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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.
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Today: Diversity is back at the IRC (at least in one country), Tom Fletcher’s cameo, and NRC’s local aid spin.
Ctrl+Alt+Delete |
Mainstream news publishers’ attempts to block AI scrapers are also thwarting the Internet Archive, operators of the useful Wayback Machine. That’s bad news for snoopy reporters and those interested in preserving the public record (the Electronic Frontier Foundation compares it to newspapers barring libraries from keeping copies of their papers). On the sidelines taking notes, maybe: the various aid groups that scrubbed their websites of newly offensive words like “diversity” and “gender” since the Trump administration took power in the US.
Quick recap: Several aid organisations – particularly international NGOs based in the US – swiftly hunted down and erased words thought to offend the Trump administration (then the world’s biggest aid donor). Newly suspect and often scrubbed were terms like diversity, equity, equality, inclusion, anything to do with gender, and climate change. At the formerly gender-focused CARE USA, for example, “gender” became “women and girls” (or “women and girls while engaging men and boys where appropriate”, according to guidelines we’ve seen). Humanitarian organisations responding to the impacts of climate change suddenly scrubbed it from their websites.
Even entirely unrelated word usage became suspect. Relief International, for example, snipped the word “diversity” from its strategy page. It wasn’t describing race or gender, however, but the various humanitarian actors it works with: a “diversity of partnerships” before Trump became “a variety of partnerships” soon after.
But look who’s back. The International Rescue Committee was an early and active scrubber of DEI. You could say it was into scrubbing way before it became trendy.
Now, IRC appears to have restored a prominent homepage link to its diversity, equality, and inclusion commitments – but only on the UK version of the site.
The UK version of the IRC homepage, left, restores references to diversity, equity, and inclusion. These links are still missing from the US homepage, right.
The link to the UK page describing its DEI commitments was featured prominently in January 2025, gone by February, missing through the year, then back with a vengeance in time for 2026. The link – and the DEI commitments themselves – still seem to be erased on the IRC’s main US website and other regional sites.
In 2025, IRC’s DEI commitments page appeared to be taken offline site-wide days after Trump issued executive orders scapegoating marginalised groups and attacking diversity and inclusion. Other key documents related to gender and DEI also seemed to disappear.
- What IRC says: “The IRC is making good-faith, informed decisions to ensure compliance with donor requirements while continuing to uphold its humanitarian mission,” an unnamed staffer at IRC’s US office wrote in reply to questions. “IRC’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender equality remains an important part of its broader humanitarian approach. These principles continue to inform program delivery and partnerships globally.” Parts of the reply closely mirrored talking points from last year. The reply did not address the difference between the UK and US websites.
Out and about |
Fletcher backs a friend: Did you catch UN relief chief Tom Fletcher’s recent cameo in the UK press? Olly Robbins was ousted as the top civil servant in the UK foreign office in April – part of the still-ongoing fallout from the Starmer government’s appointment of Epstein friend Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Fletcher defended his friend, Robbins, in a wider interview on BBC Radio 4: “As the United Nations we don’t have a position on the processes that are under way,” Fletcher said. “… But yeah of course I’ve known Olly well for a long time. This is a guy who has public service and integrity stitched into his DNA in a way I haven’t seen in any other single individual.” On the app formerly known as Twitter, UK public relations strategist David Yelland described it as part of a “well-planned and well-led” PR defence. Fletcher’s comments were part of a longer segment mainly focused on humanitarian emergencies. It starts at around the 1h49m mark here.
Goldman Sachs: The aid sector’s financial crisis has pushed humanitarians to renew their localisation vows, get curious about small philanthropic foundations, and continue to awkwardly woo the private sector. On that note, the head of public affairs for Goldman Sachs, Jared Cohen, posted on the people’s hot take app, Linkedin, about a “personal humanitarian mission” to Sudan in February. “It is a journey I will never forget,” he wrote, “both because of the scale of the suffering I witnessed and for the faces of the people who represent the stolen potential of a nation.” Cohen said he was a guest of the UN’s coordination arm, OCHA.
End note |
Shifting power to local leadership is somehow still a humanitarian trend, a decade after Grand Bargain promises were codified. Guess who’s localising now?
Well, baby steps. The Norwegian Refugee Council is hiring a consultant for “clarifying NRC’s role in supporting local leadership in coordination mechanisms”.
“NRC is seeking to position itself more clearly as an enabler of localisation, ensuring that its engagement supports – rather than substitutes – national and local leadership,” the tender reads.
The consultant will “map” who’s promoting local leadership, analyse gaps and overlaps, identify “emerging donor interest” (!), and draft guidelines, among other things.
- Hot take: NRC expects this to take up to 25 working days. Couldn’t this be a 15-minute conversation with NEAR Network, or a browse through the libraries of Charter4Change?
- Prediction: What if NRC follows the path blazed by Save the Children, and promises to withdraw from UN pooled funds? Nothing drastic, of course – a phased approach. NRC is slated to take at least $58 million in US cash from country-based pooled funds run by OCHA in 2026. It’s one of the largest amounts for a single NGO – and nearly as much as what the funds are giving directly to all local humanitarian groups responding to any crisis, combined. It’s also equivalent to more than 6% of NRC’s income for 2024.
- For your consideration: It’s likely too late for NRC to swoop in, but voting for the “Ambassador of Localisation 2026” awards is now open. The Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations created the awards to recognise collaborative and equitable aid partnerships. Good luck in 2027?
Have any tips, recommendations, or indecipherable acronyms to share with the Inklings newsletter? Get in touch: [email protected]
