118. Useful fiction?

How does the humanitarian system decide who gets help, and who doesn't? Lars Peter Nissen talks with Damian Lilly and Mike Pearson, authors of the new HPG report How to Reform the Humanitarian Programme Cycle, and ACAPS senior analyst Olivia Singer. Together they look at the system that assesses needs, plans responses and raises money every year.After years of funding cuts and "hyper-prioritisation," the numbers at the heart of the system are under more scrutiny than ever, especially the People in Need (PIN) figure. The guests discuss:How a crisis's scope is set.Why People In Need (PIN) figures get adjusted in ways the data can't explain.Why changes in targeting don't track changes in crisis severity.Why changes in funding requested don't track changes in funding received.Underneath all of it is one political question: what counts as humanitarian action, and is the answer simply "whatever we can afford"?It's a geeky episode about a question that decides who gets what.GuestsDamian Lilly is an independent consultant with more than 20 years in protection and humanitarian work, much of it in senior UN roles. He co-authored the 2022 IASC Protection Policy Review.Mike Pearson is a Research Fellow at the Humanitarian Policy Group (ODI Global) and Global Humanitarian Assistance Lead at ALNAP. He focuses on humanitarian financing, system reform and localisation.Olivia Singer is a Senior Analyst at ACAPS, where she leads methodology, analysis and development of the INFORM Severity Index.Mentioned in this episodeMentioned in this episodeHow to Reform the Humanitarian Programme Cycle, Humanitarian Policy Group (ODI Global)ACAPS INFORM Severity IndexIntegrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and its Famine Review CommitteeHumanitarian Data Collaborative, part of the UN80 New Humanitarian CompactNeglected crises reports: NRC, The world's most neglected displacement crises and CARE, Breaking the SilenceOECD DAC Review consultations, including ODA forecastingGlobal Humanitarian Overview 2026

In this episode of Trumanitarian, host Lars Peter Nissen speaks with Sophie Tolstrup, Head of Policy and Climate at Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), about their 2025 report, Whose Priorities Count?. The conversation explores the disconnect between the formal humanitarian system and the communities it serves, the rise of mutual aid, and the urgent need to reimagine aid in a "messier" world.Key TakeawaysDoing "Less of the Same":As funding is slashed and conflicts intensify, the humanitarian system is often doing "less of the same" rather than adapting. This has increased the gap between what the system provides and what communities actually value, such as long-term self-reliance.The Danger of Prioritization Without Listening:Decisions made in "faraway rooms" often lead to egregious misalignments. In one instance in the Central African Republic, a community chased away an NGO that built unwanted latrines instead of refurbishing requested school rooms.A Shift Toward Mutual Aid:As formal aid contracts, community-led initiatives—such as neighbor-to-neighbor sharing, faith networks, and diaspora support—are stepping up. These networks are often seen as more relevant and emotionally resonant than international aid.Redefining Risk:There is a growing movement toward hyper-local funding. To move past the current "stalemate" on risk, GTS advocates for evidencing how local funding can be significantly more effective and sustainable than traditional top-down models.Breaking the Humanitarian "Bubble":In a world facing linked crises like climate change and out-of-control conflict, humanitarians can no longer afford to stay "in their lane". They must engage with the political realities and rights-based concerns that communities prioritize.Case Studies & ExamplesSudan:Despite negative perceptions of formal aid fairness (75% negative), the country features a powerful network of Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) that use hyper-local cash transfers to adapt quickly to community needs.Chad:A positive outlier where communities feel respected and able to provide feedback, though they remain concerned that aid is not sufficiently supporting their long-term self-reliance.Somalia:Communities are using sophisticated internal safety nets to navigate the drought, though acute, long-term crises are putting even these local strategies under immense strain.Northeast Nigeria:Examples of community-led security patrols that allow farmers to work their fields safely.Guest BioSophie Tolstrup is the Head of Policy and Climate at Ground Truth Solutions. With a background in climate and 15 years of experience in the sector, she leads efforts to ensure the views of crisis-affected people shape the decisions of the humanitarian system.Resources MentionedGround Truth Solutions Report (2025):Whose Priorities Count?Organization:Ground Truth Solution

