Welcome to a candid convo from March 2024 exploring the complexities of being independent. Lars Peter Nissen hosts Meg Sattler, Ed Schenkenberg, and Adelina Kamal in the studio. When can you truly claim to be independent and what does it really mean when you’re submerged into a world full of political shenanigans and blurred ethical lines?

Listen in as the guests struggle to find the right balance between standing firm in their resolve for change and getting entangled in the day to day business of humanitarian action. When does collaboration become complicity, and how do you avoid barking yourself out of the conversation altogether?

This episode is more than a call to listen – it’s a call to ACTION, to expose the nonsense, to challenge the norms, and dare to envision a humanitarian practice where independence isn’t just a strategic ideal; it’s a vital, lived experience.

In this 2020 episode, Mabala Nyaluwge, a Research Designer at the British Red Cross, joins her father, host Lars Peter Nissen, for a heart to heart conversation on racism and colonialism in aid. Following global outcry at George Floyd's murder, Mabala and Lars Peter explore whether the humanitarian space is free from colonial legacy.

Mabala speaks about how the aid sector, while well-intentioned, often perpetuates colonial dynamics and racism. She discuss cultural communication styles and workplace hierarchies between local staff and expatriates, saying it's almost like experts are viewed as more delicate. Is your presence in crisis affected areas truly meaningful if you simply go there, hang out with expat friends in expat bars, but neglect to learn from and mentor your local colleagues?

As they navigate these complex issues, they ask: are Western humanitarianism truly prepared to hand over power and break colonial cycles of dependency?

The hero humanitarian is dead. And Joël Glasman is glad. In his new book “Humanitarian Humanities”, Glasman advocates for a more reflective and empirically informed approach to humanitarian action, emphasizing the importance of social sciences, local ties and contextual knowledge in the field. Listen in to Joël discussing his findings, callling for a shift from the heroic era of humanitarianism to a more scrutinized and regulated approach.

The book:

“Petit Manuel d’Autodéfense à l'Usage des Volontaires”

Kuldeep Bandhu Ayral, co-lead of BRAC's Social Innovation Lab wants humanitarian innovators to hurry, slowly, to reap the benefits of co-designing interventions with end users.

He and host Lars Peter Nissen discuss the journey and impact of the BRAC, one of the world's largest NGOs originating from the Global South, and the design-based thinking of its Social Innovation Lab. They examine the limits of most localization practices and the challenges of integrating innovation in humanitarian aid. Kuldeep also shares insights from BRAC's 'failure reports', why humanitarian interventions must aspire beyond meeting basic needs, and why the phrase "lessons learned" needs to be ejected from the sector.

Meet Sean Lowrie and Christina Bennett – the dynamic former and current CEOs of the START Network, which unites over 90 different-sized NGOs globally for local-led humanitarian action.

With host Lars Peter Nissen, they explore how Sean and Christina's leadership styles influence growth and the transition from a startup to a larger organisation. They debate whether creation of a change organisation is done best by allying with system incumbents or by working stealthily, and whether a vision of system change can be pitched transparently to system incumbents.

Check out START here

Nick Parker and Paul Taylor from REACT has shown up in their civilian outfits to discuss how they’ve repurposed from military careers to humanitarian action. REACT leverages discipline, structure, and skills of volunteering veterans and civilians to respond rapidly to crises. 

In the second part of the conversation, Nick, Paul and host Lars Peter Nissen discuss their experience from Afghanistan and try to figure out how humanitarians and the military interact when they are present in the same theater.

Colin Rogers is the CEO of MapAction. MapAction is a lean, mean, mapping machine that turns complex data into clear, actionable maps to support frontline workers and decision-makers during crises. With about 100 volunteers, some of whom have been with the organisation for two decades, MapAction shows a unique, geeky charm. They work closely with partners like the UNDAC to alleviate the pressure on those calling the shots in crisis situations.

Tune in to hear how MapAction translates complex humanitarian data into the language of action, supplementing the gut feelings of decision makers.

The challenges of the humanitarian sector have been identified over and over again but some problems seem to be unsolvable. In this first episode Marc DuBois and Lars Peter Nissen discuss whether there is a need to disrupt the sector and how to "clear the forest" so new solutions can be grown.

