True Youth Involvement and the Humanitarian Reset

Please note: this transcript is generated using AI

Judy

A lot of young humanitarians between certain ages are struggling. And when I tell you struggling, I mean struggling just get a foot in the door. And then when you do get a foot in the door, it’s, it’s still a fight. I mean, it’s still a fight for survival.

So it’s, it’s, it’s a very difficult balance between how much, I mean, how much you can actually invest in your career as a humanitarian as a young person, or should you start looking elsewhere?

Nwando (host)

Welcome to Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives, a podcast by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy.

My name is Nwabundo Okoh and I bring you a special segment of our podcast with live interviews from the 2026 HNPW, that is the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks held in Geneva over three days earlier this month.

This year’s focus was, fittingly, the humanitarian reset. With 8,000 attending in person and online to 300 sessions organised by 78 Networks and Partnerships, we pondered topics covering the length and breadth of this evolving sector.

One major element stood out, the unmissable presence of youth attending, and importantly, volunteering with the HNPW and UNOCHA Secretariat, I was privileged to speak with Pure ESumeI, a Global Studies Master’s candidate at the University of Geneva. Judy Mwangoma, Jocelyn Keller and Amouki Kaayou, volunteers supporting this year’s HNPW.

They each shared what the Humanitarian Reset means to them as young people currently navigating the humanitarian sector. Let’s hear from Pure Esumei.

Pure

When you think about things like this, you always think about, like, new birth or, reform.

So basically, whenever we talk about the youth, there’s always something that goes on and on about which is, oh, involve them, involve them, involve them. And the true question is, how do you actually involve them and get them to actually be involved

So it’s one thing to have the ideas of involving them and it’s another thing for them to be genuinely involved. Like the session we just had now, a lot of people were talking about, you know, one of the ways we always get used into the system is through internships

But most of the internships are unpaid and these are not like the core positions because these are positions that only last three to six months, longest, maybe a year. But these are not the true involvements. Youths want to be heard, they want to be part of the decision board. And this is what I think.

Whenever they speak on things like this, it’s not just giving them a, corner table by the side, but it’s actually getting them on board as part of the people who are making these decisions for themselves. I know there’s a, there’s an African adage that says it’s only the person who wears the shoe that knows where it hurts.

So if there are problems in the world that affects the youth, it’s only the youths themselves that would know how exactly it’s affecting them and the ways or innovative ideas that can be the solution to this problem. So my idea is just as how this podcast has begun.

It’ll be very important to hear the thoughts of the youths, give them a chance to actually express themselves in ways that they know how to express themselves. Not the, the patterns that we have of you know, there’s a written law, and a written pattern or method of attacking problems or solutions but actually thinking of ways outside the box or outside the books or outside the rules that we often do.

So, so for me it’s you know, true involvement and actually being open minded to learning from different ways than the usual that we’re used to.

Nwando

A lot of conversations this week have focused on localisation and shifting power.

Do you think that shifting power will bring changes and help achieve the humanitarian reset for change?

Pure

There’s two types of change, right? There’s the ones that you would, you would apply and then you will see an effect immediately.

And then there’s a change that, you know, it’s more or less like a seed and then it takes time to grow. So the question exactly for me is what change are we talking about? Are we talking about the change that, you know, we would go online and then see movements like we always do and then at the end of the day it’s something that just trends and then it stops when the trend is over.

Or is it something that will be passed down to generations and people would actually take up an action that happened this year and then it becomes a pattern for the years to come. So it’s, it still boils down to youths being able to actually be part of the decision team.

So if there is something that is being proposed or if there’s an idea that has to be launched, it has to be launched by the youths and for the youths. So it’s still not making a corner table for the youths, but bringing them on board as decision makers.

The question of change, I don’t know the exact way to answer it honestly because I’m a youth myself. I’m still looking for the change that is going to last longer. You know, like in my 30s, I’m going to look back and say, oh, when I was 22 or when I was 25, I did this.

And look at the people who have come before me, behind me. This is what has still happened and this is what has, you know, shaped the world that I live in today.

Nwando

Now, Judy and Jocelyn, can you please share your thoughts about the framing of the humanitarian reset and the current state of the sector from your perspective.

Judy

No, for us, I mean, the reset and whatever happened the last year with the, USAID cuts, so it’s actually more of a threat because now you have people who’ve been let go, who probably have these networks that you haven’t managed to create as a young professional coming back into the job market and competing for the same jobs, which are now even more limited that you are competing for.

