During a wide-ranging panel moderated by The New Humanitarian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week, aid leaders described how local organisations are taking matters into their own hands.

They’re collaborating with each other to share resources, instead of competing for the same dwindling pots of money. They’re working with new donors willing to back new types of faster local funding – which they believe can be a model for the humanitarian sector’s biggest donor governments.

The frank conversation also delved into differing views on what “radical” reform entails, how local and international organisations are treated differently when fraud scandals are unearthed, and why it’s harder than ever to convince donor governments to invest in aid.