The humanitarian sector is built on principles, learning, and action. But in an increasingly complex world, how do we ensure assistance reaches those who need it most? How do we turn knowledge into meaningful change?
ALNAP podcasts explore these critical questions from different angles. The Learning Curve delves into the challenges of learning in the sector, uncovering barriers to evidence-based action and discussing how we can improve humanitarian response through shared knowledge. A Matter of Priorities tackles the ethical dilemmas of humanitarian aid, asking how we should allocate resources when needs exceed funding.
Join experts, practitioners, and thought leaders in open, honest conversations about the future of humanitarian action.
#withlearningcomeschange
Juliet is ALNAP 's Director. She has 20 years’ experience of humanitarian programming and senior level strategic management in NGOs with a particular focus on performance and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL).
As Host of The Learning Curve, Juliet explores how the sector can take up the wealth of knowledge available.
Alice is Head of Research and Impact, responsible for leading ALNAP ’s research portfolio and guiding the content of its network learning activities.
Alice has ten years’ experience in qualitative research design and evidence-driven policy across a variety of topics in humanitarian action. She is an established research expert on humanitarian effectiveness, evidence uptake, aid sector accountability and innovation, and has research experience in over a dozen countries. Alice earned her PhD from the London School of Economics on NGO accountability mechanisms, and has worked with multilateral institutions, donors and NGOs as a consultant on accountability systems.
Emmy was an ALNAP Research Officer who focussed largely on evidence synthesis and working dynamically across a wide range of workstreams.
Emmy has previous experience of humanitarian response in Pakistan and Central African Republic. She joined ALNAP in 2021 having previously worked at Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors of the World UK, and Sightsavers. She has an MA in International Humanitarian Action from Uppsala University, and a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ed Schenkenberg van Mierop is a co-founder and Executive Director of HERE. He has more than 28 years of experience in humanitarian affairs, forced displacement, and inter-agency collaboration. In these areas, he has led and undertaken major reviews and evaluations in collaboration with governments, UN agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF, the Red Cross/Crescent Movement, and NGOs. Earlier, he was Chief Executive with DARA, a Madrid-based humanitarian research and evaluation organisation, and the head of ICVA, the Geneva-based humanitarian NGO network. Ed started his professional career as humanitarian affairs officer with MSF.
Specific thematic areas on which he has extensive experience and knowledge include: humanitarian principles; inter-agency coordination; forced displacement; protection and rights; and accountability. He has participated in many high-level forums and humanitarian bodies.
Elizabeth Vilkman is a Humanitarian Program Specialist at SIDA
REACH, with on-the-ground perspectives from crisis-affected countries
Senior Research Fellow at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice at Blackfriars Hall at the University of Oxford.
Impact Initiatives
Professor of Development Studies at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp
Independent expert and former GF 2.0 advisory lead
Niklas Rieger is an independent consultant based in Bristol, UK. He used to lead Development Initiative’s portfolio of work on humanitarian and other assistance to crisis contexts that seeks to inform and progress humanitarian system reform.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in Development Studies. Prior to that I obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Bath in Economics and Politics.
Olivier has been Director of Mobilization, Movement & Partnerships at the ICRC since July 2022.
Before joining the ICRC, Olivier was the Senior Adviser for Global Affairs to French President Emmanuel Macron, leading on multilateral issues (UN, G7 & G20), global health and environment, humanitarian, development and human rights. He has worked for the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs (policy planning and foresight division) and Health and Social affairs (Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister). He held various positions at the French Development Agency, including Head of the crisis prevention and post conflict recovery unit, Director for Lebanon and Syria, and Regional Director for the Middle East.
PhD student at the University of Antwerp
Simon Levine is a Research Fellow with the Global Risks and Resilience programme at ODI, London, where he now worries most about livelihoods, protracted crises and resilience. He worked on a variety of development programmes for NGOs for many years, usually in war and post-war contexts such as Mozambique, Cambodia and Burundi.
He then spent nine years living in Uganda, working across Eastern and Central Africa and the Horn of Africa specialising in livelihoods, vulnerability analysis and early response. In Uganda he also developed a passion for land rights, on which he worked extensively. Since returning to England in 2010 to work at ODI, he continues to want the humanitarian system to get fixed and wishes that more research was able to contribute something that actually helped that to happen.
Assistant Executive Director for Program and Policy Development at the UN World Food Programme (WFP)