Humanitarian Diplomacy

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders translates humanitarian diplomacy into humanitarian representation. But what does it mean? Listen to a new episode with Doctoral Researcher Salla Turunen and Reshma Adatia, who is the Head of Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Operations Coordinator at MSF. Discover also the operational focus of the organization and MSF’s public engagement in calling a spade a spade.

In the fifth episode, Doctoral Researcher Salla Turunen looks into humanitarian diplomacy in case of emergencies together with the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Brian Lander and Rebecca Richards. Brian Lander is the Deputy Director of the Emergency Division at WFP Headquarters, and Rebecca Richards is the Chief of Peace and Conflict Office in WFP’s Programme and Policy Division. Given that right to food is a human right of its own, how is starvation used as a method of warfare? Also, what does WFP’s Nobel Peace Prize mean for the organization and their engagement in humanitarian diplomacy? Listen to find out more.

In this episode, Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow from the University of Oxford, discusses the art of humanitarian diplomacy and the history and experience of the ICRC. Hugo is known for a career in humanitarianism that has combined academia, operations, policy and diplomacy. Most recently, between 2015 and 2020, he was the Head of Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. Listen to find out why developing a targeted policy for humanitarian diplomacy matters for a humanitarian organization, and what does it take to be a humanitarian diplomat.

In this new episode, Antonio De Lauri, Meliha Altunisik and Deniz Gokalp discuss the ways humanitarian diplomacy becomes increasingly relevant in defining states' foreign policy in the context of protracted crises, regional competition, and medical aid diplomacy, such as in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic.

How do practitioners use humanitarian diplomacy at the field level? What is requested of them in dealing with non-state armed groups, in particular? In the second episode of the Humanitarian Diplomacy podcast Doctoral Researcher Salla Turunen is accompanied by Ute Kollies, who has held various senior positions in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As Head of Office she was deployed to Chad (2009-2012), Ivory Coast (2012-2014), Zimbabwe and Mali (2014-2020), and she also held the position of Deputy Head of Office in the Regional Office for West Africa upon its creation. Salla and Ute also discuss how gender plays a part in humanitarian diplomacy for both practitioners and stakeholders.

In the first episode of the Humanitarian Diplomacy podcast Doctoral Researcher Salla Turunen discusses humanitarian ethics with a philosopher, Senior Researcher Kristoffer Lidén. Can humanitarian principles be implemented in a non-ideal world? How do practitioners navigate humanitarian ideals and operational realities on the ground? And what kind of issues humanitarian diplomacy raises in terms of ethics? Listen to find out more.