In the fourth episode of the Ukraine series Yuliia and Lars Peter take stock of the discussions so far and agree that the two main themes emerging from the conversations are around purpose - the role that humanitarian action plays in Ukraine - and Power - the relationship between and relative power of the national and international actors. To explore these issues, and to round off the series they speak to Frederic Larsson from the NGO Resource Center in Ukraine and Ewa Wieliczko the ACAPS team l...
Mar 24, 2023•39 min
In episode three Yuliia and Lars Peter explore the relationship between civil society and government in Ukraine and asks the question: How does a vibrant civil society, which in normal time advocate and challenge the government, pivot to adapt its role when war breaks out? The hosts speak to Yuliya Sporych, CEO of the national Ukrainian NGO Divchata and with Oleksandr Riabtsev, Head of Demining in the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories.
Mar 10, 2023•55 min
The first Russian invasion in 2014 led to a nation-wide grassroots mobilization of Ukrainians to support military effort and provide humanitarian aid. The 2022 invasion propelled these efforts to new heights and mobilized overwelming levels of international support for humanitarian action. In the second episode on Ukraine Yuliia Chykolba and Lars Peter Nissen explore how the organic, agile and evolving Ukrainian civil society response and how it interacts with the international humanitarian sect...
Mar 03, 2023•47 min
In this first episode out of four on humanitarian action in Ukraine the hosts Yuliia Chykolba and Lars Peter Nissen explore what the humanitarian principles mean in Ukraine today. They agree that the principles of humanity and impartiality are the foundations of humanitarian action but have different position on neutrality. Yuliia argues that the principle is outdated and does not work in Ukraine. Lars Peter worry that letting go of the neutrality will erode the core of humanitarian action. They...
Feb 24, 2023•39 min
Paula Gil Baizan, Meg Sattler and Lars Peter Nissen struggle to make sense out of the humanitarian chaos of 2022 and try to figure out how 2023 might be different.
Dec 24, 2022•50 min
Dominic Naish has worked for various humanitarian agencies as a contextual analysts. The contexts were different, the organisations were different, but he always had the feeling of being more of an irritant than a help to the people he worked for. In the end he decided to leave the humanitarian sector. He has described his experience in a blogpost “Not a priority” for the Humanitarian Practice Network. You can find the blogpost here: https://odihpn.org/blog/not-a-priority-the-lack-of-contextual-...
Nov 26, 2022•42 min
In this episode Lars Peter Nissen - a practitioner - gets stuck into a discussion surrounding the use of data in humanitarian aid with Joël Glasman, an academic. Joel is a historian and author of the book Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Human Needs: Minimal Humanity. Joel poses a strong and uncomfortable argument in his book, and in the conversation; humanitarian statistics is flawed and data of poor quality, and for some reason we hype our need (and our ability) for evidence-based dec...
Nov 18, 2022•55 min
This weeks episode is a recording of a keynote given by Benjamin Lang and Lars Peter Nissen at CartONGs GeOnG conference in Chambery on 24 October, 2022. The debate is moderated by Sandra Sudhoff, the technical director of CartONG. You can watch the entire opening ceremony on CartONGs YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QteGAp8gD7Y
Nov 13, 2022•40 min
Siri Melchior Tellier had a long and varied career in international development cooperation, humanitarian action and teaching. She passed away in October 2022 and this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen was recorded in August 2020 during the Pandemic. It is a conversation about public health, data, standards, trust, learning and failing and having the courage to make yourself part of the mess and make a difference in the world.
Nov 04, 2022•45 min
Gareth Owen is the humanitarian Director of Save the Children UK. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses the trade-offs between quality and scale, between his humanitarian heart and his humanitarian realist. The fundamental question posed by the conversation is whether you “Can you change the master’s house with the master’s tools?” Gareth is in his own words “an establishment guy” who sits the “at the apex of the problem” but he still believes that is the right thing to do and...
Oct 21, 2022•56 min
Themrise Khan and Mabala Nyaluwge both work in the aid industry Themrise for more than 30 years in South Asia and Mabala for seven years in East Africa. Together with Lars Peter Nissen they explore the state of aid, the change that is needed and whether it is possible to achieve this change from inside the system, or whether it has to be done from the outside
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Raj Kumar is the co-founder, President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community to discuss international development and humanitarian action. Together with Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen he explores the current state of play in the development and humanitarian industries. Raj brings a fresh perspective to the conversations engulfing the humanitarian ecosystem: localisation, the nexus, accountability, risk, and financing. Inspired by the disrupti...
Sep 30, 2022•40 min
The recent decisions regarding changes to cash coordination are ground breaking and they not not come out of nowhere. In this week episode Paula Gil Baizan explores how change happens together with Isabelle Pelly, Juliet Lang and Sophie Tholstrup. All of the guests played a key role in brining about the change in cash coordination, and together they explore the challenges associated with making change happen in highly change-resistant systems, why change is worth fighting for in spite of the obs...
Jul 01, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Evaluations are an essential part of human sharing accountability. And working with a good evaluator is a fantastic opportunity for learning and improving. However, often evaluations turned into painful confrontational accountability exercises, that leaves nobody satisfied and changes nothing. This week's guest on communitarian is Michael Patton who together with Lars Peter Nissen discusses what evaluations can do for the humanitarian sector, what they are and what they are not (an audit) and ho...
Jun 24, 2022•32 min
Procurement and logistics remain the backbone of humanitarian operations. But this crucial aspect of humanitarian action doesn't always get the attention it deserves. We spend a lot of time in the humanitarian sector speaking about issues like localization, decolonizing, aid, how to engage with the diaspora, how to change the coordination system, protection. All of these are really important and valuable discussions. But 65% of the humanitarian budget, namely on procurement and the implications ...
