The Good Humanitarian

The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre | ISS

Have you ever wondered what it really costs to do good in a world where crises are cascading and growing faster than the resources to respond to them? Humanitarian work is often seen as selfless and heroic, but behind every response are complex choices about money, safety, power and whose needs are met first. And the system itself? Still a patchwork of organisations, people, policies and pressures, where even the best intentions can collide with reality. In Season 2 of 'The Good Humanitarian', we’re exploring The Cost of Doing Good.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Who pays for all this anyway?

    We’re starting with a big one: Money. Across the world, governments are cutting development and humanitarian budgets. At the same time, aid is increasingly criticised, politicised and in some places even criminalised. Have you ever wondered what it really costs to do good in a world where crises are cascading and growing faster than the resources to respond to them? Join guests Loreine dela Cruz from the Center for Disaster Preparedness in the Philippines and Akke Boere from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Netherlands. Together we will take a look at the cost of humanitarian aid. In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn and check out our website.

  2. Season 2 Trailer

    Welcome back to The Good Humanitarian

    Join us for season 2 where we dive into 'The Cost of Doing Good'.

    Welcome back to The Good Humanitarian

  3. 03/13/2025

    Can humanitarians ever be neutral?

    Returning guests Professor Thea Hilhorst and Dr Rodrigo Mena join us for this fifth and final episode of this season where together we will look at everything from the meaning of neutrality, how it works in practice, its challenges as well as some examples. As one of the key principles underpinning the humanitarian field and with an increasingly polarised world, what does it mean to be neutral and how does this look in a field made up of people with inherent human characteristics made up of values, emotions and ideologies? In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/

  4. 03/06/2025

    Making a bad situation much much worse: when disaster meets conflict

    Why is it that similar disasters affect some places in a much more severe way than others? And what happens when a country living through a conflict all of a sudden is faced with a disaster? We are joined by Dr Rodrigo Mena, deputy director of the HSC, for this fourth episode to unpack the complexities that is the intersection between conflicts and disasters within the humanitarian arena. In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/

  5. 02/13/2025

    The climate is changing, and people are moving

    Dr Sonja Fransen, senior researcher at The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre, joins us for this third episode of 'The Good Humanitarian' where we unravel the complexities of climate change and its affect on the movement of people, but also on what it means for people in refugee and displacement settings such as camps. In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: https://www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl/

  6. 02/06/2025

    Humanitarians are always good, right?

    In this second episode of 'The Good Humanitarian', we are joined by Dr Kaira Zoe Cañete, senior researcher at The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre with a focus on disaster recovery, humanitarian ethics and feminist alternatives in humanitarian action. Together with the co-hosts, Kaira unpacks the principles that underpin humanitarian work, allowing us to go deeper into understanding how sometimes humanitarians can cause more harm than good. In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn, Bluesky and check out our website: www.humanitarianstudiescentre.nl⁠

  7. 01/30/2025

    Thousands of crises, thousands of responses

    In this opening episode of 'The Good Humanitarian', presenters Sarah Njoroge and Tom Ansell are joined by Professor Dorothea Hilhorst, Director of The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre. They'll discuss why each crisis should have its own bespoke response (and why it often doesn't), the problems of reducing humanitarian work to just "donor and recipients", when a humanitarian response ends and what the term 'localisation' actually means. In the podcast we also question: What makes a "good" humanitarian? We would like to hear from you. Leave a comment here or via social media. Stay up to date by following the HSC on LinkedIn. The Good Humanitarian is a podcast by The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC), based at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Interested in the HSC? Check out our website

  8. Trailer

    Welcome to The Good Humanitarian

    The Good Humanitarian

Trailers

About

Have you ever wondered what it really costs to do good in a world where crises are cascading and growing faster than the resources to respond to them? Humanitarian work is often seen as selfless and heroic, but behind every response are complex choices about money, safety, power and whose needs are met first. And the system itself? Still a patchwork of organisations, people, policies and pressures, where even the best intentions can collide with reality. In Season 2 of 'The Good Humanitarian', we’re exploring The Cost of Doing Good.

Information

  • Creator
    The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre | ISS
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre | ISS
  • Show Website
    The Good Humanitarian

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