Our director Daria spoke at the #CHA25 event hosted by the Center for Humanitarian Action in Berlin. The discussion focused on pooled funds, with international NGOs in attendance.
- “It was there that I deeply felt that many have long realized – the humanitarian system as we knew it has been irreversibly broken,” Daria noted. During the event, everyone talked about funding cuts, declining donor support, and the struggle to maintain programs. But almost no one spoke about rethinking the system itself. The discussion centered on preserving existing structures and working with limited resources, while remaining silent on how to reduce the need for humanitarian aid, what an exit strategy for international NGOs looks like, and what it means to no longer be needed in a certain country.
Daria says:
- “You cannot apply business thinking to social or humanitarian work. In business, sustainable development is about long-term profit. But in mission-driven work, success means doing your job so well that one day the organization can close down. That is the vision.
Yet many international NGOs still seem to dream of preserving their own existence. It’s time to honestly ask ourselves: What is true impact?
And isn’t the boldest step for a humanitarian organization to make itself unnecessary?”
