Philippe Guettier – President of SDG Champions France and former Director-General of the French Water Partnership
If Défis Humanitaires did not exist, it would have to be created! Alain Boinet did it!
Défis Humanitaires has been an essential and necessary media outlet since its creation in 2011 in the world of humanitarian action and far beyond, in that of water in general. Fifteen years of hard work for Alain, without fanfare or trumpets, in the shadows, but work that bears fruit in many arenas and clearly helps the “people of humanitarian action and water” to act for the common good, often in the most difficult crises or wars.
If Défis Humanitaires, like the Water Barometer every year, has become such a reference, it is because this media is the work of someone who has lived humanitarian action throughout his life out of compassion for his fellow human beings and who founded one of the most important humanitarian associations in France – Solidarités International. He knows what he is talking about!
This reference has broadened over the years to water and sanitation due to Alain’s desire to act and to help action in this major sector of humanitarian work. I was able to see this determination at work as early as 2005 in the context of French contributions to countries affected by the very major tsunami in South-East Asia. It has not waned since!
It certainly was one of the factors that enabled the adoption a few weeks later of the Oudin-Santini Law by the French Parliament.
Today, humanitarian action is experiencing a major crisis linked to political decisions in many developed countries. It is certain that Défis Humanitaires helps and will help transversal reflections and the new responses that will be given to this crisis.
Long life to Défis Humanitaires and to its Founder-President!
As highlighted in the call for testimonies of the latest edition, the world’s agenda is changing. And with it, the entire humanitarian system must question itself, but above all adapt. Adapt to drastic decreases in funding in a context of growing crisis, where needs are increasing and becoming more complex.
Pauline Baldizzone – former intern at Défis Humanitaires, graduate in International Law and Humanitarian Action.
I was lucky to accompany Alain Boinet for several months as an intern, almost five years ago already. This experience – my first linked to humanitarian action – gave me an enlightened vision of the sector and made me want to commit to it. Since then, I have never stopped reading, in each edition, valuable contributions from specialists who share with us their analyses, their questions and their reflections, whether they come from headquarters or from the field. These keys to understanding were extremely useful to me during my university studies, still are today and certainly will be tomorrow, proof that Défis Humanitaires accompanies and brings together engaged generations who have one thing in common: the human being.
I believe that these cross-perspectives on humanitarian action are necessary, and allow everyone to question their vision of the sector and what they wish to contribute to it. And in a changing context, it is imperative to continue to do so in future editions, by pushing deconstruction further, by confronting points of view that challenge, question or call our certainties into question, by integrating voices from further afield and decentered perspectives… in order to think about the future of humanitarian action with lucidity and humility.
Thank you to Alain and to all those who nourish this project to continue to make the voice of Défis Humanitaires resonate.
Philippe Ryfman – Lawyer, expert-consultant, researcher NGOs and Humanitarian Action
Défis Humanitaires: Necessary and irreplaceable!
Humanitarian action has never been a “long calm river”. It has always encountered multiple obstacles in accomplishing its mission of aiding vulnerable populations, victims of armed conflicts (particularly civilians), as well as natural, climatic and ecological disasters. Or again, in the design and implementation of specific assistance programs (maternal and child health, shelter, access to water, livelihoods…). Without forgetting the functions of testimony, documentation and intervention in “forgotten” crises.
At certain moments in time when it deploys itself without too many hindrances (there are always some and they never disappear completely), others follow that see the degree of acceptance diminish considerably. When it does not turn into pure and simple refusal, into bans, expulsions or direct attacks against personnel.
Thus, if during the last decade of the twentieth century and the first of the twenty-first humanitarian aid benefited from a recognition never reached in history, from peaks of intense activity and from a continuous growth of its funding, a decline began from the 2010s. This has taken on considerable magnitude since the beginning of the present decade, the middle of which marks a shift of an unprecedented dimension in 80 years. With the closure of USAID, the limitations, bans, threats, expulsions in Gaza or in the West Bank. Or again the access limitations in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict or the extreme precariousness of relief and assistance mechanisms in the worst current humanitarian crisis, that of Sudan. Not to mention the deliberate violations that have become legion of International Humanitarian Law, the contraction of humanitarian space and finally a major financial shock, affecting – whatever the degree – all its actors due to the drastic reductions in funding from the main public donors.
Some see in this an existential crisis and go so far as to predict the end of Humanitarian action. This pessimism – if it can be understood in this particularly difficult context – stems from an erroneous analysis. With the upheavals that the international aid system is now experiencing and the questioning to which it is subject, it is better to speak of a “glacial” era into which it has entered. From then on – and more than ever – it is imperative that practitioners, organization staff, analysts, researchers, journalists, activists, citizens supporting humanitarian causes have spaces for reflection, analysis and exchange. In order – in a collective intelligence approach – to be able to understand the meaning and scope of the upheavals under way, their specificity, compare them to previous episodes of retreat, evaluate them and deconstruct them. So as to reflect on the elaboration of new paradigms and adapt the action of aid organizations to the new global geopolitics, as well as to the imperative necessity of an overall restructuring of means and resources. Particularly for NGOs, Red Cross/Red Crescent actors and United Nations Agencies. So that missions of assistance, relief, defense of rights, testimonies in all their dimensions continue and that ultimately Humanitarian action emerges strengthened from the ordeal currently being experienced. For humanitarian needs themselves are not decreasing, quite the contrary.
From this point of view, Défis Humanitaires fulfills a specific and irreplaceable role for French-speaking actors. While the magazine fits into a close interaction with the editorial ecosystem of the sector [especially the journal Alternatives Humanitaires (AH) and Humanitaires En Mouvement (HEM) of the Groupe URD], its particularities confer on it its own and original place. Notably due to its monthly periodicity which allows it to “stick” more closely to current events, the variety of subjects treated, or again the long interviews (made possible by its format) with leaders of the sector.
Thanks to the considerable work accomplished by Alain BOINET since their creation, Les Défis continue to strengthen and expand. This is to be commended and proves beneficial for the various components of the aid sector. The forthcoming launch of a renovated format in spring 2026 also attests to the good health of the publication and its adaptability. While fitting into a now well-established continuity, it will certainly offer new perspectives. Among the avenues to explore in view of this renewal, it could be useful to add a regular section of “Looking back on”. This would make it possible to revisit, update and recontextualize articles published on this or that theme. Or another of monitoring of social networks on information, controversies, misinformation conveyed by them on humanitarian action.
Is not the best illustration of the necessity of a space such as that occupied by Défis Humanitaires the fact that today many are those who wait with a certain impatience to learn each beginning of the month the content of its monthly issue