The New Humanitarian

Global funding cuts are worsening emergency aid’s weaknesses when it comes to the LGBTQI+ community. The Trump administration is explicitly targeting trans people. And gender-related programming is among the first to be cut as humanitarian groups scale back. But there are steps humanitarians can take today – even amid widespread budget cuts – to better respond to the needs of LGBTQI+ people in emergencies.

Guests: 

Emily Dwyer, c...

Remaking humanitarianism: Dispatches from the future

How can we reimagine the international humanitarian system so that it builds on – rather than undermines – the response communities are already creating? What would it take to align funding and infrastructure? And what is standing in the way?

The New Humanitarian and Refugees International have taken these questions around the globe, producing a series of dispatches from the futu...

The 80th UN General Assembly should be consequential given all that’s happening: the genocide in Gaza, spiralling emergencies, aid cuts, the crisis of trust in the UN system. But does the rhetoric in New York match the urgency we see across the globe?

From UNGA’s high-level week in New York, producer Levi Sharpe and host Tammam Aloudat unpack events, contrast the Gaza flotilla with the suits at UN headquarters, and discuss what it...

As world leaders gather for the 80th UN General Assembly, we’re digging into the past to illuminate the present. What UN reforms are needed? Historian Thant Myint-U talks about how the UN became sidetracked from genuine multilateralism, where it should focus, and why the selection of the next secretary-general in 2026 is crucial.

Guest:

Thant Myint-U, historian and author of “Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just W...

As the genocide in Gaza continues, humanitarian organisations face mounting pressure and unprecedented constraints. Famine has been declared, access remains heavily restricted, and international mechanisms have failed to prevent mass civilian suffering. Frustration is growing across the sector – with some questioning whether traditional humanitarian approaches are fit for purpose in the face of atrocity crimes.

This event brought t...

When is the UN a force for good, and when is it a fig leaf? CEO Tammam Aloudat speaks with Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal – hosts of the podcast To Save Us From Hell – about the global rise in illiberalism. They discuss the crisis of how liberalism is practiced, what it means for the future of humanitarianism, and what a better way forward might look like.

Guests: 

Mark Leon Goldberg, editor-in-chief of UN Dispatch, host of Gl...

“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 ...

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 p...

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.
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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...

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 dialogue.

What’...

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.
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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 to depend on aid, and what it woul...

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 New Huma...

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.
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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 Saba, founder of a Lebanese grassroo...

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.

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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 effectively and efficiently. 

As such, t...

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 seekers, and people affected by conflict ...

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 mounting challenges and transformative op...

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 explo...

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 C...

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 new podcast from The New Humanitarian...