HUMANIFESTO – EDITION 12

2 April 2025

It has been another tough, turbulent few weeks for the humanitarian movement.

The teams are responding with extraordinary creativity and commitment to the devastating Myanmar earthquake. Conditions are tough, with continued quakes and much damage to comms and transport infrastructure. I am on my way to the region to meet uprooted communities and authorities, and ensure we have the best response in place. Of course, the humanitarian situation in Myanmar was already dire, with 20m people – one in three  – already needing aid. A massive, complex job ahead.

After the progress made in reaching so many Gaza survivors during the ceasefire, it has been heartbreaking to see borders again closed to food and medicine. The stocks of we were able to leave behind will run out in the coming days, and WFP are having to close their bakeries. Israeli airstrikes and tank fire in densely populated areas have killed hundreds of children and other civilians, including UN colleagues and other humanitarians. Our teams are pulling medical workers from shallow graves. We have been calling on the international community to back up our calls for civilian protection, a ceasefire, hostage release, unimpeded aid, and respect for the basic rules of war. I am furious at our collective inability to stop the horror. 

Meanwhile we have made progress on Syria, despite the security, political, and funding challenges. As I told the Brussels conference and UN Security Council, we’re getting aid to millions, clearing munitions so people can return home, getting power and water back on. We have a practical engagement with the authorities, and count on their support to ease registration for humanitarian NGOs, especially as we’re allocating a higher proportion of funding for Syrian partners. I’ve been challenging us to be problem solvers rather than problem observers. The price of failure will far outweigh the investment we are asking for. 

My last few weeks have otherwise been dominated by the humanitarian reset set out in my last update. OCHA, like so many humanitarian organizations, is cutting its work to match the funding reality – an incredibly difficult exercise, which is felt first hand by colleagues on the ground who are having to reduce lifesaving support to so many: I’m just off a call with Sudanese humanitarians trying to keep an Emergency Response Room in Khartoum going. 

Across the movement, we are deep into the toughest part of the regroup phase, while working to reform and renew. I have been so impressed by the quick work by Humanitarian Coordinators and their teams on where cuts will hit hardest, with support across the system to crunch the numbers and present the brutal choices. There isn’t a single crisis or sector that won’t be hit: in Afghanistan for example, over 220 health facilities have already closed, hitting 1.8m people. In DRC, if the funding situation does not improve, over 6m people are expected to be without life-saving food. The cuts are hitting our ability to get the access needed to save lives; damaging relationships with host authorities and local communities; creating new displacement; and leaving people with unimaginable survival choices. 

We are – where possible – using severity of needs as the starting point for the choices we must make, prioritising the most urgent lifesaving and protection work. We are trying to communicate well with communities hit hardest, use country funds to keep local NGOs going, slash logistics and administration costs, and move to shared services by default. The new cross sector communications team is up and running, explaining what we do, how we do it, and why it matters. 

I am aiming to prioritize implementation of the humanitarian reset in the next quarter. As part of this I will set out changes to the UN coordination architecture, reductions in activity, and a streamlined OCHA structure. Following recent visits to Brussels, Geneva, and Bern, I’ll be heading to Myanmar, Beijing, and Afghanistan. 

I’m also closely involved in the UN Secretary General’s UN80 reform initiative. It is better to aim too high and fail than too low and succeed. We need to reduce duplication, layers, and bureaucracy; and focus on saving lives, stopping conflicts, and bringing the world together to prepare for the challenges of the future. This is a real test for the UN’s capacity to reform itself. Urgent debates ahead.

I switched off at the end of March for a significant birthday. My old friends kindly suggested that this job is helping me look even older. Music recommendation: Colors by Black Pumas. Podcast: Nick Cave’s Desert Island Discs. Book: “How to stay sane in an age of division” by Elif Shafak.

Stay sane.

Tom