Panel details
| Panel organiser(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
| Number of paper presentations | 5 |
Abstract
To see when the panel starts and where to watch it scroll down or click here.
This plenary roundtable session explores the funding, morality, and legitimacy crises humanitarianism faces today. In February of 2025, Emergency Relief Coordinator for UNOCHA Tom Fletcher wrote to his colleagues, “The postwar international system faces the greatest test since its creation.” As funding collapses, scholars who have challenged the humanitarian system as one that centralizes power at ‘Global North’ headquarters and donor hubs, benefits mostly white aid workers educated in North America or Europe, and fails to localize, decolonize, or shift power, are at a crossroads. Unprecedented cuts to aid funding in the United States, the United Kingdom, and several European countries, beg the question: Is this a humanitarian “re-set”? Or is this the end for humanitarianism as we know it? Panelists will reflect on these questions: (1) What do funding cuts mean for US and European foreign policy and aid policy, as well as institutions such as USAID and the FCDO, as well as organizations they fund? (2) Is this an opportunity for more-or-less emerging aid donors, such as the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, India, or China? If so, what kind? (3) Where do localization debates go from here? And, is this an opportunity for local leadership or are they standing on a glass cliff—with risk of failure high?Clara Egger, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Maria Gabrielson Jumbert, PRIO
Rodrigo Mena Fluhmann, ISS, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Polly Pallister-Wilkins, University of Amsterdam
Emily Scott, University of Birmingham
Ralf Südhoff, CHA
Virginie Troit, French Red Cross Foundation
Date & Time
Register for the conference to view the livestream(s) when this panel is live.
