The Future of Humanitarian Aid with Juan Chaves-Gonzalez, UN-OCHA

Since 2025, the humanitarian community has been grappling with new challenges due to political change, shifting global priorities and donor policies and evolving humanitarian crises. At the same time, humanitarian needs have only increased primarily driven by conflicts. As advisor on the Future to the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Juan Chaves-Gonzalez moderates the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Listening Channel, a place to imagine what humanitarian action should look like by 2035, and will share some of the trends emerging from these conversations.

About the speaker
Juan Chaves-Gonzalez is a political scientist with over 20 years of experience in conflict prevention, peace-building, development, and humanitarian action. He is the lead advisor for crisis risk financing at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and adviser on the Future to the Emergency Relief Coordinator. At OCHA’s Climate and Innovation Section—established in 2026 to strengthen anticipatory action, climate, and crisis risk financing—Juan develops financing solutions to make humanitarian response more efficient and adaptive. He has previously supported humanitarian pooled funds, localization efforts, and initiatives linking public health and crisis response. Earlier in his career, he worked on peacebuilding and recovery in Colombia, his home country. He writes on humanitarian ethics, innovation, climate, and humanitarian finance

All are welcome! Learn more at fordham.edu/iiha. Questions? Email [email protected].