Humanitarian Policy Group

🎙 "Humanitarian organisations have a considerable role in setting narratives around crises in terms of telling stories about who deserves humanitarian assistance and what the role of humanitarian organisations should be. That's the element we need to take a step back from and be more reflective of." 👥 Human stories are often more powerful than data when it comes to influencing change in the humanitarian sector – so why don't humanitarians take their role as storytellers more seriously? HPG's Leen Fouad & John Bryant discuss on a recent episode of the #RethinkingHumanitarianism podcast, alongside Mohamed Ali Diini (founder of the Iftiin Foundation) and journalist Patrick Gathara from The New Humanitarian. 🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/evcECDKW #HumanitarianResponse #PodcastRecommendation #Storytelling

Last month we released our 50th Think Change podcast! 🎉 The show has been on some journey over the past couple of years, with brilliant guests joining us every fortnight to propose ways to tackle today's most critical global issues. The themes our episodes have explored are hugely diverse – from the climate crisis and the backlash on rights to emerging conflicts and geopolitical shifts. But they share a focus on reimagining what international cooperation should look like in our polarised world – and a hope for building a more equal, peaceful and resilient planet. In this special rewind episode, we revisit just a few of our favourite conversations on the podcast so far – covering MDB reform, the debt crisis in the Global South, the future of the Africa-China relationship, the ICJ ruling on Gaza and more. Featuring: Achim Steiner | Ian Bremmer | Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, Ph.D. | Alexis Akwagyiram | Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi | Annalisa Prizzon | Arancha Gonzalez Laya | Linda Calabrese 姜琳达 | Yunnan Chen | Ronak Gopaldas | Alex de Waal Available here, or on your favourite podcast platform: https://lnkd.in/dy6chYbb 🎙 #ThinkChangePodcast #MDBReform #DebtCrisis #AfricaChina #ICJRuling #Gaza

Humanitarians underestimate the power they hold over how crises are understood and depicted publicly. Despite lofty commitments to reform, recolonise and feminise aid and shift power, they overlook the role that they play in communicating, often for short-term funding purposes, crises to different publics. So what stories do humanitarians tell about crises?? Humanitarian Policy Group researchers argue that in highlighting how crises are urgent, exceptional events, they underplay peoples’ and local orgs’ agency and privilege large-scale, often external, responses. Patrick Gathara highlights how humanitarian narratives are often about the self preservation of the sector, and are delinked from context. And mohamed ali diini shows how narratives about Somalia as a failed state influences the type of aid provided there. Super interesting listen!

📖 ICYMI: The Humanitarian Practice Network (managed by HPG) recently published its latest edition of the Humanitarian Exchange! The 85th edition of Humanitarian Exchange contains 14 insightful and powerful articles reflecting on the role of women-led organisations in humanitarian response. Titles include: 🇵🇸 Who will listen to the women of Gaza? ♿ Women with disabilities leading humanitarian action ❌ Tackling threats and violence against women-led organisations Read Humanitarian Exchange 85 in full now 🔗→ https://lnkd.in/dgEbnbxz #WomenInLeadership #GenderEquality #HumanitarianAction #HE85

We're excited to share a new guide on meaningful participation of refugees, authored by WeAreCohere, Diana Essex-Lettieri and Julia Zahreddine.   Endorsed by HPG, this guide summarises learnings from Cohere's five-part Interactive Workshop Series (IWS), held from October 2023 and April 2024. It aims to provide readers with cross-cutting, concrete and actionable steps to support Meaningful Refugee Participation. Access it now 👉 https://lnkd.in/d2K456uT

"The humanitarian sector continues to operate on the basis of distinguishing between 'benevolent benefactors' and 'deserving recipients' – but these narratives are increasingly at odds with the sector's commitment to localisation." 👏 Narratives play an enormous role in humanitarian response and policy, particularly when it comes to questions surrounding who needs humanitarian aid, how much they will receive, and who holds decision-making powers. As part of our ongoing research into understanding narratives within the humanitarian sector, HPG's John Bryant and Leen Fouad, alongside Mohamed Ali Diini (Iftiin Foundation/Shaqo Platform) and Patrick Gathara (The New Humanitarian), explore these issues and more on the latest episode of the #RethinkingHumanitarianism podcast. 🎧 Have a listen to this fascinating discussion in full now → https://lnkd.in/evcECDKW

💵 NEW CASE STUDY: With the use of cash transfers surging from less than 1% of the total value of humanitarian assistance to almost 20% in just the last 15 years, our latest case study explores the critical and successful role of cash in humanitarian contexts. ✍ The study, led by HPG's John Bryant and Leen Fouad, interrogates the public and private narratives that drove the cash breakthrough and those that worked against it, as well as the narratives that have stemmed its potential for driving system reform. 🔗 Find out more now: https://lnkd.in/ewMrK9QN #CashTransfers #HumanitarianAssistance #Narratives

Do people exposed to conflict and violence mostly aspire to migrate? Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Marta Bivand Erdale, and I explore this question using survey and qualitative #MIGNEX data of young adults (18-39) from eleven communities across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Somalia. We explore under what conditions young adults consider staying or migrating either internationally or internally in the face of fearing, perceiving or experiencing violence and conflict. In this short video, we share the study's key takeaways. You can also access the complete findings in our open access article in the Journal of Refugee Studies here 👇: https://lnkd.in/exh3s_xx ODI Humanitarian Policy Group

📣 Want to know more about Humanitarian Policy Group's research on displacement over the next few years? 🔎 In the wake of this year’s Refugee Week, we’re centring our research on less visible groups - those who routinely miss out on the attention and support they deserve. ✳ Internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugee-led organisations (RLOs) and displaced people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). 📖 Find out more by reading this recent blog co-authored with Leen Fouad and Kerrie Holloway: https://lnkd.in/d7h32K6R

❓ Did you know that: 🔹 The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has grown by 50% in the last five years to 75.9 million 🔹 Average grant sizes to refugee-led organisations (RLOs) are only $26,657 – 10 times smaller than those received by local/national non-governmental organisations 🔹 Once displaced, people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) – in particular transgender people – face additional challenges, such as violence and limited assistance and housing. If you're interested in learning more, we’ve been centring our recent research on less visible groups who routinely miss out on the attention and support they deserve – take a look 👉 https://lnkd.in/exeqazGw #Displacement #ClimateCrisis #RefugeeLed