Can dialogue truly shift power? | Power Shift

The New Humanitarian

People affected by crises, and the people who respond to them, have been calling for change and equity for years, but for every reform pledge in Geneva or New York, there’s little movement in Yangon or Juba.

Changing an entire sector is a tall order. But how can an entire system change? In reality, it has to begin with conversations between people.

For months, The New Humanitarian and the Center for Transformational Change sent out invites to people across the power spectrum in the aid world: heads of international humanitarian agencies, environmental, and refugee right activists, you name it. The goal? To set up one-on-one dialogues between people with the power to make decisions and mobilise resources and people who are affected by such decisions.

“People need to be listened to, and when they come in with their own stories, that is a form of power,” argues Lina Srivastava, Power Shift’s moderator and founder of The Center for Transformational Change.

In this first episode of Power Shift, host Melissa Fundira, Adeso executive director Degan Ali, and Srivastava set the stage for conversations to come by highlighting how power inequalities prevent us from addressing humanitarian crises adequately and fairly, and by discussing whether dialogue can ever truly shift power.

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