Trumanitarian

This weeks guest is Gareth Owen OBE — Former Humanitarian Director at Save the Children UK (2007-2024). Gareth spent over three decades in the humanitarian sector, beginning his career in Somalia in 1993. He co-founded the START Network and served as Chair of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. Awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to emergency crisis response abroad and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath.The End of an Era The conversation explores what Gareth calls the "post-industrial phase" of humanitarianism—a sector that expanded dramatically in the first decades of the 21st century (peaking at $43 billion in 2022) and is now in managed decline. The discussion traces how the business model of big INGOs began failing years before the 2025 funding crisis, with the UK aid budget cuts from 0.7% to 0.3% forcing organizations to retool their approaches.Loss of the Humanitarian Soul A central theme is the perceived loss of what Gareth calls the "humanitarian soul"—the culture, spirit, and sense of something essential being enacted in a courageous and ethical way. External trauma psychologists visiting Save the Children asked "where's the humanitarian soul?" in corporate headquarters, highlighting how institutional survival has often displaced the cause itself.First We Lost Our Soul, Then We Lost the Money The conversation challenges the narrative that 2025's funding cuts created the crisis. Instead, it argues that institutional drift, creeping managerialism, and the "tyranny of being busy" had already hollowed out the sector's capacity for deep thought, debate, and disagreement long before the financial reckoning.Being Human in the Age of AI Referencing the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, Gareth notes that more than half of the top 10 core skills needed for the future are about humanness: resilience, flexibility, leadership, creative thinking, empathy, active listening, and curiosity. In a world dominated by AI, "humans are going to have to be brilliant at being human again."Gareth Owen on DevexPrevious Trumanitarian episode with Gareth (Episode 51 - "Panopticon")Substack: The Humanitarian ApeBooks by Gareth OwenWhen the Music's Over: Intervention, Aid and Somalia(2022) —Repeater BooksUnhealed Wounds: Trauma, Aid and Angola— forthcoming (28 March 2025)Chapter inAmidst the Debris: Humanitarianism and the End of Liberal OrderTopics DiscussedThe Humanitarian Society— A new alumni-style gathering space for sense-making about the state of humanitarianism, launching in early 2025The Alameda Institute— A research institute based out of Brazil, incubated by Save the Children UK, focused on new knowledge production and connecting with social movements globallyHuman-Centered Leadership Project— A sense-making initiative on restoring genuine human connection in leadership across sector.People MentionedTom Fletcher— UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (appointed November 2024)Rutger Bregman— Dutch historian, author ofMoral Ambitionand presenter of the2025 BBC Reith Lectures: "Moral Revolution"William Shoki— South African political thinker, editor atAfrica Is a CountryViktor Frankl— Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, author ofMan's Search for MeaningAdelina Kamal— Indonesian humanitarian thinker and practitioner with expertise on MyanmarTom Byrnes— Author ofTom's Aid Dispatchesnewsletter on LinkedIn

As 2025 draws to a close, Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen invites Meg Sattler, Adelina Kamal, and Thomas Byrnes to the Trumanitarian studio to reckon with a year that seems to have defied comprehension.The numbers tell one story: humanitarian funding has collapsed to 2016 levels, projected below $22.7 billion. This isn't a funding cycle dip but the structural unwinding of the post-Cold War peace dividend. As Western governments pivot from solidarity back to defence spending, a system built over decades is contracting in months—while the UN's humanitarian reset unfolds behind closed doors without clarity on what we're actually resetting toward.Yet within this contraction, something else stirs. Are local and resistance humanitarians – mutual aid - becoming the centre of gravity the system always claimed they should be? As the roof blows off the humanitarian house, do we patch a corner or rebuild entirely?

Wigdan Seedahmed joins host Lars Peter Nissen for a conversation that drifts between code and Sudanese music, and into the quiet art of translating magic into data - without letting magic slip.Wigdan is not on autopilot. In a sector often dominated by compliance and performative intellect, she carries a rare kind of mind - one that doesn’t just react or repackage, but thinks. Her intelligence is quiet, original, and layered - the kind that allows her to interact within the wild, magical, messy reality without flattening it or abstracting herself from it. We talk about how she uses music as a dataset. How the hum of old Sudanese voices carries a politics that spreadsheets can’t capture. And how data, when reclaimed from its colonial grammar, can become a language of intimacy, resistance, and radical imagination.It’s about paying attention and letting different kinds of intelligence – logical, intuitive, ancestral – speak. Wigdan calls herself a Mathemagician. After listening, you’ll understand why.Wigdans Substack post on Sudans Sonic Archive: Wigdans Zanig playlist for Trumanitarian:

What is the role of cash distributions in the humanitarian reset? That is the question that Cate Turton, the Director of the Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) Network), Yolande Wright, the VP for Partnerships at GiveDirectly and Alessandro Bini the Director of the Somali Cash Consortium discuss with Lars Peter Nissen in this weeks episode.The conversation focuses on the current state and future potential of cash-based humanitarian assistance. The participants discusses the barriers and opportunities for further leveraging cash distributions in the humanitarian sector, particularly in light of the current resource constraints. Key topics included the evidence base for cash, the need to shift power and decision-making to affected populations, the challenges of integrating cash within the existing humanitarian coordination structures, and the role of localization in cash programming.Explore key insights from a high-level conversation on the future of humanitarian cash assistance. Learn about systemic barriers, localization, UN roles, and innovative cash delivery methods like lump-sum transfers.

What happens when a philanthropist shows up differently? In this episode, Maya Ghosh Bichara joins host Lars Peter Nissen to reflect on what it means to fund, partner, and build trust with integrity.Maya isn’t running a billion-dollar foundation - she gives small but catalytic grants, drawing on her experience from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to reimagine what money can do.They explore trust-based philanthropy, the need for humility, and how to move beyond extractive funding models. What would it take to let go of control, trust leaders on the ground, and how could we try to decolonize funding flows?Mayas biggest advice for change is to start implementing it yourself. This episode is a must for anyone curious about what a new generation of philanthropy might look like.

In this special crossover episode, Lars Peter Nissen (Trumanitarian) and Carla Vitantonio (Living Decoloniality) sit down in Doha to explore the deep fault lines in humanitarian work — and why they’ve both turned to podcasting as a space for honest conversation.Carla unpacks the concept of decoloniality — the lingering structures, mindsets, and behaviors that survive long after formal colonialism ends. Together, they explore how power, bureaucracy, and hero narratives shape the humanitarian sector — and why we’re so often stuck tweaking language while avoiding the hard work of dismantling systems.They discuss the limits of reform, the danger of dressing failure as progress, and the need for new actors, voices, and institutional diversity. And they ask the question: If the big institutions can’t change, who can?These discussions extends too to podcasting and humanitarian events; how different formats, structure and diversity of people could create different reflections and outcomes. This is an episode about inquiry over certainty, and humility and small acts over heroism. Notes and Links: •⁠ ⁠The theory referred to in Carlas podcast: the theory of the colonial matrix of power by Aníbal Quijano•⁠ ⁠Living Decoloniality (Carlas podcast). The highlighted episodes: Episode with Michelle Lokot; Episode with Karishma Shafi; Episode with Themrise Khan •⁠ ⁠Trumanitarian episodes highlighted in the convo: Episode with Dr. Rola Hallam; Ukraine episode with Care SG); Episode with Themrise Khan

In this episode of Trumanitarian, recorded on the sidelines of the Center for Humanitarian Leadership Conference in Doha, host Lars Peter Nissen sits down with two sector heavyweights: Sofía Sprechmann, former Secretary General of CARE International, and Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. Together, they confront some of the humanitarian sector’s most uncomfortable truths.The aid sector is full of elephants—entrenched power dynamics, outdated models of partnership, performative reform, and organizations that may simply be too big to change. This conversation takes those challenges head by examining the Pledge for Change, a joint commitment by major INGOs to decolonize aid through equitable partnerships, ethical storytelling, and systemic transformation.But the discussion also goes deeper—into the contradictions of leading large organizations while trying to dismantle the very systems that sustain them.

On December 8, Syria saw a major turning point: the fall of the Assad regime and the emergence of a new government. For the White Helmets, this moment opened the door to expand operations from 800 to over 4,600 communities—nationwide.In this episode, the White Helmet’s Chief of Programs, Ahmed Ekzayez, shares how the group has evolved from frontline rescue to tackling climate change, protecting human rights, and strengthening civil society, all while fending off disinformation and facing the USAID funding cuts.For Ahmed, success isn’t measured by project metrics—but by lives changed: “This isn’t a 9-to-5 job. This is our country.”

The Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan have, over the past couple of years, become the backbone of humanitarian action in Sudan. As community-based informal organizations, the ERRs provide mutual aid to more than 2 million people in Sudan.In this week's episode Hajooj Kuka and Justin Corbett discuss the work of the ERRs with co-hosts Mabala Nyalugwe and Lars Peter Nissen.

In this engaging discussion, Dominik Stillhart, Head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit, shares his insights from the forefront of humanitarian efforts. He discusses the urgent need for reform in light of recent U.S. aid cuts, advocating for a shift towards locally led approaches and enhanced collaboration among organizations. Stillhart emphasizes Geneva's unique role as the humanitarian capital, highlighting the importance of inclusivity and community empowerment. The conversation captures a pivotal moment for the sector and explores innovative solutions for a more effective humanitarian system.