This episode was first published in September 2020.

EqualReach connects displaced individuals on the move to tech gigs. In this conversation with host Lars Peter Nissen, the founder Giselle Gonzales uncovers the invisible barriers for that prevent skilled individuals on the move from working and accessing freelance opportunities. And how Equal Reach is breaking them down one project at a time.

Just like hiding your kid’s broccoli in a brownie, Giselle kickstarted Equal Reach by using her corporate wisdom to align her social impact project with the KPIs of a Fortune 500 company. Tune in for a blend of reluctant entrepreneurship and impact. 

Welcome to a candid convo exploring the complexities of being independent. Lars Peter Nissen hosts Meg Sattler, Ed Schenkenberg, and Adelina Kamal in the studio. When can you truly claim to be independent and what does it really mean when you’re submerged into a world full of political shenanigans and blurred ethical lines?

Listen in as the guests struggle to find the right balance between standing firm in their resolve for change and getting entangled in the day to day business of humanitarian action. When does collaboration become complicity, and how do you avoid barking yourself out of the conversation altogether?

This episode is more than a call to listen – it’s a call to ACTION, to expose the nonsense, to challenge the norms, and dare to envision a humanitarian practice where independence isn’t just a strategic ideal; it’s a vital, lived experience.

This conversation between host, Lars Peter Nissen and Pierrick Devidal, Senior Policy Adviser at the Law, Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy Division at ICRC debates on whether the sector’s excitement about AI is a progressive step or a dangerous diversion.

We discuss ethical considerations and the potential for tech to overshadow fundamental humanitarian principles. How do we distinguish meaningful innovation from harmful overreliance? What are the pitfalls of datafication and AI fixation in humanitarian efforts, and when should we not take part in the race? 

Join this conversation that  seeks to navigate strategies for evaluating AI technologies for real added value in humanitarian efforts. 

In this thought-provoking episode, host Lars Peter Nissen and guest Sarah Spencer, Consultant specialized in AI explore the complex relationship between AI and humanitarian aid. They discuss the critical issues of transparency in AI-driven decision-making, the management of digital identities of aid recipients, and the ethical aspects of using AI to find ‘legitimate’ targets in conflict zones.

The conversation wraps up with Spencer’s brighter and grimmer envisioned scenarios of how the digital integration in humanitarian work could look two years from now, emphasizing the need for technology to serve humanity in ethical and empowering ways.

Listen in and check the pulse of the evolving role of technology in humanitarian efforts.

Also check out the last episode with Sarah and Lars Peter from 2021. Listen here: https://trumanitarian.org/episodes/arms-race-for-data/

In this episode from Summer 2023, Stephen “Steve” Webster, a veteran of UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination and IFRC’s Field Assessment and Coordination Team, discusses the essential qualities of effective disaster managers. He emphasizes the power of mutual aid and love-driven leadership and reveals what he says is the single most important quality for elevating the human condition.

Reflecting on his experiences, Steve tells host Lars Peter why he values individuals over institutions and how innovation requires psychological safety within teams. He also shares insights on the evolution of disaster management practices, the challenges of decolonizing the field, and why ‘synergy’ isn’t such an embarrassing word after all.

William Shoki is the Chief Editor of Africa is a Country. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses the western media's narratives of Africa and the political impact of such.

A key point of the discussion is South Africa's groundbreaking case filed against Israel to the ICC. William reflects how it relates to South African history and stance of doing the right thing over economic interest.

Discover how Poetic Unity is transforming norms with healing and powerful poetry. Poetic Unity addresses mental health, community cohesion, and challenges traditional societal expectations of masculinity. Join us as we dive into a refreshing conversation about the potential for creativity and vulnerability to revolutionize humanitarian work and leadership.

Don't miss your opportunity to dream into this episode and reflect if these unconventional approaches can lead to profound changes in the international humanitarian sector.

