On December 18, 2023, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative hosted an Aurora Dialogues Online event called “The Way Out: Rethinking the World’s Approach to Skyrocketing Humanitarian Needs” in partnership with The New Humanitarian. 

Sallie Lynch, Development Director of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, opened the conversation by welcoming the participants. She reflected on the 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview issued by the UN and capturing the challenges, hardships, and multifaceted needs of nearly 300 million individuals worldwide requiring urgent humanitarian aid and protection. According to that report, more than 73 million people need immediate support in Afghanistan, Sudan, and the DRC – the top 3 countries in need. And those are the countries where three Aurora Prize Laureates – Jamila Afghani, Tom Catena and Julienne Lusenge – deliver help and support. “Humanitarian action must be centered around acknowledging and amplifying the role of local and national actors leveraging multisectoral partnerships and ensuring people-centered, accountable, and inclusive responses while prioritizing humanitarian diplomacy to navigate increasingly challenging environments,” said Sallie Lynch before giving the floor to Heba Aly, CEO of The New Humanitarian and the moderator of the event. The discussion also featured Damian Lilly, Deputy Head of Office at UNOCHA, Deqo Mohamed, Founder and Executive Director of the Hagarla Institute, Degan Ali, Executive Director of Adeso, and Janah Ncube, Deputy CEO of Crisis Action. 

In her opening remarks, Heba Aly talked about human suffering and how it had increased over the years. She pointed out that, when scrolling the news, you’d find story after story about that suffering and the needs that are felt over and over around the world, from South Sudan to Haiti, Yemen, or DRC. And with every passing year, more crises get added to the list. “Every year, the gap between the needs and the world’s ability to meet those needs grows. Even though the funding is increasing, about half of those who need help aren’t getting it every year. […] Thus, I think it’s imperative for us to ask the question of whether humanitarian aid remains the best tool to respond in this environment and under the so-called polycrisis or whether there is a better approach to alleviating suffering,” said Heba Aly, raising a question that encouraged an insightful discussion. 

Since the UN’s 2024 appeal for $46 billion in humanitarian funding released on December 11, 2023 is smaller than the previous year, while the humanitarian needs have, in fact, increased, this really makes one want to take a closer look at the way the system is – or is supposed to be – working, argued Damian Lilly, Deputy Head of Office at UNOCHA. “In terms of humanitarian needs and how this plays out, we have an extremely unequal division of where resources go. We’ve had this appeal launched, and we know that it’s going to be political determination about where the money ends up. It won’t be necessarily where the need is greater. And I think that needs to be changed. The donors that are giving, and it’s a small number of donors that do make up the lion’s share of it, are providing to Ukraine, to Gaza, to other places that clearly are very much in need, but we have other places [like] Myanmar, which was almost forgotten, where there isn’t, in any way, the same level of attention,” explained Mr. Lilly.

Janah Ncube, Deputy CEO of Crisis Action, talked about the need to reform institutions like the UN or the World Bank. According to her, the norms and the rules adopted after the World War Two are no longer being observed, and the system has to be updated. “If you look at our humanitarian work, it’s really very reactive. We are responding to crises. We are not taking time to think about how to prevent crises. I’d like to see a shift from a big budget on defense, to actually see an investment in peace. If we can have countries that have a Ministry of Happiness, why can we not have a Ministry of Peace? […] We know development, we know economic growth, we know innovation, we know wellbeing happens in a context of peace, but all our countries, most of our countries invest significantly in Ministries of Defense,” pointed out Janah Ncube.

Degan Ali, Executive Director of Adeso, disagreed that the issue could be resolved by simply reforming the system. She expressed her conviction that the situation we are in today was created by design and is intentionally political. “Countries have to either choose whether they stay in the current system, they know what it stands for, or they take a chance and a leap of faith and hope to create something that’s more just. […] I think a lot has to do with what happens in the next few years and how the West reacts to the recognition that the West is failing, and they are no longer in the driver’s seat, and they have to share the car with other people. […] We are part of the small little sliver within the global architecture, and we just keep talking of humanitarian action as if separated from this local architecture, and it’s not,” noted Degan Ali. 

Deqo Mohamed, Founder and Executive Director of the Hagarla Institute, focused on the miscommunication between local NGOs, international NGOs, and the government. “If you want to deliver a specific change, it’s not only for the aid. Aid is enough for the first emergency thing. But next, we should think about how to develop better and how we can involve more [local actors]. It’s not only [about] giving local NGOs some money, but building their skills, making sure they have the capacity to take over. […] We have to allow people to take care of their issues locally. […] We have to push our governments to have a sustainable system that can support me and can put a better system in place. Otherwise, I cannot work by myself, no matter how good a doctor I am,” said Deqo Mohamed. 

Summarizing the discussion, moderator Heba Aly thanked all participants for sharing their input and wished everyone a peaceful 2024, as 2023 was a hard one. “And may this conversation be one step towards finding ways to reduce suffering and moving forward,” she said.    

You can watch the full video of the discussion below.