A must-watch - sober & inspiring speech followed by Q&A with UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Tom Fletcher. It is a worthy rejoinder to Canadian PM Tim Carney's speech in Davos and a useful counter to Marco Rubio's realpolitik remarks in Munich.
"Moral Ambition in a Driverless World" — Lecture at Sciences Po
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) Sciences Po, Paris February 17, 2026
Summary
Tom Fletcher, the UN's top humanitarian official, delivered a lecture at Sciences Po in Paris challenging students to pursue what he called "moral ambition" — using their education and talent to address the world's most pressing humanitarian crises rather than personal or corporate advancement.
Speaking in what he described as a "driverless world," a metaphor for a global landscape increasingly without effective international leadership or adherence to established norms, Fletcher outlined the urgent need to renew the humanitarian system before 2030. He described the current aid architecture as underfunded, overstretched, and under attack, and called for a "Humanitarian Reset" to make aid delivery more local, efficient, and anticipatory.
Fletcher addressed the double-edged role of technology and artificial intelligence, noting that while these tools improve disaster anticipation and aid logistics, they also contribute to an "age of impunity" in which advanced surveillance technology documents atrocities that the international community nonetheless fails to prevent.
He cited the Gaza famine as a defining example of a "predictable and preventable" 21st-century atrocity witnessed in real time but not stopped, and called for a fundamental shift from an aid system driven by available funding to one driven by actual human need.
Quotes
"We are the first generation to watch a famine in real-time on our smartphones. We have the data, we have the images, but we lack the collective will to stop what is predictable and preventable."
"I want to challenge you to have moral ambition. Don't just use your brilliance to climb the ladders of existing systems; use it to build new ones that actually protect the most vulnerable."
"Leadership in the 21st century isn't about the power you wield from a podium; it's about the proximity you maintain to those in the greatest pain."
"Impunity is the great disease of our time. Solidarity is the only cure, but solidarity is a verb, not a noun."
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