The New Humanitarian

Even before Israel’s current siege, 80% of Gazans relied on international humanitarian aid for survival, according to the UN. But under international law, it’s the occupying power’s responsibility to provide food, shelter, medicine, and other essential needs.   Have aid agencies historically let Israel off the hook by failing to challenge the very thing that creates the need for aid in the first place: Israel’s occupation? And if decades of humanitarian response in the region have failed Palestinians thus far, as some argue, but halting it would be catastrophic, as others say, then how should aid agencies pivot?   Guests: Yara Asi, assistant professor in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida, co-director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, US Fulbright scholar to the West Bank; Chris Gunness, former UNRWA spokesperson ____ Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____ SHOW NOTES Aid to Palestinians has failed. Here's how to fix it. In freezing aid to Palestinians, donors trample a well-worn path What's Unsaid | The media's silencing of Palestinians Prior to current crisis, decades-long blockade hollowed Gaza's economy, leaving 80% of population dependent on international aid | UNCTAD Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Damned if you do... Damned if you don't!

Palestinian peace activist Nivine Sandouka discusses the difficult way forward for building trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Hosted by Irwin Loy. 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.  

An anonymous aid worker reflects on their time in Palestine as they watch Israel's bombardment and siege of Gaza and the escalating violence in the West Bank. Today's First Person essay is read out by The New Humanitarian's Elise Campbell-Bates. The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories at TheNewHumanitarian.org

Palestinian-American writer and journalist Mariam Barghouti joins host Ali Latifi to discuss how both mainstream media and aid policy help muffle Palestinian perspectives.   What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.  

It has been six months since a military conflict in Sudan began claiming thousands of lives and triggered, according to the UN, the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis. As international NGOs and the UN struggle to access certain areas, decentralised mutual aid networks – known as emergency response rooms (ERRs) – have stepped in to fill the vacuum.  In acknowledgement of this reality,  donors, international NGOs and UN agencies are trying to shift their programmes to support these local volunteer-led networks, but deep-seated bureaucracy – standing in stark contrast to mutual aid groups’ nimbleness and agility – has meant that only a fraction of the millions of dollars promised to them have been received by ERR volunteers. Co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to two guests about unprecedented levels of collaboration between ERRs and the international humanitarian system, how they are trying to overcome the challenges, and how mutual aid groups are spurring a broader shift of power within Sudanese society.   Guests: Hajooj Kuka, external communications officer for the Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms;  Francesco Bonanome, humanitarian affairs officer with the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, in Sudan, focal person for the ERRs ____ Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. ____ SHOW NOTES How mutual aid networks are powering Sudan's humanitarian response Khartoum State ERR Mutual aid in Sudan: the future of aid? | Humanitarian Practice Network From an assistance model to a community-based aid EXCLUSIVE: Sudanese aid workers face hundreds of job losses Sudan Humanitarian Fund Dashboard 2023

Conflict analyst Hisham Al-Omeisy joins host Irwin Loy to explain how war has become a profitable business in Yemen, even as millions of Yemenis struggle.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.  

What’s Unsaid is our new bi-weekly podcast exploring the open secrets and uncomfortable truths that often surround the world’s conflicts and disasters, hosted by staff editors Irwin Loy and Ali Latifi. A podcast by The New Humanitarian.

Menaal Munshey shares how dubious blasphemy accusations in Pakistan make people feel unsafe and lead to vigilante violence. Today's First Person essay is written and read out by Menaal Munshey.  The New Humanitarian aims to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and people affected by conflict and disaster - placing them at the centre of the conversations about the policies and events that shape their lives. Find more first-person stories on TheNewHumanitarian.org

Aid worker and psychologist Imogen Wall joins host Ali Latifi to discuss how the way humanitarian organisations are run can do as much damage to aid workers' mental health as being confronted with war, hunger, and rights abuses.  What’s Unsaid is a bi-weekly podcast by The New Humanitarian, where we explore open secrets and uncomfortable truths around the world’s conflicts and disasters.  

What is a humanitarian crisis, as it’s commonly understood? What’s the historical weight of that term? What happens if we change our common understanding of it? It may seem like a game of semantics, but the answers to those questions are more consequential than we may realise, because they reveal something deeper about who we believe will perpetually be an underclass, what’s deserving of an urgent reaction, and who we see as capable of providing humanitarian assistance. These are questions Patrick Gathara has been contending with as The New Humanitarian’s first Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling. On the season 4 premiere of Rethinking Humanitarianism, co-hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to Gathara about the colonial weight of the term ‘humanitarian crisis’; why events in the Global North are rarely described as such; and how the definition of a crisis can mask – or perpetuate – the deeper systemic injustices that lead to crises in the first place. Got a question or feedback? Email podcast@thenewhumanitarian.org or have your say on Twitter using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism. Guest: Patrick Gathara, The New Humanitarian’s Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling