The New Humanitarian

Medical missions are a lifeline to stressed health systems, usually in developing and post colonial states, but they can also be caught up in, and manipulated by, the politics of the powerful. Host Ali Latifi asks Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal, a medical NGO, whether dismissal over medical neutrality is getting worse. 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.

22 Feb 202420min

They say two things in life are certain: death and taxes. But taxes – and how they’re collected – are anything but certain, and certainly not fair. Every year, nearly $500 billion in tax is lost to corporate and individual tax abuse, enough to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 three times over, or provide basic sanitation to 34 million people. Another $5 trillion is projected to be lost in the next 10 years as multinational corporations and the ultra-wealthy use tax havens to underpay taxes. But the international tax justice movement is picking up steam, buoyed by a recent vote at the UN General Assembly to start negotiations on an international tax treaty. The move, spearheaded by The Africa Group and largely opposed by the OECD, which groups some of the world’s wealthiest countries, has been described as “the biggest shake-up in history to the global tax system”. What are the implications for humanitarians? And what could it mean for aid-dependent countries to recoup trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue? Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira also share listener reflections from the podcast’s last episode on Westerners stepping aside from top positions in favour of historically marginalised leaders. They also share a long-awaited statement from the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), the NGO network whose executive director spoke openly about wanting to be replaced by a non-male, non-Western candidate, only to be succeeded by another white man. Guests: Hassan Damluji, co-founder of Global Nation; Alvin Mosioma, associate director of climate, finance, and equity at Open Society Foundations ____ Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____ SHOW NOTES UN Moves Toward a Global Treaty on Tax Developing countries and Europe in dispute over global tax role for UN What does the OECD global minimum tax mean for global cooperation? OECD tax reforms risk violating human rights law, UN experts warn in special intervention Lost government revenues due to tax abuse – the impact on the determinants of health and mortality rates Global Solidarity Report 2023

15 Feb 202458min

When danger comes, foreign aid workers are often flown out, leaving behind local staff to risk their lives. Othman Moqbel is the CEO for Action for Humanity, an international aid agency trying to provide protection equally to all staff.  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.

8 Feb 202419min

Crises are mounting, and their impacts are overlapping and rippling across the globe. Emergency response has grown more complicated, and more costly. What’s the way forward? Each year, The New Humanitarian publishes our list of trends driving humanitarian needs and shaping crisis response. From military sieges and water scarcity to ‘deterrence’ migration policies and governments’ refusal to deal with ‘pariah’ states, we unpack some of the key factors that will see an estimated 300 million people need emergency aid this year. On 31 January, we brought together a range of voices from across the humanitarian sector to discuss what’s driving crises, and the next steps in addressing them. This is a recording of that discussion.

1 Feb 20241h 31min

Migration policies are making borders tougher to cross and pushing people to risk their lives along ever more dangerous routes. Is there a way to stem the rising number of migrant deaths? Eric Reidy, The New Humanitarian’s migration editor, and host Ali Latifi discuss why we’re likely to continue to see a high number of deaths in 2024 and explore better policies to keep people safe.  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.

25 Jan 202421min

For as long as the international humanitarian sector has existed, its top jobs have been overwhelmingly occupied by white Western men. And yet, most of the people affected by their decisions come from the global majority. One, rarely exercised, tactic to address this power differential is for Western leaders to step aside or be willing to turn down coveted top positions in favour of historically marginalised leaders – especially those whose lived experience gives them a better understanding of the very issues international organisations aim to address. Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira are joined by two guests who voluntarily relinquished their roles in efforts to make way for more representative leadership. They reflect on the defining moments that led to their decisions, how they prepared their exits, the triumphs and disappointments that followed, and how the sector as a whole can operationalise “stepping aside” as a tactic to shift power.  Guests: Ignacio Packer, Executive Director of the Initiatives of Change Switzerland Foundation and former  Executive Director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA); Diana Essex-Lettieri, consultant and former Senior Vice President of Asylum Access. ____ Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____ SHOW NOTES Ignacio Packer on changing aid leadership: Privilege, power, and leaving ICVA Ten efforts to decolonise aid From refugee inclusion to shifting power UN aid chief seeks more focused and inclusive humanitarian efforts The next UN humanitarian chief should be picked on merit Offboarding: The Diplomatic Way To Achieve Critical Board Turnover

18 Jan 202457min

*This episode was originally published on November 23, 2023. Human rights lawyer and war crimes investigator Yasmin Sooka joins host Ali Latifi in a conversation about using the word “genocide”, and why language matters – in the middle of a crisis, and in the aftermath of mass violence. 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.

11 Jan 202418min

*This episode was originally published on January 11, 2023.  Time and again, guests on this season of Rethinking Humanitarianism have called for systemic changes to the humanitarian system and global governance – from alternatives to the UN to revolutionised global climate financing. But how can you imagine something you’ve never seen before, while being grounded in the realities of today? In many ways, this is the domain of science fiction. The writer and activist Walidah Imarisha once said: “Any time we try to envision a different world – without poverty, prisons, capitalism, war – we are engaging in science fiction.” With science fiction, she added, we can start with the question “What do we want?” rather than the question “What is realistic?” In this first episode of the New Year, host Heba Aly looks to the future to explore how science fiction can bring about paradigmatic change by helping us believe a better world is possible. She is joined by sci-fi authors whose work speaks directly to the future of global governance and how to better address crises. Kim Stanley Robinson is the acclaimed science fiction writer behind the Mars trilogy, and, more recently, The Ministry for the Future. Malka Older is the author of Infomocracy and The New Humanitarian short story Earthquake Relief. Mexico City. 2051. ————— If you’ve got thoughts on this episode, write to us or send us a voice note at podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org.  SHOW NOTES Disaster response 2.0: What aid might look like in 30 years time (by Malka Older, for The New Humanitarian) Decolonising Aid: A reading and resource list Why Science Fiction Is a Fabulous Tool in the Fight for Social Justice | The Nation Kim Stanley Robinson: Remembering climate change ... a message from the year 2071 | TED Countdown   BOOKS AND AUTHORS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future (2020) Malka Older, Infomocracy (2016) Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993) Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888) H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905)  Ursula K. Le Guin (see The Dispossessed, 1974) Walidah Imarisha (see Octavia’s Brood, 2015) Joanna Russ (see The Female Man, 1975) Cory Doctorow, Walkaway (2017) Neon Yang, The Tensorate series (2017-19) Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries series (2017-21)

4 Jan 202459min