Hugo Slim is one of the best known and most interesting thinkers in the humanitarian space. He works at Univeristy of Oxford on the ethics and practice of humanitarian action and currently focus on answering the question “What is Climate Humanitarianism?” In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen, Hugo discusses how we should define and prioritise humanitarian needs. The two papers that form the basis of the conversation can be found here:

• How should we define and prioritise humanitarian need?
• Painful Choices: How Humanitarians Can Prioritize in a World of Rising Need - A Conversation Starter for the Climate Emergency

Tech to the rescue (TTTR) is based on the simple idea, that the tech sector, just like most law firms, should do pro-bono work. So they have built a platform where non-profits and tech companies can be matched - a Tinder platform for social impact, where non-profits and tech companies can swipe right.

In this frank conversations TTTR CEO Jacek Siadkowski and Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen explore:

• How to connect tech companies with nonprofits to innovate together and bridge the technological gap for good, emphasizing the potential for technology to scale up the impact of nonprofit organizations.
• The frustrations and limitations within the humanitarian sector, particularly around funding, engagement, and the scalability of interventions. 
• The potential impact of SMEs in the tech and nonprofit sectors and how large organizations often receive the majority of resources and attention, while SME and mid-sized NGOs has an undervalued role to play in responding to crises and implementing innovative solutions.
• The importance of digital preparedness for crisis response and the transformative power of technology in addressing urgent humanitarian needs.

Sarah Boukhary works with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on the peace process in Yemen. Yemen is not only one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, it is also at the very bottom of statistics on gender equality. So what is it like to be a woman, speaking up for peace, in the midst of a very male dominated world? How do we decolonize the aid sector, what's the problem with traffic culture in Sanaa, and why is chewing qat important? These are the some of the questions Sarah covers in this powerful conversation with Lars Peter Nissen.

This episode is a recording of the closing panel of the Humanitarian Xchange (Hx) conference which took place in London on 20 February 2024. The panel participants are: Harpinder Athwal Collacott, CEO of Mercy Corps Europe, Francis Iwa, Co-founder and Executive Director of CAFOMI, Jacek Siadkowski, CEO of Tech to the Rescue (TTTR) and Andrew Jackson, professor of Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford. The panel was moderated by Lars Peter Nissen, Director of ACAPS and host of Trumanitarian .

This is the second episode of two on the issue of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) in a humanitarian context. The Episodes are co-hosted by: Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque, Co-Founder of Verent Solutions. and Trumanitarian's usual host Lars Peter Nissen.

This weeks guests are:

For Puerto Rico: Dr. Ana Christina Gomez Perez, a professor at the School of Law at the University of Puerto Rico and an advisor to Habitat for Humanity in Puerto Rico.Community Land Trusts featured by: Habitat for Humanity Puerto Rico, the Land Trust Alliance, and World Habitat.

For Ukraine: Yuliya Panfil – Director of the Future of Land and Housing Program at the New America Foundation. Their report : Can Ukraine Transform Post-Crisis Property Compensation and Reconstruction? Other relevant articles in Foreign Policy, and Slate.

Global Progress on the recognition of Indigenous and Local Community Land Rights

Conference on Housing Land and Property in Crises: A Dialogue on Community and Collective Land – April 02-04, 2024, University of San Juan, Puerto Rico

This is the first of two episodes on the issue of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) in a humanitarian context. The Episodes are co-hosted by: Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque, Co-Founder of Verent Solutions. and Trumanitarians usual host Lars Peter Nissen.

The guests in Part 1 are: Irantzu Serra Lasa, the Senior Director for Disaster Risk Reduction and Response from Habitat for Humanity International, Ibere Lopes the Housing land and Property Advisor for the Global Shelter Cluster and Shezane Kirubi, a Housing land and Property specialist with IOM Somalia.

For more information on the Conference Series on HLP in Crisis Contexts which is discussed in the episode see Outcomes from Inaugural Global Conference in 2023.  

The next conference will be the Dialogue on Community Land Trusts for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Responses - April 2-4 2024, in Puerto Rico. Second Global Conference on HLP in Crisis Contexts - May 15-17, 2024, in Washington DC. For information about any of these conferences contact Juli King – jking@interaction.org

To learn more about the work in Somalia see The Danwadaag Initiative.

Jeremy Konyndyk is the President of Refugees International. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses how we can reform the humanitarian sector and how far we have come.

Brendan Lawson is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at Loughborough University. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he discusses his recent book: The Life of a Number - Measurement, Meaning and the Media. The conversation also covers the article by Ten Things We Know about Humanitarian Numbers which was published in Journal of Humanitarian Affairs and that Brendan has written with with Joel Glassman (our guest on episode 8: Needology).

