Humanitarian Assistance

In this fourth episode of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast series, hosts Heba Aly and Jeremy Konyndyk talk to three disruptors about their visions for alternative humanitarian action.

Coordination is essential to effective humanitarian action. But as a recent policy paper argues, the cluster system struggles with persistent weaknesses. To understand the impacts of this model at the local level, Patrick Saez spoke with May Kayali, executive director of Pekawa in Iraq about her exp...

If aid were a superhero, what would its origin story sound like? Which problems was it initially set up to solve, and how are they different from the problems today? The answers to these questions should help us understand why efforts at reform have fallen short in the past.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the multilateral aid system continues to face a vexing challenge: how best to align international support with locally-driven expertise, capacity, and priorities?

To achieve much-needed humanitarian reform, efforts need to be reoriented away from the priorities of aid agencies and donors – towards the needs of affected populations. To build on progress to date, this project aims to: transform understanding of power structures in the humanitarian system ...

In this first episode, Heba and Jeremy talk with Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam GB, about whether the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement can really change how the aid sector works.

After the publication of “Humanitarian Financing Is Failing the COVID-19 Frontlines,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs asked for the opportunity to publish a response on CGD’s site, presented here.