“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.

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 latest episode of Power Shift, Hafsar Tameesuddin, a stateless Rohingya refugee and LGBTQ+ rights activist, and Raouf Mazou, one of the UN refugee agency’s highest-ranking officials, navigate the complex dynamics of global refugee protection, the righteous anger of refugees and stateless people, and the challenges of supporting the more than 122 million people around the world forced to leave their homes.

Although their conversations took place before USAID’s dismantlement sent the humanitarian sector into a tailspin, both Mazou’s and Tameesuddin’s proposals for a better refugee response strike right at the heart of the international aid system’s current limitations, calling for more equitable cooperation between global and grassroots organisations, more support for refugee self-reliance, and, consequently, for less reliance on a sector facing major cuts.

“I'm a believer of collective leadership,” Tameesuddin reflected. “In a lot of ways, I feel there is goodwill from UNHCR, from the communities, and all of us. We all want to do good things and want to accomplish something great.

“What is missing from my observation is that human interaction and relationship, and really building relationships with the grassroot.”

___

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or search “The New Humanitarian” in your favourite podcast app.

You can find transcripts of all podcasts on our website.

Are you or anyone you know interested in participating in future Power Shift conversations? Email us with the subject line ‘POWER SHIFT”.