Jun 10, 2022•29 min
Serious games and simulations can help us train and prepare for difficult and some times dangerous situations. Crisis are different from everyday life. Different rules apply, and you have to think and walk and talk differently. When you're in a teaching or training situation and you sit comfortably in your chair behind your desk. It's very easy to agree on policies and procedures, the way we behave when we're in the middle of a stressful situation is very different. Games can help us bridge the ...
May 13, 2022•44 min
Humanitarian Action in Ukraine today is a mix between Government-led operations, international humanitarian action and a myriad of grassroots initiative providing essential support to vulnerable populations. But how do these very different types of aid come together? Can "Big Aid" connect with "Little Aid" and can the grassroots initiatives be scaled to become "Little Big Aid?" Lewis Sida has worked in the humanitarian sector for decades. In Ukraine he has gone rogue, become a "nutter" and is su...
May 06, 2022•41 min
Philanthropy is an important source of funding for humanitarian action, but how is it different from the money that comes from governments? Is it a drop in the bucket or a different kind of money? And have we been too silent as a humanitarian community when it comes to challenging and shaping our donors, and what is the cost of our silence? These and many other questions is the topic of this weeks conversation with Patricia (Patty) McIlreavy, the President and CEO of the Center for Disaster Phil...
Mar 25, 2022•40 min
The International Planned Parenthood Federation may be the largest NGO you have never heard about. IPPF brings together more than 150 different organisations in a network promoting better access to sexual reproductive health services both within the development and humanitarian sphere. This weeks guest is Robyn Drysdale, the deputy director of IPPF in charge of humanitarian programs. It is a conversation about the challenges IPPF and its members meet in humanitarian settings, what has been achie...
Mar 18, 2022•35 min
Homeboy Industries is the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. It works with formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated people, enabling them to redirect their lives. This weeks guest on Trumanitarian is Thomas Vozzo, who has written a book about his experience as the CEO of Homeboys industries In this conversation Lars Peter Nissen and Thomas discuss leadership and management, how to balance profit and purpose, the role of spirituality in the workplace and how ...
Mar 04, 2022•45 min
Mental health and humanitarians is an issue which has been surrounded by stigma. The fear of being seen as weak or not suited for humanitarian work has made many humanitarians reluctant to seek help. Some argue that speaking of our own mental health will detract attention from the people we serve. The issue has been receiving increasing attention in recent years, but it has been and continues to be difficult issue to get on the agenda. Imogen Wall is a humanitarian and an advocate for mental hea...
Feb 25, 2022•48 min
Disasters are not natural, far from it! The impact of a crisis is shaped by a wide range of societal factors and disasters replicate and amplify the inequalities that exist in society so that it is the marginalized communities tare hit the hardest. The Covid pandemic has once again taught us that lesson. Yet, we continue to refer to sudden onset crisis as “natural disasters” and that is not just a question of semantics, it is an indication of how we tell the wrong story of crisis and very often ...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Are Humanitarian Organizations doing an amazing job with scare resources under impossible circumstances, or has international humanitarian assistance turned into a colonial, un-accountable, technocracy – disaster capitalism at its worst? And should we be more careful when criticizing this sector not to undermine morale and give the opponents of aid ammunition? This and many other questions is what Gareth Price-Jones, the Executive Secretary of SCHR and Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, the co-founder an...
Feb 04, 2022•1 hr 3 min
The travel industry, just like the humanitarian industry, provides everything a person on the move needs. It is also one of the largest industries in the world with a turnover many thousand times that of the humanitarian industry. Gopinath Parayil wants to dual-purpose the assets of the travel industry for humanitarian response during climate-related disasters, thereby contributing towards creating more resilient communities.
Jan 28, 2022•40 min
This episode was first published in February 2021. It is with Fergus Thomas from the FCDO and deals with two important and very different issues: humanitarian reform and mental health. Together with Lars Peter Nissen, Fergus explores the development of the Humanitarian to Humanitarian (H2H) network and its potential as a change agent in the humanitarian sector. In the second half of the conversation Fergus talks about what it is like to live with bipolar disorder and how that fits with a hectic ...
Jan 20, 2022•42 min
AI is transforming the world and will have profound implications for humanitarian action. But how? Will it lend itself to authoritarian regimes controlling their populations and will humanitarian organisations be complicit in this and create additional vulnerabilities for the populations we serve? Will be help us create a better user experience for "consumers" of humanitarian aid and will it help us ensure that we get spare parts for the generator just in time? Listen in as Sarah Spencer from hu...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Paula Gil Baizan, Meg Sattler and Lars Peter Nissen review 2021 and look forward towards 2022 in the humanitarian world.
Jan 07, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Timely, flexible funding is a bottleneck is most if not all humanitarian operations. Daniel Clarke has a solution to that problem. He is the co-author of the book Dull Disasters, and the director of the Center for Disaster Protection. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses how risk based financing and smarter financial instruments such as parametric insurance can enable us to fundamentally change the way in which crises are managed. You can learn more about the Center for Disas...
Dec 10, 2021•51 min
Philippe Besson worked with the Swiss Development Cooperation for more than 30 years before he earlier this year retired from the position as head of the multilateral humanitarian division. In this conversation he provides a unique perspective on humanitarian action and how to be a "principled dinosaur" and a civil servant at the same time.
Dec 05, 2021•48 min
The Global Executive Leadership Initiative (GELI) is a new flagship initiative from the UN to promote leadership throughout the development and humanitarian sector. GELI is led by Assistant Secretary General Panos Moumtzis who in this weeks episode together with Lars Peter Nissen discusses the challenges of leadership, how being a leader at times can be a very lonely, and how GELI seeks to strengthen leadership. You can read more about GELI on their website www.geli.org and their twitter handle ...
Nov 12, 2021•47 min
