Podcasts

If the audio player above does not load, you can listen to the podcast here.

Games, simulations, and role-playing exercises have become an important component of capacity building endeavors across the humanitarian sector. Additionally—as reflected in the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC’s) work with video game developers to ensure that certain violent video games accurately reflect norms of international humanitarian law (IHL)—games can be an important avenue toward disseminating knowledge and awareness of IHL and humanitarianism.

In light of the...

If the audio player above does not load, you can listen to the podcast here.

How much responsibility do humanitarian organizations have to protect the staff they send into the field? Due to the often austere, volatile, or insecure nature of humanitarian response settings, aid workers have long recognized the inherent personal and organizational risks of humanitarian action. Yet increasing threats and attacks against humanitarian actors in various emergency settings have spurred renewed debate over organizational responsibilities to protect not only civilian populations, but also their own staff. Much of this debate has focused on the principle of ‘duty of care’, and the ethical, professional, and legal obligations of organizations toward their...

If the audio player above does not load, you can listen to the podcast here.

Dr. Sinead Walsh is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds a PhD in Social Policy, from the London School of Economics, focusing on the accountability of NGOs in Uganda. Sinead is the former Ambassador of Ireland to Sierra Leone and Liberia, and Head of Mission for Irish Aid in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She is currently researching and writing a book about the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone from her vantage point as one the few diplomats and heads of development agencies in the country prior to and throughout this unprecedented crisis.

In this practitioner profile, ATHA sat down...

If the audio player above does not load, you can listen to the podcast here.

Dr. Lina Abirafeh is the Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW). She has nearly 20 years of experience addressing gender issues in both development and humanitarian settings, with a focus on gender-based violence in emergencies, including in conflict, post-conflict, and natural disasters. She has worked with many UN agencies and international NGOs, including in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Abirafeh has also conducted research on various gender issues in Bangladesh, Fiji, Kenya, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, and has published much of...