If you are have any comments or questions Brendan would love to hear from you. He can be reached on email b.b.lawson@lboro.ac.uk.

Meg Sattler sits down with Beth Eagleston and Kate Sutton, the co-founders of the Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG), a Melbourne based social enterprise that seeks to use research to challenge the status quo of humanitarian aid. It’s a discussion steeped in reflection; Who owns the knowledge? What does it mean to listen, trust and truly aim to make difference?

The privilege of knowledge meets the urgency of lived experience. For Beth and Kate, it's not just about the research they produce, but about the change it has to inspire, it's about impact, placing knowledge back into the hands of those who need it most, and staying conscious to avoid harmful habits in humanitarian dynamics.

This episode was first published in 2021. You can read more about HAGs work on their website: https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/

Humanitarian Xchange is a new conference organised by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA). In this conversation Dominic Courage from HLA and Francis Iwa from the Ugandan NGO Care and Assistance For Forced Migrants (CAFOMI) discuss Hx with Lars Peter Nissen.

Raphael Gorgeu, Senior Research Associate at the Geneva based think tank HERE-Geneva, has spent the past couple of years looking at how change unfolds in the humanitarian sector.

In this episode Raphael presents his approach and discuss his findings with Lars Peter Nissen.

You can find Raphael’s report here.

Stephen Webster is one of the architects behind first response mechanisms such as the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and the IFRCs Field Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT).

In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he shares his experience from close to 40 years of disaster management and comes to the conclusion that in the end mercy triumphs!

This weeks episode is the recording of a panel discussion on Ukrainian organiations access to international funding. The discussion was held on 14 March 2023 with the title: Small fish in a big pond: Ukrainian organisations’ (lack of) access to international funding. The panel is a co-production by HERE Geneva and Trumanitairan.

Val Hambye-Verbrugghen from HERE-Geneva moderated the discussion between the three panellists:

Yuliia Chykolba the co-host of the Trumanitarian podcast series on Ukraine. Yuliia was born in Dnipro, Ukraine and first became involved with humanitarian action when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. And has since then worked with humanitarian mine action in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Yulia is a Chevening scholar and an alumna of the Department of War studies from King's College London. 

Marco Rotelli, who is the former UN deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, although Marco is speaking in his personal capacity at today's event. Prior to this role in Ukraine, Marco served as representative for Africa of the global NGO network ICVA, and in operations with NGOs and the UN in most of the major humanitarian crises since the early 2000s. 

Robert Serry, who is the former first ambassador of the Netherlands to Ukraine, and chairman of the foundation opendoorukraine.nl, who are currently actively involved in humanitarian early reconstruction activities in Ukraine. He has past experience in international crisis management, and sorry, is an international crisis management expert who has served in senior positions both with with NATO and the UN.

The panel explored the following questions:

1. What has been your experience of Ukrainian NGOs benefiting from the promptness and generosity of the international funding response? What have been enablers or obstacles to their access to funding? To what extent are the rules and bureaucracy in place at the international level suited to fund informal/volunteer initiatives?

2. What needs to be done to ensure a better connection between traditional agencies’ efforts and those of local volunteer groups in this crisis?

3. How has the funding volume impacted the relationship between national and local NGOs and international actors? How complementary are they?

4. An additional cut of the funding has gone to support States that neighbour Ukraine: what are the perceptions around this by different actors (local and national NGOs on either side of the border, coordination mechanisms, contributors to appeals such as those mentioned above)?

5. Is there a moral obligation to stop collecting funds in scenarios such as these, where the amount raised is enormous?

Accountability to crisis affected populations is high on the humanitarian policy agenda. Alex Ross, Avianto Amri and Robert Wambu work with a new accountability project called Talk to Loop. In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen they explain how their tech platform improves the way the humanitarian sector works with feed back mechanisms and accountability, the disruptive potential of the project and how to position it vis-à-vis the existing humanitarian architecture.

Can the humanitarian sector be fit for todays challenges without revisiting its purpose? And are the humanitarian principles an obstacle for this important conversation to take place? These are two of the central issues that Paul Skinner and Lars Peter Nissen discuss in this episode.

