Lydia Poole discusses "The Big Humanitarian Rethink," a digital consultation she launched with Ben Parker to capture diverse perspectives on reforming the humanitarian system during a period of unprecedented funding cuts. The consultation revealed two distinct camps: "reimaginers" who advocate for radical transformation addressing power imbalances, and "improvers" who prefer incremental change while preserving humanitarian principles. Despite these differences, both groups agree on the need to maintain some international crisis response capabilities. As the humanitarian sector navigates this watershed moment, Lydia emphasizes the urgent need to make difficult choices about what to preserve while avoiding a disorderly collapse of vital services. This conversation offers rare insight into a sector at a crossroads, balancing immediate operational demands with the opportunity for meaningful, long-overdue reform.

Today's Guest

Lydia Poole is a humanitarian financing expert with over 15 years of experience. Along with Ben Parker, Lydia co-created "The Big Humanitarian Rethink" citizen consultation, an initiative to collect diverse perspectives on humanitarian system reform following recent funding cuts. Lydia previously wrote an article published by The New Humanitarian addressing the risks of leaving key decisions about humanitarian system reform to a small group of leaders with vested interests.

You'll Learn

• How Lydia and Ben launched a digital consultation to give voice to diverse perspectives on humanitarian reform
• The major divide between "reimaginers" and "improvers" in approaches to humanitarian reform
• What both camps agree on despite their different visions for the future
• How the humanitarian system is responding to the current funding crisis
• Why traditional humanitarian financing models may be at odds with localization efforts
• The common ground that could unite different perspectives on reform

Resources

• The Big Humanitarian Rethink citizen consultation 
• Find Lydia Poole on LinkedIn
• "Improving or Reimagining? Mapping key narratives on the Future of Development Cooperation," by Prof. dr. Sara Kinsbergen & Dr. Zunera Rana, Radboud University, April 2025.