When the main oncology hospital in Kharkiv was bombed, patients started dying — not from the bombs, but from losing access to their chemotherapy. Ross Skobronski, a Spanish-Ukrainian mathematician who had come to Kharkiv to visit family just one month before the full-scale invasion, watched and waited for someone to respond. No one did. So he did it himself.Today, Mission Kharkiv serves more than 3,200 oncology patients with full treatment courses across Ukraine, operating a cold chain logistics system out of a bunker four metres underground. Ross and his team of 62 deliver chemotherapy to hospital doors on the day of each patient's session — a level of precision and responsiveness that puts much larger organisations to shame.In this conversation, Ross talks about how he built Mission Kharkiv from scratch, why his mathematical training shaped his problem-solving more than any humanitarian manual could, and what he sees as the fundamental disconnect in how the sector talks about localization. As the chair of the NGO platform's steering committee in Ukraine, he brings a sharp outsider's perspective on the dynamics between international and national NGOs — and why he doesn't believe power will ever be shared voluntarily.In this episode:How a $40 million pharmaceutical donation launched Mission KharkivBuilding cold chain logistics in a city under siegeWhy "naivety" might be the most undervalued quality in humanitarian actionThe gap between localization rhetoric and reality on the groundWhy Ross believes power must be taken, not sharedA proposal for a localization accountability framework with measurable indicatorsWhat it would take to replicate Mission Kharkiv in other countriesGuest: Ross Skobronski, Founder and Director of Mission Kharkiv and Chair of the Steering Committee of the NGO Platform in Ukraine.

This episode is a recording from the Start Network’s Assembly, which took place in October 2025. Lars Peter Nissen was invited to moderate a panel exploring what leadership looks like when success is contingent on the agency of others — when you cannot exercise direct control but must inspire, build rapport, and create the conditions for a group of individuals to deliver results.Rather than drawing on leaders from within the humanitarian sector, the panel brings together professionals from two very different fields — football management and musical theatre — to explore what their craft can teach humanitarians about leading through networks, trust, and collective action.Note: This episode was recorded live at the Start Network Assembly. The sound quality reflects the live setting.GuestsNatalie Brown: Board Director at Banbury United Football Club and the first Black female board member in UK football. Natalie has a background in media, marketing, and community development, and has worked with Arsenal, The Prince’s Trust, and Mind. She founded the #PlayBrave initiative to help women build confidence on and off the pitch.Huw Evans: Associate Musical Director on Oliver at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End. Huw is an accomplished conductor and multi-instrumentalist who has worked on shows including Much Ado About Nothing, Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma, and Come From Away. He trained at King’s College London.Moderated by Lars Peter Nissen, Director of ACAPS and host of Trumanitarian. Introduced by Lucy Puentes of the Start Network.Key ThemesBuilding from the ground up: Natalie shares how she rebuilt Banbury United’s women’s team after inheriting a fractured setup where the manager had left just before the season. After a disheartening first attempt, she “flipped the script” — launching open training sessions for women over 40, which rapidly grew into a multigenerational squad with players aged 16 to 66. Her approach centred on changing the narrative, leading with spirit, and building a movement rather than just a team.The duet between leading and following: Huw describes conducting as a constant negotiation between setting the tempo and following the performer. With 12 musicians split across three separate spaces, a 30-person cast, and four child actors rotating in the lead role, he conducts via camera monitors — relying on connection, adaptability, and trust rather than direct control. Leadership in live performance, he says, is about creating the conditions for harmony rather than forcing it.Trust, small gestures, and knowing people’s namesBoth panellists emphasise that trust is built through small, consistent actions. Huw takes pride in greeting every deputy musician before the show. Natalie describes how players joined her team simply because they liked who she was and what she stood for. Both draw a direct parallel to humanitarian coordination — where leading a cluster meeting of 50 strangers via camera is not so different from conducting an orchestra through a monitor.Releasing control: A recurring theme throughout the conversation is the difficulty — and necessity — of letting go. Huw describes the terrifying moment of relinquishing control in a live performance with 2,000 people watching. Natalie reflects on having built the women’s team so personally that she now needs to step back and let others carry the vision. Both see this as essential to sustainable leadership in networked settings.The power of diversity and emergence: Lars Peter draws the conversation toward metaphor, arguing that biology — not physics — offers the better model for thinking about networks. The emergent quality of a network, like a heart pumping blood from cells and valves, produces outcomes that are qualitatively different from the sum of the parts. Just as a football team needs more than 11 goalkeepers, or an orchestra more than 12 horn players, humanitarian networks need genuine diversity of skills and perspectives.Resilience and learning from mistakes: Huw shares a candid story of pressing the wrong button during a click track, causing pre-recorded and live children to sing out of sync. His advice: pick yourself up, stay calm, and keep going with integrity. Natalie talks about the power of small daily steps — just 15 minutes of focused effort each day — as a way to sustain momentum when things feel overwhelming.CreditsHost: Lars Peter NissenRecorded at: Start Network Assembly, October 2025Session title: Choreographing Chaos: Leadership in a World of NetworksPanel introduced by: Lucy Puentes, Start NetworkGet in touch: [email protected] the podcast: Visit truemanitarian.org and click “Support the Pod”

