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 explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

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 Center for Transformational Change sent out invites to people across the power spectrum in the aid world: heads of international humanitarian agencies, environmental, and refugee right activists, you name it. The goal? To set up one-on-one dialogues between people with the power to make decisions and mobilise resources and people who are affected by such decisions.

“People need to be listened to, and when they come in with their own stories, that is a form of power,” argues Lina Srivastava, Power Shift’s moderator and founder of The Center for Transformational Change.

In this first episode of Power Shift, host Melissa Fundira, Adeso executive director Degan Ali, and Srivastava set the stage for conversations to come by highlighting how power inequalities prevent us from addressing humanitarian crises adequately and fairly, and by discussing whether dialogue can ever truly shift power.

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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”.

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 and the Center for Transformational Change that presents moderated conversations between decision-makers in aid and philanthropy and those affected by their decisions.

Can they use honest and sustained dialogue to create shared visions for fairer humanitarian responses? Find out on Power Shift.

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Participants & Interviewees
Nadine Saba: Grand Bargain Sherpa; Co-founder and Director of Akkar Network for Development
Michael Köhler: Grand Bargain Ambassador
Hafsar Tameesuddin: Co-Secretary General of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN); Rohingya activist and refugee
Raouf Mazou: Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at UNHCR
Degan Ali: Executive Director of Adeso
Lina Srivastava: Founder of the Center for Transformational Change

Production Team
Host: Melissa Fundira
Moderator: Lina Srivastava
Producers: Lina Srivastava, Frederica Boswell, Melissa Fundira
Editor: Irwin Loy
Theme song: “Chill 2.0” by Barno
Sound engineer: Tevin Sudi
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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”.

Since the early days of the American west, World War Two, the Cold War, or the war on terror, conflict has been presented in the movies as having two sides: good guys and bad guys. Host Ali Latifi and Idrees Ahmad, a journalism, film, and culture professor, dig into why we brand groups and people in such binary terms – and ask what role Hollywood and the media play in ignoring the complexity of conflict and crisis.

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.

Can power truly shift in a sector whose origins are rooted in colonialism? If not, what lies beyond the international aid system as we know it?

On the sidelines of UNGA 2024, The New Humanitarian, the Center for Transformational Change, and Refugees International convened a panel to examine the systemic limitations of the current global aid architecture, whether it can evolve for the better, and what comes next.

SPEAKERS

• Lina Srivastava, founder of the Center for Transformational Change (moderator)
• Hanin Ahmed, Emergency Response Room volunteer and Sudanese activist
• Alex Gray, Director, International Funds at The Center for Disaster Philanthropy
• Aarathi Krishnan, Founder of Raksha Intelligence Futures and former Head of Strategic Foresight at UNDP Asia-Pacific
• Nadine Saba, Co-founder and director of Akkar Network for Development-AND; Grand Bargain Sherpa

* This panel was part of a doubleheader event on Navigating the Limits and Evolving Role of Humanitarian Aid held on 27 September, 2024.

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Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

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SHOW NOTES

• From Gaza to Sudan: The limits and future of humanitarian aid

The New Humanitarian’s new CEO, Tammam Aloudat, sits down with our Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod for a special episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism.

In a wide-ranging and intimate conversation, Slemrod digs into Tammam's childhood in Damascus, his decades-long career as a humanitarian worker, and his expansive views on decolonising aid. If you want to know more about his vision for The New Humanitarian, listen in.

Guest: Tammam Aloudat, CEO of The New Humanitarian

Eighteen months of war have forced more than 10 million Sudanese from their homes, created the world’s largest hunger crisis, and triggered terrible war crimes. It’s a conflict in which regional and global powers are dabbling, arming both sides, intent on pursuing their own geopolitical interests. We ask Solomon Dersso, founding director of Amani Africa, what it will take for the fighting to end?

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.

Ever wondered what daily life in Afghanistan, Syria, and Venezuela have in common? In this episode, What’s Unsaid host Ali Latifi, who lives in Kabul, speaks to Reporting Fellows Zeina Shahla in Damascus and Iván Reyes in Caracas to discuss dealing with conflict, threats of violence, and economic instability, while also buying groceries, having coffee with friends, and listening to music. It can make for a strange duality: life is normal - but also not.

What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable conversations around the world’s conflicts and disasters.