The Good Humanitarian

What happens when a humanitarian organisation does not simply respond to a crisis, but becomes embedded in everyday life? And what does it mean when that organisation is politically targeted, defunded and presented as replaceable? This episode looks at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the consequences of attempts to actively dismantle it in Palestine.

Guest Roland Friedrich, Director of UNRWA in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, joins us for this season's final episode where we look at the cost of Palestine - the cost of doing good when responsibility is endlessly postponed.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

You’ve probably heard of the Geneva Conventions: laws meant to govern war, protect civilians and shield doctors, journalists and aid workers. These and other laws are also meant to make sure that when the worst crimes happen, someone is held responsible. But what happens when those laws are ignored, delayed or applied selectively? In this episode, we are asking why accountability matters, how international laws and treaties are converted into action and what it really means for civilians and aid workers when justice is postponed, denied or never comes at all?

Guests Thandiwe Matthews, Lecturer in Human Rights, Law and Development Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and Gabrielė Chlevickaitė, International Criminal Law Researcher at the Asser Institute in The Hague, guide us through this episode where we look at the cost of doing nothing.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

When a disaster hits, the priorities are immediate: save lives - deliver aid - respond as quickly as possible. But what happens after that first phase begins to fade? When the emergency response slows down and the much longer process of rebuilding begins? Rebuilding is not just about repairing what was destroyed; it’s about deciding what comes next. What gets rebuilt first, what gets left behind and who gets to make those decisions?

Guests Mohammad Kanfash, doctoral candidate at Utrecht University and who has experience working with UNHCR, and Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits, Associate Professor in Conflict and Peace Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies will lead this conversation. Join us as we dive into the cost of reconstruction and rehabilitation.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

When disaster strikes, it can feel sudden - An earthquake. A flood. A toxic spill. A famine. But while hazards may arrive quickly, disasters are rarely as sudden as they seem. The scale and intensity of a disaster are shaped long before the event itself, often by political decisions as much as anything else. So what does it actually mean to be vulnerable? And can disasters actually be prevented, or rather, prepared for?

Join Thea Hilhorst, Professor in Humanitarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies and Director of The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre as our guest in this episode where we discuss the cost of not preventing.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

When we talk about humanitarian work, we often focus on the outcomes, the aid delivered, the crises responded to, the lives saved or the targets reached. But much less attention is paid to the people doing that work and what it actually costs them to show up every day in some of the most difficult environments in the world. Behind every programme or intervention, there are people making decisions under pressure, navigating uncertainty and often living through the same crisis they are responding to.

Join guests Delu Lusambya, humanitarian worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo and recent PhD graduate from the International Institute of Social Studies and Marie Boscher who has previously worked with the Danish Refugee Council in Chad and Plan International in the Netherlands. Join us as we dive into the cost to humanitarian workers.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

We’re starting with a big one: Money. Across the world, governments are cutting development and humanitarian budgets. At the same time, aid is increasingly criticised, politicised and in some places even criminalised. Have you ever wondered what it really costs to do good in a world where crises are cascading and growing faster than the resources to respond to them?

Join guests Loreine dela Cruz from the Center for Disaster Preparedness in the Philippines and Akke Boere from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Netherlands. Together we will take a look at the cost of humanitarian aid.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

Join us for season 2 where we dive into 'The Cost of Doing Good'.

Returning guests Professor Thea Hilhorst and Dr Rodrigo Mena join us for this fifth and final episode of this season where together we will look at everything from the meaning of neutrality, how it works in practice, its challenges as well as some examples. As one of the key principles underpinning the humanitarian field and with an increasingly polarised world, what does it mean to be neutral and how does this look in a field made up of people with inherent human characteristics made up of values, emotions and ideologies?

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/

Why is it that similar disasters affect some places in a much more severe way than others? And what happens when a country living through a conflict all of a sudden is faced with a disaster? We are joined by Dr Rodrigo Mena, deputy director of the HSC, for this fourth episode to unpack the complexities that is the intersection between conflicts and disasters within the humanitarian arena.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/

Dr Sonja Fransen, senior researcher at The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre, joins us for this third episode of 'The Good Humanitarian' where we unravel the complexities of climate change and its affect on the movement of people, but also on what it means for people in refugee and displacement settings such as camps.

In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media.

The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/