Photo: Flickr / Red Cross Climate Change Centre

Learning from disruption: evolution, revolution or status quo?

19–21 October 2021 | Virtual event | #ALNAP21

Watch recordings Read the meeting study

Over the past 17 months external forces have brought about unplanned and unanticipated disruptions to humanitarian action. The 2021 ALNAP Meeting looked at whether these external shocks have the power to make permanent changes to how the humanitarian system works and who delivers aid.

Guest speakers included:

Jan Egeland, Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council and former UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator
Wafaa Saeed Abdelatef, Acting Director, Coordination Division, UNOCHA
Heba Aly, Chief Executive Officer, The New Humanitarian
Jeremy Konyndyk, Executive Director, COVID-19, Office of the Administrator, USAID
Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General, International Federation Red Cross/Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Hibak Kalfan, Executive Director, Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR)

Jump to

Opening and closing sessions

'Voices on disruption' series

Sessions on disrupting humanitarian practice

Sessions on the role of tech

Sessions on locally-led leadership

Sessions on disrupting the balance of power

Meeting materials

2021 ALNAP Meeting

Learning from Disruption: 2021 ALNAP Meeting Study

Khan, A., Khan F. and Dewulf, A. with Obrecht, A. and Mitchell, J.

Opening and closing sessions

Watch #ALNAP 21 sessions featuring Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC); Wafaa Saeed Abdelatef, Acting Director of the Coordination Division with UN OCHA; Heba Aly, CEO of The New Humanitarian; Jeremy Konyndyk, Executive Director for COVID-19 with Office of the Administrator, USAID; Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); and Hibak Kalfan, Executive Director of the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR).

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Opening Session

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Opening Session

ALNAP, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), The New Humanitarian

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Closing session and high-level panel

ALNAP, USAID, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), NEAR

'Voices on disruption' series

Catch up with our #ALNAP21 'Voices on disruption' series, featuring voices from the British Red Cross, GOAL Zimbabwe, Greenpeace, World Vision, Ground Truth Solutions and Integrity Global telling us how they have responded to the disruptions of the past 20 months

Voices on disruption: What are the challenges of remote evaluations?

ALNAP, British Red Cross

Voices on disruption: How has COVID-19 affected GOAL’s work in Zimbabwe?

Voices on disruption: How can we manage the effects of disruption in complex settings?

Voices on disruption: How has COVID disrupted children's lives in crisis contexts?

World Vision International

Sessions on disrupting humanitarian practice

Watch #ALNAP 21 sessions featuring perspectives from the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Groupe URD, All India Disaster Management Institute (AIDMI), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), I Lead Climate, Tufts University, ALNAP, World Food Programme (WFP), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), HELP Logistics, United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR), Action contre la Faim (ACF), DP World, Elrha, Makerere University, Asia Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) and Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF).

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Evaluation in the time of COVID-19

ALNAP, UNICEF, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Health responses during COVID-19: documenting experiences from humanitarian actors

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Health responses during COVID-19: documenting experiences from humanitarian actors

ALNAP, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

Learning to adapt humanitarian action to the effects of climate change

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Learning to adapt humanitarian action to the effects of climate change

ALNAP, Groupe URD, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Tufts University, I Lead Climate

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Links in the chain: collaborative adaptation in humanitarian logistics and supply chains

ALNAP, World Food Programme (WFP), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR), Action Against Hunger

Sessions on the role of tech

Some sessions at #ALNAP21 focused on the role of digital technology in managing and leading disruption.

Catch up with #ALNAP21 recordings of these featuring perspectives from CDAC Network, Tech Matters, UN OCHA's Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC), UNICEF Tajikistan, CARE International, Bioforce and Instituto de Estudios sobre Conflictos y Acción Humanitaria (IECAH), GSMA, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Sesame Workshop, Solidarités International, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), British Red Cross and Prodigy Systems.

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Why aren't digital technologies revolutionising accountability in humanitarian action?

ALNAP, CDAC Network, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

2021 ALNAP Meeting | New training models emerging from the COVID-19 era

2021 ALNAP Meeting | New training models emerging from the COVID-19 era

ALNAP, Primary Care International, Bioforce, Instituto de Estudios sobre Conflictos y Acción Humanitaria (IECAH)

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Trust, misinformation and the role of digital technology in the localisation of information

GSMA, IRC, Sesame Workshop, Solidarites International

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Exploring community-centred approaches to remote management

ALNAP, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), British Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Sessions on locally-led leadership

Watch #ALNAP 21 sessions featuring perspectives from CAFOD UK, Charitas Nigeria, Jireh Doo Foundation (JDF), Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (RRAA), Basmeh and Zeitooneh and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Netherlands, amongst others.

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Is risk really shared between local and international humanitarian actors?

CAFOD, Caritas, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Community-led disruption: what happens when people are in charge?

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Opportunities for indigenous leadership emerging through crisis

ALNAP, Trocaire

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Older people & people with disabilities challenging dominant narratives in humanitarianism

ALNAP, DiDRRN, ASB Indonesia and The Philippines, Sphere, Arbeiter Samariter Bund

Sessions on disrupting the balance of power

Catch up with #ALNAP 21 sessions featuring perspectives from The New Humanitarian, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Mercy Corps, Oxfam International, Oxfam Ghana and Oxfam Iraq.

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Why isn't the system changing?

ALNAP, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), The New Humanitarian, Mercy Corps

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Decolonisation, power and racial justice: mitigating barriers to reporting misconduct

2021 ALNAP Meeting | Decolonisation, power and racial justice: mitigating barriers to reporting misconduct

Meeting materials

Find out how ALNAP Meetings take shape by reading the concept note, agenda and background paper.

Meeting/training

Background paper | 2021 ALNAP Meeting

Khan, A., Khan, F., Dewulf, AL., with Obrecht, A. and Mitchell, J.

Meeting/training

Agenda | 2021 ALNAP Meeting

Meeting/training

Concept note | 2021 ALNAP Meeting