The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents
“When the Money Moves:Localization and the Future of Humanitarian Aid”
featuring:
Professor Hector Vivero
Thursday, August 28th, 2025
10:00am - 11:00am
Zoom link to be sent to all registrants via the
registration confirmation email.
About the Program
The impact of funding on international humanitarian organizations have been widely documented including a potential deficit of $1.1 billion for the United Nations which, according to the Economist, if materialized, the UN could run out of cash to pay for salaries in September. But conversations about how funding reductions from institutional donors including USAID and European governments are impacting local NGOs have not been as prominent despite the fact that many local NGOs are at the forefront of most humanitarian responses. Focusing on Ukraine, Hector and Panel will discuss the ecosystem of local NGOs, their role within coordination mechanisms, the agenda of localization, and both the challenges and opportunities that the sudden reckoning of the humanitarian architecture presents for local organizations.
About Hector Vivero
Hector is a humanitarian and development expert with over 15 years of experience working with major International NGOs across Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Hector is a Lecturer at the University of San Diego for the MS in Humanitarian Action program where he teaches the Foundations of Humanitarian Action class. Hector is the former Emergency Response Representative in Moldova for Helvetas, a Swiss Development NGO, where he performed the role of Country Director for Humanitarian Operations managing a regional response that included Poland and Moldova. He was Head of Programs with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Ukraine where he worked in partnership with the government of Ukraine to strengthen the humanitarian response. He also worked extensively delivering livelihoods and cash assistance in Iraq, the Middle East Region, Myanmar, Libya and Afghanistan with major International NGOs including the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, and Save the Children. In addition, Hector currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for nonprofit Plastic Beach, which focuses on recycling plastic to reduce pollution.
Hector holds an MBA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an MA in Post-War Recovery Studies from the University of York, UK, and a BA in Development Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
About the Panelists
Bryant Castro:
Bryant Castro has over 15 years of experience with the United Nations and international NGOs, supporting communities affected by conflict and disaster across 17 countries. His work ranges from policy advocacy to field operations, with a strong focus on advancing localization and empowerment in humanitarian response.
David Juris:
David Juriš is Head of Operations at WE AID. David has been shaping WE AID’s operational backbone and supporting grassroots initiatives since its inception. Drawing on his experience with the Skala initiative at PHINEO, he brings a user-centered, data-informed approach to volunteer management and continuous learning. His commitment to humanitarian work extends beyond Germany, with impactful field experience in Bolivia, Serbia and Ukraine, where he supported community-led responses to social and economic challenges.
Olga Ivanova:
Olga Ivanova has a Master's degree in Management from Kyiv National Linguistic University. Since 2016, she is a Director, co-founder of the Ukrainian Charity Fund Stabilization Support Services. She has been working on rapid humanitarian response programs in Ukraine and Serbia and has been designing and managing programs to support the integration of internally displaced persons in Ukraine. A co-author of the concept of IDP councils in Ukraine.
Anna Nishnianidze:
Anna Nishnianidze is the Co-Founder and CEO of Philanthropy in Ukraine, an organization working to modernize the country’s philanthropy ecosystem through the Due Diligence Web Platform for Ukrainian CSOs, capacity-building, and community development.
Craig Williams:
Craig has been working in the disaster space for nearly 20 years with experience in emergency preparedness and emergency response in more than 60 countries. For the last 10 years Craig has led and developed emergency WASH programs in more than 20 humanitarian crises around the world. Having entered Ukraine at the start of the war in February 2022 with Water Mission, Craig worked to establish their program, executed it, and then developed their subsequent exit strategy 3 years later. By localizing the program together with 2 Ukrainian colleagues they established the Local NGO, Camino. In 7 months of being independent, the program has gone from $1M to $3M through securing 6 new grants under Camino. Camino expects to close out 2025 supporting around 40-50,000 daily with safe water. With current strategies taking shape this number is expected to climb in 2026 to 100,000.
