The New Humanitarian18 Jan 2024

How to step aside to promote change | Rethinking Humanitarianism

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.
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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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