This weeks guest is Gareth Owen OBE — Former Humanitarian Director at Save the Children UK (2007-2024). Gareth spent over three decades in the humanitarian sector, beginning his career in Somalia in 1993. He co-founded the START Network and served as Chair of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. Awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to emergency crisis response abroad and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath.The End of an Era The conversation explores what Gareth calls the "post-industrial phase" of humanitarianism—a sector that expanded dramatically in the first decades of the 21st century (peaking at $43 billion in 2022) and is now in managed decline. The discussion traces how the business model of big INGOs began failing years before the 2025 funding crisis, with the UK aid budget cuts from 0.7% to 0.3% forcing organizations to retool their approaches.Loss of the Humanitarian Soul A central theme is the perceived loss of what Gareth calls the "humanitarian soul"—the culture, spirit, and sense of something essential being enacted in a courageous and ethical way. External trauma psychologists visiting Save the Children asked "where's the humanitarian soul?" in corporate headquarters, highlighting how institutional survival has often displaced the cause itself.First We Lost Our Soul, Then We Lost the Money The conversation challenges the narrative that 2025's funding cuts created the crisis. Instead, it argues that institutional drift, creeping managerialism, and the "tyranny of being busy" had already hollowed out the sector's capacity for deep thought, debate, and disagreement long before the financial reckoning.Being Human in the Age of AI Referencing the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, Gareth notes that more than half of the top 10 core skills needed for the future are about humanness: resilience, flexibility, leadership, creative thinking, empathy, active listening, and curiosity. In a world dominated by AI, "humans are going to have to be brilliant at being human again."Gareth Owen on DevexPrevious Trumanitarian episode with Gareth (Episode 51 - "Panopticon")Substack: The Humanitarian ApeBooks by Gareth OwenWhen the Music's Over: Intervention, Aid and Somalia(2022) —Repeater BooksUnhealed Wounds: Trauma, Aid and Angola— forthcoming (28 March 2025)Chapter inAmidst the Debris: Humanitarianism and the End of Liberal OrderTopics DiscussedThe Humanitarian Society— A new alumni-style gathering space for sense-making about the state of humanitarianism, launching in early 2025The Alameda Institute— A research institute based out of Brazil, incubated by Save the Children UK, focused on new knowledge production and connecting with social movements globallyHuman-Centered Leadership Project— A sense-making initiative on restoring genuine human connection in leadership across sector.People MentionedTom Fletcher— UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (appointed November 2024)Rutger Bregman— Dutch historian, author ofMoral Ambitionand presenter of the2025 BBC Reith Lectures: "Moral Revolution"William Shoki— South African political thinker, editor atAfrica Is a CountryViktor Frankl— Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, author ofMan's Search for MeaningAdelina Kamal— Indonesian humanitarian thinker and practitioner with expertise on MyanmarTom Byrnes— Author ofTom's Aid Dispatchesnewsletter on LinkedIn

As 2025 draws to a close, Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen invites Meg Sattler, Adelina Kamal, and Thomas Byrnes to the Trumanitarian studio to reckon with a year that seems to have defied comprehension.The numbers tell one story: humanitarian funding has collapsed to 2016 levels, projected below $22.7 billion. This isn't a funding cycle dip but the structural unwinding of the post-Cold War peace dividend. As Western governments pivot from solidarity back to defence spending, a system built over decades is contracting in months—while the UN's humanitarian reset unfolds behind closed doors without clarity on what we're actually resetting toward.Yet within this contraction, something else stirs. Are local and resistance humanitarians – mutual aid - becoming the centre of gravity the system always claimed they should be? As the roof blows off the humanitarian house, do we patch a corner or rebuild entirely?

