16th April 2025
Thank you to our speakers and everyone who joined us on 16 April 2025 for this HLA webinar in the Shift Series. Watch the recording and view the slide decks below.
About this webinar
In this insights-filled webinar, we reflect on a 15-month collaboration between the Humanitarian Leadership Academy and Léaslíne Consulting Ltd aimed at strengthening local actors’ capacities in both crisis and business continuity management during times of significant uncertainty and adversity.
We heard the panellists’ key lessons learned from this collaboration, and local leadership insights and reflections on their engagement with this initiative.
Tune in to gain first-hand insights on crisis management and local leadership, particularly in the context of humanitarian response in Poland and Türkiye.
Speakers
- Kamila Wujec, Regional Learning Lead – Strategic Leadership Programmes, Humanitarian Leadership Academy
- Ruairi McDermott, Director, Léaslíne Consulting Ltd
- Naomi Higham, Director, Naomi Higham Consultancy
- Marcin Piotrowski, Founder, Folkowisko Humanitarian Foundation, Poland
- Agnieszka Kosowicz, President & Founder, Fundacja Polskie Forum Migracyjne, Poland
- Nuha Boga, Programme & Operations Director, Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development Association, Türkiye
Hosted by Izzy Quilter, Head of Research & Evidence, HLA
About the speakers
Kamila Wujec
Kamila Wujec is the Strategic Leadership Lead at the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA). In her role, Kamila is responsible for managing the HLA’s leadership programs which aim at supporting locally led action and capacity strengthening in crisis response settings. Most recently she has focused on response projects in Ukraine and Türkiye/Syria. Her work involves programme management, leadership development, learning design and delivery, coaching and mentoring. Kamila is a certified Coach, Trainer and systems psychodynamic consultant, focusing on systemic leadership.
Ruairi McDermott
Ruairi McDermott is an experienced leader with over two decades of global experience in the humanitarian and development sectors. As Director of Léaslíne Consulting Ltd, he provides strategic guidance on complex restructuring, risk management, capacity strengthening, and change management initiatives for international organizations, focusing primarily on dynamic humanitarian responses, including the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Previously, he held senior leadership roles, including Regional Operations and Humanitarian Response Director at Save the Children International, with a $400 million annual portfolio across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Prior to this Ruairi worked as a Country Director for a ten-year period across a number of different organisations, including in South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt and Boliva. Ruairi has extensive practical expertise leading and managing multi-cultural teams working at the forefront of complex and highly uncertain humanitarian response gleaned from field to global level roles.
Naomi Higham
Naomi Higham is the Director of Naomi Higham Consultancy Ltd. She holds over 10 years of experience working in organisations in both middle and senior management roles, including in high risk and volatile contexts, and has been working as an independent consultant for 18 months. Naomi has previously collaborated with Léaslíne Consulting Ltd on various pieces of work for clients in relation to localisation and risk management, and was a co-facilitator for the crisis management workshops in Türkiye and Poland in January this year.
Agnieszka Kosowicz
Agnieszka Kosowicz is founder and President of Polish Migration Forum Foundation, one of key NGOs involved in supporting refugees and migrants in Poland. Polish Migration Forum has been providing direct assistance to persons with migration background in legal and integration issues, psychological wellbeing, education, maternity and socio-economic inclusion for over 18 years. PFM important role is advocacy and capacity building.
Running a small, 15-member organization prior to 2022 she has expanded the team to over 115 staff and over 100 volunteers to respond to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis. Agnieszka is also a co-president of the Migration Consortium, a cooperation platform for Polish NGOs working in the migration area which built a network of 61 organizations from across the country to exchange and support each other during the response. Agnieszka is a former journalist, writes about migration, engages in capacity building and teaching on migration and diversity.
Marcin Piotrowski
Marcin Piotrowski is the founder of the Folkowisko Humanitarian Foundation Poland and an expert in crisis management and cross-sector cooperation. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, he has been actively involved in humanitarian aid, organizing large-scale logistics operations to support refugees and war-affected communities.
Nuha Boga
Nuha Boga is the Program and Operations Director at Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development Association (ISSDA), a social enterprise in Türkiye. She has over ten years of experience designing and leading development programs with a focus on youth and children’s well-being, social and economic inclusion. Her work centers on building cross-sector partnerships and supporting long-term community resilience, particularly in regions affected by crises such as the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye. She brings a development-oriented perspective to strengthening local leadership and community-driven solutions.
Izzy Quilter [host]
Izzy is a senior impact, monitoring, research and evaluation specialist with over 15 years of experience in social justice, international development, and humanitarian sectors, specializing in programming, monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning. Much off my work has focused around the themes of gender equity, public health, and localization, I am passionate about evidencing focus on systems and social behavior change and working on initiatives for children and young people.
About the HLA Webinar Series
The HLA Webinar Series is an online initiative designed to connect, inform and inspire humanitarians from around the world. We promote information sharing and knowledge exchange on topical issues facing the sector.
Through these regular free online sessions, we strive to bring you fresh and engaging insights from a diverse range of speakers ranging from seasoned leaders to more recent entrants to the sector.
The Shift Webinar Series explores dialogues, on-the-ground initiatives, and experiences related to localisation efforts aimed at shifting power dynamics and resources within the humanitarian sector.