In this new Humanitarian Leader paper, ‘When the system cannot hold: Designing an antifragile humanitarianism’, Nanki K. Chawla dissects how the abrupt suspension of U.S. humanitarian aid in early 2025, in parallel with the famines in Gaza and Sudan, has exposed the fragility of the international aid system and triggered a sector-wide reckoning.
Written from the perspective of Chawla’s experience as a humanitarian practitioner, this paper argues that current structures are brittle: designed for stability and repeatedly failing under volatility.
Chawla explores how an ‘antifragile’ humanitarian model could not just withstand, but improve from disruption. Four design principles are proposed: confronting power and political realities, embracing uncertainty, doing less but better, and respecting the agency, perspectives and leadership of people affected by crisis, guarding against elite capture.