Paul is the founder of the Agency of the Future, which helps clients drive purpose-led change and better mobilise stakeholders for lasting success. He advises global businesses and pioneering charities and social enterprises as well as institutions of international and global governance. He is also the founder of MarketingKind, a membership community which brings together business leaders, marketers and change-makers to tackle social and environmental problems through their businesses, volunteering and advocacy.

Paul's recent book The Purpose Upgrade is the point of departure of this essential and complex .conversation.

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 lead in Ukraine.

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.

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 sector. They talk to actors from very different ends of the humanitarian sphere: Anastacia Teplyakova, a Ukrainian teacher who has risked everything to support her fellow Ukrainians since 2014, and to Rasmus Sturh Jakobsen, the CEO of CARE Denmark who shares his thinking on Cares work in Ukraine. The gap between the work of Anastacia and Rasmus i the main theme of the episode.

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 speak to Marc Dubois an independent consultant and Fiona Terry from ICRC about the principles for humanitarian action.

This episode was produced with support from Care Denmark.

Hugo Slim is one of the best known and most interesting thinkers in the humanitarian space. He works at Univeristy of Oxford on the ethics and practice of humanitarian action and currently focus on answering the question “What is Climate Humanitarianism?” In this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen, Hugo discusses how we should define and prioritise humanitarian needs. The two papers that form the basis of the conversation can be found here:

• How should we define and prioritise humanitarian need?
• Painful Choices: How Humanitarians Can Prioritize in a World of Rising Need - A Conversation Starter for the Climate Emergency

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.

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-understanding-in-humanitarian-missions/

You can read more aobut Dominic on his linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-naish-a1524387/

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 decision making and the importance of statistical data.

The conversation is essentially about the quality of our data and knowledge and may lead you to question the data revolution in humanitarian aid. Moreso though, it is about biases in our system, about reliance on one type of evidence and about targeting the needs of humanitarian institutions, not affected populations. 

It raises some fundamental questions about which intrinsic moral values humanitarian aid project in to into our statistics, tools and technology. And what this means for the decision we make and how we make them. Does our evidence base lead to better and more neutral, impartial, and independent aid, or have we become prisoners of our own thermometer and use our evidence to legitimize our actions more than to improve them.

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

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.

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 that it is possible to achieve change from within the system.

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

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 disruption and innovation that has occurred in the Development sector over the past decades he asks for more risk taking and bolder leadership, and using technology smartly to drive a shift towards humanitarian action accountable and adapted to the needs and wants of the individual – a shift from wholesale to retail aid! Raj has written about this and many more ideas in his book The Business of Changing the World

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 obstacles, and how best to bring about change.

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 how to build trust with your clients while at the same time satisfying the need for accountability.

Clionadh Raleigh is not only an accomplished academic, she is also founder of ACLED - delivering the most comprehensive and timely datasets on armed conflict, registering over 300,000 events annually.

Tune in and hear why Clionadh couldn’t care much about AI and why it triggers Lars Peter - who spent the past five weeks in Bob-the-AI-Builder mode (check episodes 84 and 87). You will also hear why Clionadh is considering sending her husband to an ISIS controlled area to study climate adaptation!

On a more serious note, the conversation debunks the humanitarian business myths on climate change and conflict. And explores how thinking about yourself as “the good guys” is harmful.

Check out ACLEDs great work here and enjoy the conversation !!!

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 of how procurement is done.

This weeks guest is Claire Barnhoorn who is the founder of Solvoz a new project that is focused on transforming the way we do procurement in the humanitarian sector not only for the big established organisations but also for local NGOs. It's an interesting project with the potential to have a significant impact on the humanitarian sector.

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 gap between how we think we work, how we actually work, and it can bring us insights on how we get closer to working the way we should be.

In this episode Tom Fisher from Imaginetic.com discusses with Lars Peter Nissen what games can do for the humanitarian sector, why they are so powerful and how to use them right.

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 supporting a guy called Vlad who has some medical supplies and a couple of trucks.

Lewis and Lars Peter Nissen explore together the space between big and small aid and contrast the Ukrainian operation with humanitarian action in Yemen.

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 Philanthropy (https://disasterphilanthropy.org/)