DevelopmentAid Dialogues

Епизоде

• Cheap cures, fragile systems: Inside the ongoing fight to end neglected tropical diseases. A conversation with Dr. Wendy Harrison. 15.06.2026 39мин

  Neglected tropical diseases affect more than 1.5 billion people, close to one in six worldwide, yet they remain among the least visible and mediatized health problems on the planet. The medicines to treat most of them already exist, often for less than US$0.50 a dose. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, host Hisham Allam speaks with Dr. Wendy Harrison, CEO of Unlimit Health, about why that arithmetic has not been enough, and what it will take to end diseases that feed on poverty and ...
• Beyond Bottomless Wallets: The Strategic Reality of Gulf Economic Diplomacy. A Dialogue with Damyana Bakardzhieva 06.05.2026 25мин

  As the ongoing U.S./Israel–Iran war reverberates across the region—affecting energy markets, transport routes, and economic stability in the Middle East and North Africa—the question for the development sector is becoming more urgent: can Gulf donors sustain their expanding role in global aid, or will their priorities shift inward? In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Dr. Damyana Bakardzhieva, Senior Research Fellow at the Anwar Gargash Dipl...
• Reclaiming Civic Space Amid Global Repression: A dialogue with Lotfullah Najafizada from Afghanistan ahead of the Ottawa Civic Space Summit 08.04.2026 24мин

  In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Lotfullah Najafizada, an Afghan journalist and founder of Amu TV, a Washington-based international news outlet reaching audiences inside and outside Afghanistan. With nearly 20 years on Afghan media frontlines—including over a decade as Tolo News director and multiple Press Freedom Awards— he joined us ahead of the Ottawa Civic Space Summit, a global platform to resist repression and reimagine inclusive d...
• From Starlink to Scarcity: Dialogue with Jonathan Criss—the SpaceX Engineer Solving Earth’s Water Crisis 25.03.2026 20мин

  In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Jonathan Criss, CEO and Founder of Vital Lyfe. After more than 13 years working on Dragon and Starlink, from cargo racks to reusable spacecraft, Criss left to establish Vital Lyfe, a company building small-scale purification systems for remote villages, disaster zones and infrastructure-poor communities already feeling the pressure of climate change. "All the way throughout my SpaceX career, it was just another...
• Fadi Bou Ali: Green and Blue Bonds Between Promise and Hard Reality 04.03.2026 27мин

  In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam interviewed Fadi Bou Ali, a sustainable finance specialist working at the intersection of capital markets and climate solutions, for an in-depth look at how green and blue bonds are reshaping climate finance. Fadi, an expert within ABAAD - Resource Centre for Gender Equality, explains that green bonds and regular loans are “identical twins with different jobs”: structurally similar but governed by a legal contract that st...
• NGOs: From Band-aids to Real Impact. Breaking Silos with NCA’s Linda Nordby 18.02.2026 22мин

  Every year, the World NGO Day is a moment to recognize the work nonprofits and community-based organizations do in some of the world’s toughest places—and to be honest about the pressures they face, from shrinking civic space to falling budgets and rising security risks. To mark the day, DevelopmentAid Dialogues host Hisham Allam speaks with Linda Nordby, Head of the Humanitarian Division at Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), about what it really means for an international NGO to work “together with...
• Why big donors can’t deliver without NGOs: A dialogue with UNICEF’s Dara Johnston 04.02.2026 20мин

  In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues—marking International NGO Day at the end of February—podcast host Hisham Allam interviewed Dara Johnston, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for UNICEF in Palestine, for an in-depth look at how nonprofits complement big institutions on the ground. With a month-long series spotlighting NGOs' grassroots role in crises, community voices and global agendas, this conversation zeroes in on water, sanitation and hygiene access for the most vulnerable....
• Reframing Dutch Aid: Steven Collet on Mutual Interests and Smart Partnerships in 2026 21.01.2026 30мин

  Reframing Dutch Aid: Steven Collet on Mutual Interests and Smart Partnerships in 2026 How does the international aid sector survive shrinking budgets? Hisham Allam asks Steven Collet, Deputy Director-General of International Cooperation at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With a background ranging from the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) to diplomatic missions in Tanzania and Vietnam, Collet knows the terrain cold. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, he provides ...
• Who really benefits from COP summits? Paulo C. De Miranda on power, money and climate reality 08.01.2026 39мин

  In climate politics, it is easy to treat COP summits as a travelling show: intense media noise, careful drafting marathons, and then a quick shift to the next crisis. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, host Hisham Allam talked with Paulo C. De Miranda about when these summits stopped being just diplomacy and started to matter for people, balance sheets and fragile communities. Paulo, Chairman and Co-Founder of DEEP and a senior executive in impact management, argued that COPs ...
• UNOPS Rewires Aid Accountability: Tracking Scope 3 Emissions in the Development Sector (A Conversation with Samantha Stratton-Short) 17.12.2025 26мин

