission Kharkiv serves more than 3,200 oncology patients with full treatment courses across Ukraine, operating a cold chain logistics system out of a bunker four metres underground. Ross and his team of 62 deliver chemotherapy to hospital doors on the day of each patient's session — a level of precision and responsiveness that puts much larger organisations to shame.

In this conversation, Ross talks about how he built Mission Kharkiv from scratch, why his mathematical training shaped his problem-solving more than any humanitarian manual could, and what he sees as the fundamental disconnect in how the sector talks about localization. As the chair of the NGO platform's steering committee in Ukraine, he brings a sharp outsider's perspective on the dynamics between international and national NGOs — and why he doesn't believe power will ever be shared voluntarily.

In this episode:

1. How a $40 million pharmaceutical donation launched Mission Kharkiv
2. Building cold chain logistics in a city under siege
3. Why "naivety" might be the most undervalued quality in humanitarian action
4. The gap between localization rhetoric and reality on the ground
5. Why Ross believes power must be taken, not shared
6. A proposal for a localization accountability framework with measurable indicators
7. What it would take to replicate Mission Kharkiv in other countries

Guest: Ross Skobronski, Founder and Director of Mission Kharkiv and Chair of the Steering Committee of the NGO Platform in Ukraine.

This episode is a recording from the Start Network’s Assembly, which took place in October 2025. Lars Peter Nissen was invited to moderate a panel exploring what leadership looks like when success is contingent on the agency of others — when you cannot exercise direct control but must inspire, build rapport, and create the conditions for a group of individuals to deliver results.

Rather than drawing on leaders from within the humanitarian sector, the panel brings together professionals from two very different fields — football management and musical theatre — to explore what their craft can teach humanitarians about leading through networks, trust, and collective action.

Note: This episode was recorded live at the Start Network Assembly. The sound quality reflects the live setting.

Guests

Natalie Brown: Board Director at Banbury United Football Club and the first Black female board member in UK football. Natalie has a background in media, marketing, and community development, and has worked with Arsenal, The Prince’s Trust, and Mind. She founded the #PlayBrave initiative to help women build confidence on and off the pitch.

Huw Evans: Associate Musical Director on Oliver at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End. Huw is an accomplished conductor and multi-instrumentalist who has worked on shows including Much Ado About Nothing, Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma, and Come From Away. He trained at King’s College London.

Moderated by Lars Peter Nissen, Director of ACAPS and host of Trumanitarian. Introduced by Lucy Puentes of the Start Network.

Key Themes

Building from the ground up: Natalie shares how she rebuilt Banbury United’s women’s team after inheriting a fractured setup where the manager had left just before the season. After a disheartening first attempt, she “flipped the script” — launching open training sessions for women over 40, which rapidly grew into a multigenerational squad with players aged 16 to 66. Her approach centred on changing the narrative, leading with spirit, and building a movement rather than just a team.

The duet between leading and following: Huw describes conducting as a constant negotiation between setting the tempo and following the performer. With 12 musicians split across three separate spaces, a 30-person cast, and four child actors rotating in the lead role, he conducts via camera monitors — relying on connection, adaptability, and trust rather than direct control. Leadership in live performance, he says, is about creating the conditions for harmony rather than forcing it.

Trust, small gestures, and knowing people’s names

Both panellists emphasise that trust is built through small, consistent actions. Huw takes pride in greeting every deputy musician before the show. Natalie describes how players joined her team simply because they liked who she was and what she stood for. Both draw a direct parallel to humanitarian coordination — where leading a cluster meeting of 50 strangers via camera is not so different from conducting an orchestra through a monitor.

Releasing control: A recurring theme throughout the conversation is the difficulty — and necessity — of letting go. Huw describes the terrifying moment of relinquishing control in a live performance with 2,000 people watching. Natalie reflects on having built the women’s team so personally that she now needs to step back and let others carry the vision. Both see this as essential to sustainable leadership in networked settings.

The power of diversity and emergence: Lars Peter draws the conversation toward metaphor, arguing that biology — not physics — offers the better model for thinking about networks. The emergent quality of a network, like a heart pumping blood from cells and valves, produces outcomes that are qualitatively different from the sum of the parts. Just as a football team needs more than 11 goalkeepers, or an orchestra more than 12 horn players, humanitarian networks need genuine diversity of skills and perspectives.

Resilience and learning from mistakes: Huw shares a candid story of pressing the wrong button during a click track, causing pre-recorded and live children to sing out of sync. His advice: pick yourself up, stay calm, and keep going with integrity. Natalie talks about the power of small daily steps — just 15 minutes of focused effort each day — as a way to sustain momentum when things feel overwhelming.

Credits

Host: Lars Peter Nissen

Recorded at: Start Network Assembly, October 2025

Session title: Choreographing Chaos: Leadership in a World of Networks

Panel introduced by: Lucy Puentes, Start Network

Get in touch: info@truemanitarian.org

Support the podcast: Visit truemanitarian.org and click “Support the Pod”