Jocelyn

So it’s like, oh, more competition. What do we do now? Yes, and it’s a situation where these NGOs and agencies are given the choice of whether to hire somebody that’s young, that has just graduated, or to hire somebody that has decades of experience for the exact same position and for less pay than they would have taken prior to the budget cuts.

Nwando

Thank you. Jocelyn and Judy, you’ve highlighted a very important, difficult situation that’s currently ongoing in the sector, both for the organisations, for people who have been in the sector for a long time who are now looking for opportunities, and people just entering the sector who are also looking for opportunities.

I do wonder, Judy, in your role as, Education Officer for Action for Development, and Jocelyn in yours as a consultant, how do you see your organisations embracing the reset?

Are there any shifts or is it business as usual?

Judy

It’s business as usual. I feel like there’s a certain. I think, certain age of career, early career professionals that are overlooked to a large extent.

Jocelyn

Yeah, more or less. I feel the same. I feel like it’s a situation where young people really want to get the foot in their door and want to do it in any way possible, whether it’s free labour or volunteering and just trying to get your face out there and hopefully build a contact that will then get to a job.

But nothing feels guaranteed right now in this moment, especially with everything that’s been happening in the humanitarian field with budget.

Nwando

So what are you feeling after the conversations held this week?

Jocelyn

I honestly feel kind of hopeful.

In a strange way. I feel like that it’s gone to such an extreme end that there’s no other option but to make a change, but to allow opportunities for young people, as people in senior positions tend to retire.

And I think that there needs to be a change made or else you’re going to have a bunch of 30 year olds in this field that don’t have the experience to have the positions needed or the experience needed in order to cover the positions of the people that are then retiring. And I have had many conversations with people here who have been volunteers or interns at other organisations and I feel like the storey has all been the same where they love the work that they do, they really love working in this field and are very passionate and have all the energy for it, but the opportunities just haven’t been there for us.

I feel like it has to be some sort of change or evolution in the field and I feel like it could happen with a reset.

Judy

I feel for me it’s a mixed bag. I’m a little on the sceptical side because even when I looked at.

So for part of the work I’m doing, I’m trying to create a strategy because my organisation is more development oriented. So I’m doing a strategy to kind of get into more the humanitarian space to make it more strategic, make it more structured. And so I went on the IASC to try and align ourselves with the interagency CRA committee.

I was looking at the research and I feel like it’s just a lot of rewording of the things that have been discussed for the last 10 years. So localization, locally led, it’s a little bit of the same jargon over and over again but with no clarity still because as I was looking at the reset I wasn’t seeing.

Okay, so if I go there as an organisation, we work on the ground already, it’s not structured, we don’t coordinate with other organisations, which is what we’re trying to do. But if I’m an ngo, people are asking me for help, how am I supposed to know what to do?

That’s not clear on the humanitarian reset currently. Hopefully there’ll be more clarity as we move along. And then on the other hand, in terms of professionals who are then leaving, I feel like it was a case before where people were clinging onto power because I mean NGO UN was a space to be, right?

But then you have these people who are going to leave and then middle mid level professionals who are clinging on not because it’s a place to be, but because that’s what they’ve known for many years. And now resources are even less so they’re even more threatened.

So I specifically speaking for early career professionals like us, I feel like I know it’s such a grand idea, but like a rehaul of the system, I mean, which I think maybe has started to some extent, but I think it really needs. It needs to. There needs to be not a reset, but like a rehaul, like a proper change.

Nwando

Now let’s come to Amouki. How are you feeling about the humanitarian reset? I, think it, in the perfect world, it would make sense if there was some kind of clear pathway towards an actual remodel humanitarian field.

Amouki

It is my understanding that we’re kind of going through one step at a time without a clear long term, overview. I, do believe it is necessary based on, what I’ve been learning, classes and talking to people both within the UN and outside of the UN system.

I just speak that it is kind of a fog in front of us, and I feel like all, humanitarians, both experienced and non experienced, are kind of, not improving. What’s called doing improv at the moment, just trying to accommodate, and try to be flexible.

Some are, luckier than others, as in they’re keeping their job. Some are not as lucky. I’m just trying to, I guess, make a career in this field. And I’m trying to believe the optimistic who told me that things will get better.

I kind of feel like I do not want to make a shift to another field at this point, so I’m going to stick with it. And I entered the field doing refugee settlement because I wanted to help people, and I hope I will keep doing that.

Nwando

Wow. Thank you, Amouki, Jocelyn, Judy, and Pure for speaking so openly and honestly about your experiences, your expectations, and, your passion for this sector. I wish you, sincerely wish you good luck as you navigate this time, and I wish us all good luck as we navigate the humanitarian reset.

Thank you for your time and thank you for listening to Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives, a podcast by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy.