Q&A: IFRC's Jagan Chapagain on the fragmenting humanitarian space

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Humanitarian principles are under threat, according to the new secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “There is no replacement for hard work in bringing about the change in delivering humanitarian assistance.” --— Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general, IFRC “Complexities due to the scale of humanitarian need, the security environment, the increased threat to humanitarian workers — the Red Cross has lost more than 100 volunteers in last couple of years in the line of duty — the humanitarian space, [and] the capacity makes humanitarian action [today] very complex for an organization like ours,” said Jagan Chapagain, who picked up the secretary-general role from Elhadj As Sy in February. Chapagain, a Nepali national who joined the Red Cross as a youth volunteer 25 years ago and has since held several positions within IFRC, said there is reason to be worried about the future of humanitarian work. “I do believe that humanitarian principles are under pressure in a number of contexts where we want to operate,” he said, pointing to the increased criminalization of some humanitarian actions — such as helping migrants — and limited access to conflict-stricken places. “Maintaining that neutral and independent humanitarian action becomes challenging in some environments,” he said. Even now, with the COVID-19 response, a number of government decisions are affecting access and the ability to provide support, he added. Speaking to Devex while working remotely from his home in Geneva, Chapagain discussed why everyone should be worried about the future of humanitarian work, the biggest obstacles IFRC faces, and the changes he plans to make. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You're only a few months in, and obviously the current outbreak is taking priority. What were your other priorities for IFRC when taking up the four-year role of secretary-general? First was delivering on today's humanitarian challenges. Pandemic [preparedness and response] was already No. 1, now of course it ties in with COVID-19. The second was moving away from climate advocacy to climate action. We have this deep reach in communities, and if we can mobilize [them] to take some concrete action, I think we could make a real difference. The third has been investing in innovation and digitalization: How do we move as an organization into the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Are we positioned in the right way to take advantage of the progress that's being made in data? The final point was how to continue to strengthen the whole localization agenda. We rely very much on our national societies, their local societies, branches, and their volunteers, but how do we start investing at both levels more systematically? And how do we also support these national Red Crosses to be stronger in their partnerships with the international organization, the private sector, but also with their governments? I find sometimes there is a fragmentation among the membership and the secretariat, but also with other organizations. Today's challenges are too big for any organization to deal with, so [we need to] build stronger partnerships within the Red Cross family but also in the external world. The other block is management: How do we do these things more responsibly? And as a secretariat and federation, how do we become more inclusive in our workforce, in our volunteers, staff, and governments, both in gender and diversity? Getting both the effective management processes and the diversity and inclusiveness that's required of us to be a truly 21st-century organization. What are the biggest obstacles you think the organization currently faces? I think there is a big fragmentation of humanitarian actions globally. I do believe that despite the push from the World Humanitarian Summit, we haven’t made tremendous progress in reducing those fragmentations. That means, of course, the overlapping of day-to-day actions and the cost implications of fragmentation. Maybe [another] point is the number of concurrent humanitarian crises, and some of them are so protracted. So it's just the pressure on the humanitarian organizations but also on the donors having to continue to sustain the humanitarian actions for years after years, [which] starts putting strain on an organization like ours. These are some of the challenges that I think are not particularly unique to the Red Cross but that I think many other organizations are also facing. I think the only way we can make progress on this [is by] coming together in a strong, coordinated mechanism, being more flexible in some of the tools, guidelines, and policies, and really start bridging these humanitarian, development, and security gaps — particularly humanitarian-development gaps because that clears a lot of fragmentation [in] the way the programs get funded. There's been some progress around that, but I believe not enough. When you say humanitarian principles are under threat, are you worried about the future of humanitarian work? I think we should be worried because some of the humanitarian actions are now being criminalized — for example, support to migrants. If this trend was to continue — and we have seen the nationalistic [approach], even from some of the countries in Europe who have been the champions of human rights in the past ... I think we should be worried. But at the same time, I do believe that there is sufficient support from a sufficient number of governments and humanitarian actors that this is not the right direction to move in. So I think we still have a hope to turn some of these things around, but some of the trends haven't been very encouraging. In this new role, are there any big changes that you're planning to make? I had thought of a big plan to implement from March, but because of this crisis, it’s delayed by a few weeks. What I'm trying to do is look at the role of the secretariat and strengthen internal relationships with our members and within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. One of the refocuses of the federation will be pulling the membership together with the secretariat to become a much more harmonized, coordinated international federation. The second focus is a much bigger emphasis on the institutional development of the national societies. It's part of the localization agenda but also in our organizational set-up and on our resource allocations. Within that, we are putting a special emphasis on the volunteers and the young people and increasing gender diversity. I think the third emphasis is around how we organize our work with the member states. What happens is we have probably 17 to 20 members coming together to support a particular national society. At times, this is not well coordinated, and there is a duplication of functions. So we are putting a big emphasis on what I call “the member support” and how different members can come together with the secretariat so that we avoid a duplicated set-up and expenditure in countries. It will require a totally new way of operating and that will require two to three years to develop because it requires big system changes within the secretariat but also within the membership. With that in mind, what do you think people should know about you as you aim to make some of these changes? Probably the key thing for me as a leader ... is I think success comes from hard work that's done with a sense of purpose. There is no replacement for hard work in bringing about the change in delivering humanitarian assistance. The second thing I believe in is integrity in behavior and actions. I think in organizations like ours particularly, it becomes extremely important to ensure a very high [level of] integrity in our behavior and in our actions. The third thing is a really high level of professionalism and professional knowledge and confidence in taking decisions and in finding solutions as a leader. These are the few things I will bring as a secretary-general to the international federation. And I think people can count on me. I may not be a very charismatic person, but I believe I'm very authentic — I mean, what I say, and I do what I say. That's what people can expect from me.