Leonard Blazeby - Will COVID-19 make us more empathetic?
b'Welcome to Episode 89 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Leonard Blazeby. \\n\\nLeonard is the outgoing Head of Mission for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC, in Australia. At the end of our interview, you\\u2019ll hear about the very big and exciting role that Leonard is taking on next. \\n\\nSince joining the ICRC in 2000, Leonard has held a variety of positions across Africa, Europe and the Pacific. He worked for eight years in Africa, serving as Deputy Head of Delegation in Southern Africa, legal adviser in Zimbabwe and communications coordinator in the Horn of Africa. He then served in the ICRC\\u2019s Geneva headquarters for more than four years. He has been the Australian Head of Mission since 2012.\\n\\nIn the episode Leonard and I discuss Leonard\\u2019s distinguished career working with the ICRC in vulnerable communities around the world, the challenges that he\\u2019s faced in his work, and how the international humanitarian sector has evolved, or in Leonard\\u2019s words, professionalised. We discuss the threat multiplier affect of Covid-19 and the impact its having is on already conflict-affected communities. On a lighter note, we also discuss some of the innovative partnerships the ICRC has entered into, including with the vide game Fortnite. \\n\\nIf you\\u2019re interested in today\\u2019s podcast, you might also be interested in a new Devpolicy Blog which shows an unprecedented divergence between defence spending and aid spending in Australia. \\n\\nhttps://devpolicy.org/defence-and-aid-unprecedented-divergence-20200728/\\n\\nStephen Howes, the Devpolicy Director, shows that adjusting for inflation Australian defence spending is projected to grow by 20 billion dollars to 2030, whereas aid spending isn\\u2019t projected to grow at all. Given the humanitarian crises and trends we\\u2019re seeing all around us, and discussed in today\\u2019s episode, that trend may prove problematic. For more, go to devpolicy.org.\\n\\nEnjoy,\\nThe GWH Team'