Is there an efficient and secure way for refugees and others who have had to leave their homes and documents behind to establish and access digital I.D.s?  In this episode of Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail hears from a student who had to flee Sudan without I.D. papers and how that complicated his journey towards claiming asylum. She also speaks to two blockchain technology startups that are working in humanitarian environments to try to create secure methods to access identification.  

Guests: Khalid Maliki, co-founder of Tykn; Sharanya Thakur, project manager at Gravity.

When you’re a member of the diaspora community, it can feel helpless watching a crisis unfold in your home country. In this episode of our podcast series, Fixing Aid, host Alae Ismail explores how a diaspora-led business turned global concern into emergency aid – delivered straight to families in the middle of Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.

Guest: Nasrat Khalid, founder of Aseel; Ihsan Hasaand, lead distributor Aseel

Hosted by award-winning innovations expert Alae Ismail, each episode will focus on people, projects, organisations, or start-ups working in new and creative ways to improve the lives of those affected by conflict and disaster. We will, of course, also be speaking to people on the receiving end of aid, to hear directly about the innovations they think could make things better. 

In the final episode of Season 2 of the Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast, host Heba Aly sits down with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to discuss his priorities in the role, how he intends to address unequal power dynamics in the aid sector, the increasing influence of donors, and why humanitarians should push back against an ever-expanding scope of activity.

An economic crisis, compounded by COVID-19 and the 2020 Beirut port explosion, has left middle-class families in Lebanon without food, medicine, and fuel. They are now depending on NGOs to get by. 

In this episode, host Heba Aly looks at how humanitarians are being confronted with a new category of needs, and how it’s changing the way they have to respond.  

Guests: Maya Terro of FoodBlessed, Nana Ndeda of Save the Children

The major part of the humanitarian response at the Poland-Belarus border is provided by volunteers. 

In this episode, host Heba Aly speaks to a Polish activist leading the voluntary humanitarians, and the UN Refugee Agency on their role when it comes to providing humanitarian assistance in Europe.   

Guests: Anna Alboth, Polish activist with Grupa Granica and the Minority Rights Group; Christine Goyer, Poland representative of UNHCR.

Traditional funding can’t keep up with the growing amounts of humanitarian aid dollars needed to help people in crises around the world.

In this episode, host Heba Aly speaks to three organisations who are meeting the funding crunch head-on by actively experimenting with different ways of financing their humanitarian programmes.  

Guests: Jahin Shams Sakkhar of Uttaran, Juan Coderque of the ICRC, John Kluge of Refugee Investment Network.

In this episode, host Heba Aly explores whether hyper-local peace deals can be a viable alternative.

Guests: Danjuma Dawop, local peacebuilder at Mercy Corps in Nigeria. Obi Anyadike, senior Africa editor at The New Humanitarian.

In this episode, TNH CEO and podcast host Heba Aly discusses the difficult balancing act for aid agencies that want to speak out against government abuses in Ethiopia but are worried about the consequences of doing so on their perceived neutrality and their ability to continue delivering assistance to those who need it. 

Guests: Addis Ababa-based journalist Samuel Getachew; Laura Hammond, professor of Development Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London; Awol Allo, senior lecturer in law at Keele University; David Del Conte, campaigner of Stop Tigray Famine at Refugees International.