Amidst the chaos of a world on fire – metaphorically and literally – it is worth looking for ways to contribute to the rebuilding of something better.

Humanitarian rethink is a real-time collaborative consultation shaped by participants themselves to find clusters of ideas and opinions. It is completely anonymous, and everyone’s voice is equal. You can vote on other people’s ideas and add your own. The more people participate the better, and the results adapt over time in response to people’s engagement. 

The consultation is the brainchild of Lydia Poole an independent consultant who has worked on humanitarian system reform for many years and and Ben P who currently works for the UN in Juba and is a journalist with a particular interest in data and technology who is doing this in a personal capacity. The initiative is a voluntary one that doesn’t represent any one institution. Its intention is to spark a wider conversation about how to improve the reach, inclusivity, functionality, and sense-making of humanitarian aid reform.

The conversation is being run using pol.is, which is “a real-time survey system that helps identify the different ways a large group of people think about a divisive or complicated topic.” It’s a great tool, and worth investigating even if you don’t want to participate in the discussion (although, to be honest, why wouldn’t you if you’re already on this platform and interested in these kinds of topics?).

How will it work?

The poll has been seeded with some ideas, taken from a range of online discussions and conversations. Every 10 days or so, the organisers will pass on what people are saying to the UN chiefs, donors, and other stakeholders. You will have access to the reporting directly as well. Your posts and votes will be anonymous. You can post what you like, but offensive, duplicative or deliberately disruptive postings may be hidden. The system will ask for your email only if you want to get alerts on new activity,

Will it work?

Who knows? More than 16000 votes have been cast to date on 375 individual statements that range from: “The Global north should provide cash and technical expertise only, not opinions” to “Not everything can be localised, we need to retain some international crisis response capabilities”.

We think it’s worth your attention.

Participate in the survey using this link https://pol.is/6ar9hfisje