Join the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Roberta Buffett International Studies Program for a lecture by Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Sudan and 2026–27 Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies, on why we paid attention to Darfur 20 years ago, why we need to pay attention to a much larger war sweeping Sudan and the region today, and the consequences if we fail to do so. After his short lecture, Sarah Deardorff Miller, Senior Fellow at Refugees International, will moderate discussion and audience Q&A.

Doors will open at 12:00 p.m., and lunch will begin at 12:15 p.m.

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated.

About the event

Twenty years ago, Darfur dominated international headlines. Today, despite Sudan facing the world's largest humanitarian crisis, global attention has largely faded.

The scale of the catastrophe is staggering. Conservative estimates place the death toll in the tens of thousands. Millions of people have been displaced within Sudan and across its borders, while roughly half the country's population now requires humanitarian assistance. Food systems and livelihoods have collapsed. Hospitals, schools, markets, and other civilian infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. Entire communities are living under the constant threat of hunger, disease, displacement, and violence.

Against this backdrop, humanitarian organizations continue to operate in one of the most challenging environments in the world, even as humanitarian and development funding is being scaled back. How are the United Nations and its partners delivering assistance on the ground under these conditions? What are the consequences of shrinking international support at a moment of unprecedented need?

This discussion will also examine the political dimensions of the crisis. Why has there been so little sustained diplomatic engagement with the regional actors who have the greatest ability to influence the conflict? And what are the risks, both for Sudan and for regional stability, of allowing the world's largest humanitarian emergency to remain largely ignored?

This conversation will explore what is happening in Sudan today, what the humanitarian community is doing to respond, and why greater international attention and diplomatic action are urgently needed.

About the speakers

Sheldon Yett is the Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies, joining Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett International Studies Program this fall to teach the course Humanitarian & Development Practice in the Multilateral Context: Institutions, Challenges, & Risk Management. Yett currently serves as the UNICEF Representative to Sudan, a role he has held since August 2024. A national of the United States, he has worked for UNICEF since 1997 and has extensive experience in managing both development and humanitarian emergency programs in Burundi, Somalia, Kosovo, and UNICEF’s emergency division in New York. Yett has served in multiple assignments as UNICEF Representative, including to Armenia (2005–2008), Macedonia (2008–2013), Liberia (2013–2016), the Pacific Islands Multi-Country Office (2016–2021), and Bangladesh (2021–2024). Before joining the UN, he worked as a journalist.

Sarah Miller is a Senior Fellow at Refugees International. She helps manage its labor market access initiative and leads its engagement on issues related to internally displaced people. She previously covered the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa. She has also worked, researched, and written on Latin America and the Middle East. She is interested in global governance questions around migration and has consulted for United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Bank, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and Mercy Corps. She has worked on refugee issues with think tanks and various NGOs and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Sarah teaches with Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration and has taught for the University of London, Fordham University, Columbia University, and American University. She has published a range of books, articles, and reports on forced migration.

Contact the host of Where’s George Clooney Now? Sudan’s Invisible War | Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor Lecture by Sheldon Yett