This is Inklings, where we explore how aid works in the wilds of humanitarian hubs, on the front lines of emergency response, or in the dark corners of aid punditry.
It’s also available as an email newsletter. Subscribe here.
Today: The politics and horse-trading behind UN leadership races, more aid cuts, and what is special leave with full pay?
On the radar |
The search for a new UN refugee chief may be nearing the home stretch, and the quest for a new secretary-general for the entire UN is now officially under way (António Guterres’ second term ends at the end of 2026). What an opportunity to showcase the radical transparency and public accountability behind how top UN posts are chosen, right?
Filippo Grandi wraps up his decade as UN high commissioner for refugees at the end of the year. Interviews have been underway since early November (we think). There are a dozen-ish candidates (we’re fairly sure). The new UN refugee chief should be appointed while the seat’s still warm (we’d hope). Most candidates are European, and few have lived experience with forced displacement (that much we know).
UN appointments are more papal conclave than participatory democracy. That’s why a pair of recent low-key candidates’ dialogues were so unusual in the very short history of UN appointment meritocracy.
Staged by R-Space, a refugee-led forum, it’s the first time refugee advocates have been able to put questions to UNHCR leadership candidates like this. It may even be the first time leadership candidates for a UN agency have come together to debate (we use that term lightly) in an election-style format.
The gloves-on dialogues, however, reveal not so much a stark difference in candidates. Instead, they’re another reminder of what the UN system is not.
This is not an election: Some candidates are prone to calling their election bids a “race”. In reality, it’s anything but. It’s campaigning to people who don’t have a vote. It’s pantomiming election-style debate without an election (or a debate).
Officially, member states at the UN General Assembly pick the high commissioner, based on a nomination from the UN Secretary-General. They’ll likely have the choice of a single name. The public doesn’t see the considerations, nor the compromises it takes to get there.
“We simply do not know what pressures different states bring to bear on the process, or what conditions the successful candidate is required to accept in order to be appointed,” Jeff Crisp, a former senior staffer at UNHCR and noted logo-spotter, recently wrote.
None of this is lost on the dialogue organisers.
“We all know that the selection process for the next high commissioner remains largely opaque,” said Hourie Tafech, director of refugee leadership and partnerships at Refugees International, who co-organised the candidates’ forums. “Maybe this conversation or this dialogue would bring some transparency and openness, and allow the community to actually hear directly from the candidates and specifically the refugee community.”
Filling UN leadership roles is passport over policy: World powers divvy up UN posts as they once divvied up colonies and influence. The UNHCR candidates are another reminder of this barely concealed horse-trading.
Most high commissioners have been European. All except one were men. This year, declared candidates include people from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Ghanaian Matthew Crentsil, Ahmet Yıldız of Türkiye, former Iraqi president Barham Salih, and Canadian Joanne Liu are among the exceptions.
Nominations may be open (here’s the original job ad) but, in practice, the system itself is the disincentive. Yes, the winning candidate may bring professional expertise or political savvy. But they’ll also be the product of a country’s geopolitical objectives, backroom bloc manoeuvring, and conventions from a time when many of today’s UN member states were colonies. Why play the game when you know who writes the rules?
Last year’s selection of the UN emergency relief coordinator (usually a Brit) followed a similar script. Sources told us that at least two dual-nationality hopefuls took care to freshen up their UK credentials – evidently seeing this as a baseline requirement. The position eventually went to Tom Fletcher, after sitting vacant for months amid the UK election melee. It’s not always easy to find the right Brit. As for Guterres' successor as UN secretary-general, campaigning group 1 for 8 Billion has a primer on the selection process here.
- Cuts: What will the new UNHCR boss inherit? Grandi painted a grim picture in his final address to the General Assembly as high commissioner. “We project that we will end the year with $1.3 billion less in funds available than we did in 2024 – a 25% decrease – and a collapse of unearmarked contributions,” Grandi said. “We also project that we will receive less than $4 billion this year, out of a budget of $10.6 billion. The last time we received less than $4 billion was in 2015, when the number of forcibly displaced people was half of what it is today.” UNHCR has also cut 30% of its workforce, or around 5,000 staff.
- Tidbits: Candidate Barham Salih, a Kurd from Iraq, told the Geneva R-Space dialogue that he has twice been a refugee. “I know what exile does to a family, a community, a nation,” he said in a pre-recorded video message. Sweden’s candidate, self-declared peacock Jesper Brodin, delivered a penguin-like video statement as well. Over on PassBlue, Susana Malcorra and Noeleen Heyzer outline why the next refugee chief should be a woman. And on the latest Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast episode, Hourie Tafech offers thoughts on why picking the right UN refugee chief still matters.
Elsewhere |
More cuts: Germany will reportedly overhaul its foreign office – a move that includes folding its humanitarian aid arm into another department. Usually one of the top humanitarian donors, Germany is also expected to halve its humanitarian budget in 2026.
Awards: The government of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been accused of crushing election protests in which hundreds (and possibly thousands) were shot dead. Before declaring victory with 98% of the vote, Hassan was somewhat of a development darling. Care USA gave her an award for global leadership in 2022. She joined the advisory board of the Global Center on Adaptation a year later. And the Gates Foundation (also a donor to The New Humanitarian) recognised her for Tanzania’s progress on maternal and child health earlier this year.
Acronymage |
SIBA: As part of UNHCR’s cuts, the agency also made a subtle rule change affecting ”staff in between assignments”. Before 31 May 2025, staff who were waiting for reassignment could be put on “special leave with full pay” for nine months. Facing its ongoing budget crisis, UNHCR changed this rule in March… to six months. There were 136 staff counted as SIBA as of May, according to budget documents.
TFGBV: Women in India are being abused, shamed, and silenced online, as what’s become known as technology-facilitated gender-based violence escalates, a report by rights group Equality Now warns. This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women focuses on technological violence.
HNPW: Even the humanitarian sector’s networking fest gets a reset. Over the years, Geneva’s Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week event sprawled so much that it outgrew its own name, adding an “s” to what had been a singular week. The 2026 edition will now be pared back to only three in-person days. The labyrinth-like website programme agenda remains.
Have any tips, recommendations, or indecipherable acronyms to share with the Inklings newsletter? Get in touch: [email protected]
