Beyond subcontracting

This special Humanitarian Leader edition, focused on Yemen, features a commentary piece from Rdhwan Mathana, ‘‘Beyond subcontracting: Rethinking adaptive humanitarian leadership in Yemen’ (page 11).

Mathana’s article speaks directly to humanitarian decision-makers seeking to operationalise localisation beyond rhetoric. It offers practice-based insights from front-line education and protection programs in southern Yemen, showing how Yemeni professionals already perform complex leadership functions—negotiating access, balancing global standards with local expectations, and managing multi-million-dollar portfolios under extreme uncertainty. By reframing local actors from ‘implementing partners’ to co-leaders of strategy and risk, the piece invites senior leaders in UN agencies, INGOs, and donors to rethink how authority, accountability, and resources are shared in protracted crises.

This commentary is also available in Arabic.