Humanitarian Assistance

Heba Aly sits down with donors to talk about humanitarian reform priorities from their vantage point—and how funding policies can be part of the problem. 

Humanitarians now see climate change as arguably the biggest threat they face. The trouble: They don't quite know what to do about it. The size and scope of the challenge goes well beyond the confines of the emergency aid system.

Coordination is essential to effective humanitarian action. As a recent policy paper argues, an area-based approach would better align humanitarian action around the needs of crisis-affected people – compared to the cluster system. To understand how this approach operates at the local level and...

The police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and several other Black Americans forced many around the world to look introspectively and critically at systemic power imbalances. The aid sector was no exception, with growing calls for it to be decolonised. But movements often falter when i...

As we close out a year in which the UN marked its 75th anniversary, we’re taking a hard look at whether reform of multilateral agencies has a chance. Two guests with extensive backgrounds in diplomacy and international service join co-hosts Heba Aly and Jeremy Konyndyk on this sixth episode of Rethi...

In this episode, we dive into how mistrust, monopolies, and perverse incentives are shaping humanitarian response

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted once again that the humanitarian business model is poorly suited to today’s world. Humanitarian action is most effective when it is demand-driven and locally owned. But the humanitarian sector remains supply-driven: oriented primarily around donor preference and...