Wigdan Seedahmed joins host Lars Peter Nissen for a conversation that drifts between code and Sudanese music, and into the quiet art of translating magic into data - without letting magic slip.Wigdan is not on autopilot. In a sector often dominated by compliance and performative intellect, she carries a rare kind of mind - one that doesn’t just react or repackage, but thinks. Her intelligence is quiet, original, and layered - the kind that allows her to interact within the wild, magical, messy reality without flattening it or abstracting herself from it. We talk about how she uses music as a dataset. How the hum of old Sudanese voices carries a politics that spreadsheets can’t capture. And how data, when reclaimed from its colonial grammar, can become a language of intimacy, resistance, and radical imagination.It’s about paying attention and letting different kinds of intelligence – logical, intuitive, ancestral – speak. Wigdan calls herself a Mathemagician. After listening, you’ll understand why.Wigdans Substack post on Sudans Sonic Archive: Wigdans Zanig playlist for Trumanitarian:

What is the role of cash distributions in the humanitarian reset? That is the question that Cate Turton, the Director of the Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) Network), Yolande Wright, the VP for Partnerships at GiveDirectly and Alessandro Bini the Director of the Somali Cash Consortium discuss with Lars Peter Nissen in this weeks episode.The conversation focuses on the current state and future potential of cash-based humanitarian assistance. The participants discusses the barriers and opportunities for further leveraging cash distributions in the humanitarian sector, particularly in light of the current resource constraints. Key topics included the evidence base for cash, the need to shift power and decision-making to affected populations, the challenges of integrating cash within the existing humanitarian coordination structures, and the role of localization in cash programming.Explore key insights from a high-level conversation on the future of humanitarian cash assistance. Learn about systemic barriers, localization, UN roles, and innovative cash delivery methods like lump-sum transfers.

What happens when a philanthropist shows up differently? In this episode, Maya Ghosh Bichara joins host Lars Peter Nissen to reflect on what it means to fund, partner, and build trust with integrity.Maya isn’t running a billion-dollar foundation - she gives small but catalytic grants, drawing on her experience from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to reimagine what money can do.They explore trust-based philanthropy, the need for humility, and how to move beyond extractive funding models. What would it take to let go of control, trust leaders on the ground, and how could we try to decolonize funding flows?Mayas biggest advice for change is to start implementing it yourself. This episode is a must for anyone curious about what a new generation of philanthropy might look like.

In this special crossover episode, Lars Peter Nissen (Trumanitarian) and Carla Vitantonio (Living Decoloniality) sit down in Doha to explore the deep fault lines in humanitarian work — and why they’ve both turned to podcasting as a space for honest conversation.Carla unpacks the concept of decoloniality — the lingering structures, mindsets, and behaviors that survive long after formal colonialism ends. Together, they explore how power, bureaucracy, and hero narratives shape the humanitarian sector — and why we’re so often stuck tweaking language while avoiding the hard work of dismantling systems.They discuss the limits of reform, the danger of dressing failure as progress, and the need for new actors, voices, and institutional diversity. And they ask the question: If the big institutions can’t change, who can?These discussions extends too to podcasting and humanitarian events; how different formats, structure and diversity of people could create different reflections and outcomes. This is an episode about inquiry over certainty, and humility and small acts over heroism. Notes and Links: •⁠ ⁠The theory referred to in Carlas podcast: the theory of the colonial matrix of power by Aníbal Quijano•⁠ ⁠Living Decoloniality (Carlas podcast). The highlighted episodes: Episode with Michelle Lokot; Episode with Karishma Shafi; Episode with Themrise Khan •⁠ ⁠Trumanitarian episodes highlighted in the convo: Episode with Dr. Rola Hallam; Ukraine episode with Care SG); Episode with Themrise Khan