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Former UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes exposes the often depressing difficulties behind providing humanitarian aid to some of the most troubled spots in the world. Holmes explains how difficult it was to carry out the role he held between 2007 and 2010. It took him to places such as Sri Lanka, Darfur, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he often found UN humanitarian programmes were tolerated but undermined and mistrusted by both sides in the conflicts. Efforts to help those in trouble were too often frustrated by people working for purely political ends.

Holmes worked in the Foreign Office for 34 years, finishing as Ambassador in Paris, before taking up the UN role in 2007.