  The United Nations Office for Project Services, widely known as UNOPS, is pushing climate accountability into the core of development work by tackling the most elusive part of its carbon footprint: Scope 3 emissions. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, host Hisham Allam speaks with Samantha Stratton-Short, Head of Strategic Initiatives, Infrastructure and Project Management at UNOPS and Manager of the UNOPS Climate Action Programme, about a new methodology designed to map, measure, a...
• Raj M. Desai: Rethinking Development Finance in an Age of Shrinking Aid 03.12.2025 32мин

  International development is heading into a crunch moment, and this episode with Professor Raj M. Desai puts numbers, mechanisms, and politics around what “shrinking aid” really means for countries that still depend on it—especially in the context of USAID cuts and the growing push toward blended finance. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam speaks with Desai, a leading scholar of foreign aid and development finance at Georgetown University and the Brookings ...
• Rebecca Thissen: Putting Climate Justice at the Heart of COP30 27.11.2025 19мин

  In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam interviewed Rebecca Thissen, Global Advocacy Lead at CAN International, for an in-depth look at the real outcomes of COP30 in Belem, Brazil. Thissen, a veteran defender of climate justice, shared her perspective as a COP30 participant on how high-stakes negotiations and geopolitical tensions shaped both the atmosphere and the decisions at this much-anticipated summit. Thissen described COP30 as “very challenging,” an...
• Beyond the Chatbot: Why AI in Healthcare Still Needs the Human Touch. Insights with Prof. Krishnan Ganapathy 19.11.2025 35мин

  Artificial intelligence is changing the way we think about healthcare, offering new ways to connect, diagnose, and support patients—especially through telemedicine. More people than ever are speaking to their doctor from home, getting advice online, and sharing data from their devices. It’s fast, it’s convenient, and it’s full of promise. But is it enough? Where does technology stop and real human insight begin? In a recent episode of Development Aid Dialogues, host Hisham Allam sat dow...
• Artificial Intelligence and Telemedicine: Human Judgment in the Digital Era with Dr. Jan Niclas Strickling 06.11.2025 28мин

  The age of artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare delivery worldwide, with telemedicine at the forefront of this transformation. In episode five of the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam speaks with Dr. med. Jan Niclas Strickling, a German board-certified interventional cardiologist who has played a key role in advancing telemedicine through Germany’s certified centers and holds multiple certifications from the German Society of Cardiology. “AI is redefining w...
• Shadows Of Conflict: Why Some Emergencies Get Left Behind. A Quick-exchange with Desiree Ketabchi from OXFAM 22.10.2025 15мин

  The global humanitarian landscape is marked by stark contrasts: while some crises like Ukraine dominate international attention and resources, others such as Sudan, the Sahel, and Haiti struggle in the shadows. In this episode of the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam had a lightning interview with Désirée Ketabchi, Head of Humanitarian Action & Advocacy at Oxfam Belgium and a Brussels-based expert with experience at the European Parliament and Première Urgence Internatio...
• Navigating the Aid Front Lines with Head of OCHA's UAE office Sajeda Shawa 08.10.2025 31мин

  World Humanitarian Day 2025, observed globally on August 19, stands as a solemn tribute to the courage and sacrifice of aid workers delivering hope amid crises. In this episode of the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam speaks with Sajeda Shawa, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the United Arab Emirates. With over 18 years of leadership in humanitarian affairs across the Middle East and beyond, Sajeda brings a rare combina...
• Transparency to the Bone: Rethinking Remote Aid with Ina Bluemel 24.09.2025 34мин

  The hard truth of modern humanitarian action was this: access had closed, risks had risen, and remote delivery had become unavoidable. In this episode of the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast (Season 3), host Hisham Allam spoke with Ina Bluemel—a veteran of emergency health, WASH, and logistics leadership across WHO, IFRC, and multiple NGOs—about what it took to keep aid effective when workers could not set foot on site, frameworks felt rigid, and trust was under strain. Bluemel set the ...
• Beyond the Aid Cliff: Dr. Julius Sindi on What Comes After the Donor Exit 10.09.2025 44мин

  The age of abundant Western aid is ending—and this time, no rebound is guaranteed. In this episode of the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam speaks with Dr. Julius Kirimi Sindi, a systems innovator and director of the Gates Foundation–backed Catalyze Impact Initiative, about how global development must adapt before it unravels. Drawing from decades of leadership in African research and reform, Sindi argues that this funding shift isn’t just financial—it’s existential. “We are...
• Beyond the Flames and the Heatwaves: Robin Degron on Europe and the Mediterranean Basin’s Climate Crisis 30.07.2025 36мин

  Devastating wildfires and intense heatwaves are sweeping across continents—from Indonesia’s burning rainforests and Canada’s parched woodlands to Latin America and, of course, Europe’s Mediterranean coasts. The scale and frequency of these disasters are reminders that climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a global emergency demanding action at every level. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam speaks with Robin Degron, Director of Plan Bleu (...
• Can One Crisis Solve Another? Debt-for-Nature Swaps with Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine 23.07.2025 31мин

  As mounting debt strangles public services and climate disasters escalate, a provocative idea is gaining ground: what if countries could trade their debt burdens for environmental action? In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast, host Hisham Allam speaks with Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, Director General of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC), about debt-for-nature swaps—a mechanism that promises relief for both treasuries and threatened ecosystems. From Leb...