The end of humanitarian aid (as we know it)?

Dr Irene Morlino is Visiting Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE and Visiting Professor in International Conflict Management at ESADE Business and Law School in Barcelona. Her research focuses on humanitarian aid effectiveness, EU foreign and security policy, and conflict management. Her book Humanitarian Aid and the European Union. An Analysis of its Effectiveness in the Field has just been published. She has worked with organisations including the World Bank, IFAD, and International IDEA, and has been Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. She holds a PhD in International Relations from LSE.

Etienne Berges is a Senior Humanitarian Adviser at the British Red Cross, where he supports peer-to-peer humanitarian diplomacy across Europe, Africa and MENA. He brings ten years of experience across humanitarian operations, policy influencing and donor engagement, in contexts including Ukraine, South East Asia and the Middle East. He co-founded Kiron France (now UNIR), an NGO opening access to higher education for refugees and asylum seekers. He has published on localisation, principled humanitarian action and cultural heritage in conflict.

Stuart Gordon is Professor in Managing Humanitarianism and Programme Director for the International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies MSc. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, directs the Department of International Development’s humanitarian consultancy programmes, and sits on the editorial board of Disasters. His research and writing examine the roles of institutions in conflict and complex emergencies, with particular focus on interactions between humanitarian organisations, state militaries, non-state armed groups and other security actors. He is interested in two broad themes: firstly, the drivers of humanitarian governance and practice; and secondly the institutions that emerge during situations of armed conflict and their impact on civilian populations. A central strand of his research explores the relationship between humanitarian action and security policy. His work on civil–military relations, stabilisation and statebuilding considers how military and political strategies can shape relief operations, affect perceptions of humanitarian neutrality, and influence the ability of agencies to reach vulnerable communities. Taken together, Gordon’s research examines how humanitarian action works, fails and is politicised in contemporary conflict. It combines attention to humanitarian principles with a practical understanding of the institutions, armed actors and policy systems that shape the lives of civilians in crisis. Prior to joining LSE, he was a senior adviser on the UK’s Helmand and Afghan strategies, working with the military, diplomatic and development branches of the UK government. He has conducted field research in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Uganda, Somalia and Ethiopia. He has also served in the UK Armed Forces, in both the RAF and Army, as a regular and reserve officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Andrea Koulaïmah is the Director Sub-Saharan Africa, LAC, South, East and South-East Asia and Pacific in the European Commission’s Directorate General for civil protection and humanitarian aid operations (DG ECHO) since 1st May 2020. Ms Koulaïmah has been working in DG ECHO since 2000, in different operational and management capacities. She has overseen EU humanitarian aid operations, at different levels of responsibility, as head of unit for Sudan, South Sudan and Central Africa, and as deputy head of unit and desk officer in several protracted crises (Balkans, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Sahrawi refugees). She also has a strong resources management background, as head of unit responsible for the management of the ECHO field network worldwide between 2015 and 2020 and, earlier in her career, as deputy head of unit of DG ECHO’s legal and financial unit. Prior to joining DG ECHO, Ms Koulaïmah served in the EU Delegation in Cairo and, at the start of her professional career, she was a researcher at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht. Ms Koulaïmah graduated in political science/international relations (University of Strasbourg and Trinity College Dublin) and holds a Masters in European Studies from the College of Europe (Bruges- Belgium). She is fluent in Spanish (mother tongue), English, French and Arabic. Ms Koulaïmah is a visiting professor at the College of Europe’s International Relations Department where she teaches a course on European Humanitarian Aid policy.

Sara is Chief Executive at ODI Global, where she was previously Managing Director. She was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as an Independent Eminent Person for the 2025 peacebuilding architecture review, and earlier served as the Chair of his Seventh Advisory Group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund. She is the Chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Reimagining Aid, as well as a member of its Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative’s High-Level Group, Managing Editor of Disasters journal, a trustee of the boards of Muslim Aid and the Centre for Disaster Philanthropy, and Chair of British Fencing. She has led a high-profile UN response in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, acted as an observer at the IGAD Sudan peace process and lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam. Sara has served on a range of executive and advisory boards, including The New Humanitarian, SOS Sahel, Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre, the UN Association of the UK and UNFPA’s ICPD25 High-Level Commission. She holds a doctorate in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds and has written extensively on conflict and humanitarian affairs. She was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and international development. She is the creator and host of ODI’s flagship podcast ‘Think Change’.

Hugo is the Director of the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice at Blackfriars Hall at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and Chair of the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights. He is also a Visiting Professor at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Academy at Suzhou University and at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University. Hugo’s career has combined academia, policymaking, humanitarian diplomacy and frontline relief operations. Hugo has worked for Save the Children, the United Nations, Oxford Brookes University, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and been on the boards of Oxfam GB and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). From 2015 to 2020 he was Head of Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). His books include: Humanitarianism 2.0: New Ethics for the Climate Emergency, Hurst 2024; Solferino 21: Warfare, Civilians and Humanitarians in the Twenty First Century, Hurst, 2022, Humanitarian Ethics: The Morality of Aid in War and Disaster, Hurst, 2015, and Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War, Hurst, 2007.

Marian is a South Korean national currently serving as the Head of Partnership and Deputy Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) London Global Office since July 2025. Previously, she was the Director of the WFP Seoul Global Office from 2021 to 2024 where she was responsible for WFP’s strategic partnership with the Government of the Republic of Korea.

From 2017 to 2021, as WFP’s Deputy Country Director in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Marian oversaw WFP Operations in the country and worked closely with development partners and the Government of Lesotho to address hunger and malnutrition in the country while managing the Programme, Policy, Supply Chain, and Budget/Planning departments of the WFP Country Office.

Marian served in WFP HQ as the Senior Policy Officer and Team Leader in the Government Partnerships Division from 2011 to 2013 and then later as Advisor to the Deputy Executive Director for Operations until 2017.

Marian joined the World Food Programme in 2003 and worked in the Donor Relations Division for two years and served in Sudan and South Sudan in 2005 where she served in a variety of programme, partnership and communications roles until 2011.

Before joining WFP, Marian worked with McKinsey and Company in the Seoul Office from 1999 to 2002. Marian holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in European languages and literature from he University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is married with one daughter.