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This is another edition of Inklings, where we explore all things aid and aid-adjacent unfolding in humanitarian hubs, on the front lines of emergency response, or in the wilds of UNGA.
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Today: A future without localisation or participation, what’s missing from another promise to protect aid workers, and who will be the next relief chief?
On the radar |
The future isn’t local: The UN’s shiny new reform pact is all about transformation. But its humanitarian strands seem to describe a system much as it exists today, minus some core concepts: localisation and accountability to people in crisis. Countries adopted the Pact for the Future at the just-concluded UN General Assembly high-level week. The few lines on humanitarian response speak of boosting finance, while focusing on “innovative and anticipatory financing” and “strengthening partnerships with international financial institutions”. There doesn’t appear to be any mention of shifting power to local leadership or the so-called participation revolution of listening to and including people affected by crises in decision-making. Both are core parts of today’s Grand Bargain package of humanitarian reforms, which were debated, thrashed out, and agreed on years ago – there was an entire summit, after all.
- What other sectors are doing: Humanitarian action is not the Pact for the Future’s main focus. Indeed, the pact’s goals for peace, equitable development, and a fairer world aim to reduce the need for emergency aid. But that hasn’t stopped other sectors from leaning in to localisation principles. There’s a call for “the localisation of sustainable development”, for example, or promises to respect Indigenous and local knowledge in science and tech. The bits on digital governance and artificial intelligence are peppered with nods to local solutions, local languages, and local talent.
- How does the pact compare: A 2022 statement from G7 countries – not exactly known for being transformational – was far more forceful on local aid and even anticipatory action: “Evidence shows the crucial role of local actors,” it read. The Pact for the Future is simply a document, and it doesn’t stop the humanitarian sector from pushing forward (the Grand Bargain annual meeting is coming up this month, FYI). But words matter – in international diplomacy or in policy frameworks. That’s why pacts and agreements are haggled over for months before they’re officially debated. When it comes to its vision for humanitarian action, the Pact for the Future may be stuck in the past.
The odd UNGA humanitarian panel: What to make of a high-level humanitarian event that had UNICEF talking about localisation, zero speakers from local NGOs, and Saudi Arabia representing the Global South while touting its demining work in Yemen, where it is a party to the conflict? The highly scripted 21 September panel was meant to feed into the pact-producing Summit of the Future at UNGA. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban was chosen to take the lead on localisation. The sector, Chaiban said, should shift “from seeing local organisations as merely implementing partners, but seeing them as equal stakeholders”. There seemed to be little disagreement: “We’re really serious about the localisation effort,” declared Kelly Clements, deputy high commissioner for the UN’s refugee agency.
- ‘Am I heard?’: There was one exception to the panel’s phalanx of representatives from UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, an international NGO network, and governments. Barthelemy Mwanza, a humanitarian and refugee leader who’s part of a UNHCR advisory board, spoke of including refugees in decision-making. “I can see that everyone is here listening to me,” he said. “But the question would be, am I heard?”
Declaration on protecting aid workers: Australia’s big swing at UNGA was a promise to draft a “Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel”. It’s a reaction to the record number of aid workers killed in the last year – a spike driven mostly by Israeli forces in Gaza – and the seeming impunity for their deaths. Before the announcement, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with representatives from several agencies to float the proposal. Humanitarians we spoke with didn’t want to criticise what appeared to be a well-intentioned move but were still left scratching their heads: Aid workers are already protected under international humanitarian law and multiple UN resolutions; what’s missing are consequences for those who kill.
- Who was there: Invited to the Penny Wong meeting: representatives from OCHA, UNICEF, WFP, ICRC, IFRC, Médecins Sans Frontières, World Central Kitchen, and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag. The list of countries forming a new ministerial group to pursue the declaration: Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Of these, Australia, Switzerland, and the UK abstained from a landmark UNGA vote demanding that Israel ends its “unlawful presence” in Palestinian territory, including “withdrawing all its military forces”.
Who will be the next UN refugee commissioner? UNHCR boss Filippo Grandi’s term doesn’t end until the end of 2025, but it’s never too early to start campaigning, it seems. Germany intends to nominate Niels Annen, state secretary for the country’s development cooperation ministry, various German media have reported, citing the country’s foreign office.
Who will be the next UN relief chief? While Germany may be off to an early start, the same can’t be said for the UK, the UN, and the slow-motion process to name a new head humanitarian. The humanitarian system is into its fourth month without an officially named relief chief, after Martin Griffiths stepped down at the end of June. But Colum Lynch at Devex reports that a choice may be near.
- UN veteran or diplomat: Two names have been on the lips of members of the chattering class for several months: Robert Piper and Tom Fletcher. Piper is currently the UN special adviser on internal displacement, a UN veteran, and reportedly a founding member of the Doug Anthony All Stars – a musical comedy troupe that would go on to earn a degree of name recognition in Australia after he left (an ABC News feature called them the “iconic bad-boys of cabaret comedy”.) Fletcher is principal at Oxford’s Hertford College, a former government adviser and former British ambassador to Lebanon, and a prolific author. He took part in a charity boxing match against the mayor of Nairobi, and was once a prized speaker at a gathering of the International Egg Commission. His recently published paperback, The Assassin, is reportedly a page-turner (tagline: “Ed Barnes is ready to die for a climate change deal. But is he ready to kill for it?”).
Data points |
10%: By one unofficial count, 1 in 10 UNGA side events had something to do with artificial intelligence.
31%: That’s the share of the world’s wealth controlled by Global South countries, even though they’re home to nearly 80% of the global population, according to Oxfam. Their new report, released during UNGA, posits the ultra-rich as a roadblock to global progress by undermining global cooperation. The report title is delightful: “Multilateralism in an Era of Global Oligarchy”
1a: UNGA featured its first-ever high-level meeting on the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware, according to Chris Lu, the US ambassador to the UN.
1b: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ emergency fund saw its first-ever insurance payout, the IFRC says. That may be good news for the viability of indemnity insurance in responses, though there’s another glum interpretation: Disasters in 2024 have been so costly they now trigger insurance thresholds.
3.0: Mia Mottley of Barbados unveiled the third version of her country’s Bridgetown Initiative reform proposals, with a new way to raise money beyond public funding. Read the details here.
End quote |
The humanitarian sector and its government donors are betting big on anticipatory action. They see the move to shift humanitarian response into a foresight and preparedness mindset as a crucial part of future-proofing responses for climate change.
In practice, however, many projects tagged “anticipation” are in the pilot phase, and a wide scale-up is missing. At least one donor has pledged that a percentage of its funding will go towards anticipation, but humanitarians say it’s still harder to raise money to prevent disasters rather than to react to them.
Here’s Michelle Nunn, the American politician who heads CARE USA, speaking at the Clinton bash held during UNGA last week:
“CARE has a surge fund which is, in essence, the capacity for flexible funding for early and anticipatory investment in humanitarian response. When I first got to CARE, I thought that would be the easiest possible thing to raise money for. It is the hardest possible thing to raise money for – still. It is because people… still respond from an emotional perspective. And I say that at the institutional level as well as at a public level.”
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