The New Humanitarian

The call for reparations, which has long reverberated in former colonies, is now gaining momentum in the aid and philanthropy sectors, too. It’s a call that rejects the idea of aid as charitable giving, and instead reframes it as justice for the ravages of colonialism and imperialism. But like similar conversations in the United States around slavery, the idea of international reparations for colonialism is a political hot potato. This, despite the many precedents for reparations programmes, including German reparations paid to Holocaust survivors. Can international reparations be a way forward towards a more equitable world order, or are they too politically charged to succeed, perhaps even counter-productive? To discuss these thorny questions, Rethinking Humanitarianism host Heba Aly is joined by Uzo Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center; Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at University of Connecticut; and Kizito Byenkya, director of campaigns for the Open Society Foundations.  ————— If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.  SHOW NOTES Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27 Will countries hit by climate change finally get payouts at COP27? Why climate justice requires reparations Reparations as Philanthropy: Radically Rethinking 'Giving' in Africa | Le Monde Imperial Reckoning, The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya The New Reparations Math | UConn Magazine

14 Des 202256min

For many countries in the Global South, tackling today’s interlocking crises – climate change, the pandemic, the rising cost of living supercharged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is made practically impossible by sky-high interest rates on runaway government debt. Enter Barbados.  No world leader is being invoked more at the moment than Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, along with her ambitious plan to change the global financial system to end crippling debt and build climate resilience: the Bridgetown Agenda.  For this episode of our podcast, Rethinking Humanitarianism, host Heba Aly sits down with two people close to the plan: Avinash Persaud, Mottley’s special envoy on finance and investment; and François Jackman, the island nation’s UN ambassador. Launched in September, the Bridgetown Initiative (as it is also known) lays out a step-by-step roadmap that begins by pressing the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions to unlock financing on more palatable terms for crisis-hit countries so they can better prevent and respond to disasters. It also calls for the setting up of a global mechanism to accelerate private sector investment in mitigation and reconstruction. Can this tiny Caribbean country of 300,000 people reform the international architecture around debt and disaster relief? ————— If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.  SHOW NOTES COP27: Diplomatic baby steps amid mounting humanitarian crises Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27 The 2022 Bridgetown Agenda for the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture | Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade| At the UN General Assembly, calls for fairer global governance grow louder The Barbadian Proposal Turning Heads at COP27 | Foreign Policy The Barbados Rebellion: An Island Nation’s Fight for Climate Justice - The New York Times

30 Nov 202256min

For the first time in the COP summits’ nearly 30-year history, a call for climate reparations championed by the world’s most vulnerable nations has made it onto the official agenda.  It’s formally called loss and damage, and it entails payouts from developed countries (who have profited the most from burning fossil fuels) to developing countries (who are suffering the worst from the impacts of climate change).  Will this notion be accepted by rich countries? Or will political realities and developed countries’ reticence water down the original vision of loss and damage? As COP27 unfolds in Egypt, host Heba Aly unpacks the prospects for loss and damage financing, as well as other avenues to improve global governance of climate financing for the most vulnerable – from debt restructuring to climate claims at the International Court of Justice.  Hear from The New Humanitarian’s policy editor, Irwin Loy, and our Latin America editor-at-large, Paula Dupraz-Dobias, reporting from COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. ————— If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.    SHOW NOTES Loss and damage: Views from the ground at COP27 A humanitarian lens on COP27: Loss and damage, debt relief, and climate justice Q&A: Behind the push to bring the climate crisis to court Oh FFS: A guide to climate change acronyms The Barbadian Proposal Turning Heads at COP27 | Foreign Policy Climate disaster aid scheme ‘Global Shield’ launched at COP27 | The Guardian

16 Nov 202254min

All contribute, all decide, all benefit: the three pillars of a bold idea to transform how global public goods are financed. Once laughed off as a pie-in-the-sky idea, Global Public Investment (GPI) has been gaining traction in recent years and is increasingly seen as a plausible paradigm shift for a traditional aid system beholden to the whims of wealthy countries and stuck in a failing donor-recipient binary. Host Heba Aly sits down with two people working to make GPI “technically sound” and “politically attractive”: Solange Baptiste, executive director of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), and Jonathan Glennie, co-founder of the Global Nation think tank and author of “The Future of Aid: Global Public Investment”. ————— If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.  SHOW NOTES How to begin fixing the ‘nonsensical’ humanitarian financing system At the UN General Assembly, calls for fairer global governance grow louder Global Public Investment Network VIDEO | GPI Side Event UNGA 2022 - Transforming International Cooperation to Finance Common Needs

2 Nov 202248min

Soon after her interview with Degan Ali (Executive Director, Adeso) on whether decolonising aid is an oxymoron, our host, Heba Aly, moderated the launch of the Pledge for Change –  a new set of commitments spearheaded by Adeso and other INGOs to reimagine their role in the aid sector by 2030.

1 Nov 20221h 32min

Is decolonising aid a call for reform, or a call to end aid altogether? Are these two approaches mutually exclusive, or can they co-exist? Is decolonised aid even achievable within our current global governance system? Host Heba Aly discusses these tensions with one of the leaders of the movement to decolonise aid, Degan Ali, executive director of Adeso.

19 Okt 202254min

Calls to reform the UN Security Council – and the UN system as a whole – were more forceful at this year’s UN General Assembly, but will anything come of them?

5 Okt 202253min

This season, we’re proving a space to reimagine the global governance system  – one that is rooted in justice for the most marginalised and capable of addressing the challenges of our times.

3 Okt 20223min