In November 2020, the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) launched the Middle East Think Tank on Crisis Negotiation.
Composed of over 30 highly experienced humanitarian field practitioners, the Think Tank has one objective: to think outside the “humanitarian box” and offer humanitarian professionals a space to jointly come up with innovative solutions to today’s most critical humanitarian negotiation challenges.
A CCHN team will be traveling along the Balkan migration route to learn more about the negotiation challenges in the region.
The Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) gathered experiences of skilled frontline negotiators working in settings where migration is taking place. Keep reading to find out what these professionals believe are the ten most important strategies when negotiating assistance for (and with) people on the move.
For humanitarian organizations and their staff assisting these populations, part of their work means negotiating with the groups who control the territories where these camps are located.
Why does diversity matter for humanitarian negotiation? What is the role of inclusion on the frontline? How does your identity impact your perception and how you are perceived?
Dr. Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings, Associate Director of Research of the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, elaborates on the importance of diversity in Humanitarian Negotiations in the article below. Drawing from Alsalem & Grace (2021), she delves into how identity, character, and past experiences may influence how counterparts perceive the negotiator and how negotiators perceive the counterpart, the efforts of the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN), and the importance of inclusion amongst other topics.
In northwest Syria, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes because of armed conflict. Escaping violence, they often settled in camps or sites in territories controlled by armed groups.
For humanitarian organizations and their staff assisting these populations, part of their work means negotiating with the groups who control the territories where these camps are located.
Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) covered the CCHN World Summit 2021 that took place between 28 June and 3 July. The six day conference on the challenges of humanitarian negotiation on the frontlines took place in a hybrid format in Caux (VD, Switzerland).
From 26 to 30 April 2021, humanitarian interpreters participated in an Online Peer Workshop and Specialized Session for Humanitarian Interpreters organized by the CCHN in collaboration with the Interpreting Department at the University of Geneva. During this event, participants learned about the CCHN negotiation tools, as well the most important interpretation skills in the humanitarian field.
This Online Peer Workshop on Frontline Humanitarian Negotiation aimed to exchange good negotiation pratices and stregthen the negotiation capacities of the Oman Charitable Organization, different Omani charities, the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC), Red Crescent National Societies of the Gulf Countries and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It was also a great opportunity to establish a long-term partnership between the IFRC, CCHN and ICRC in the Gulf region.
After launching the second edition of the Field Manual on Frontline Humanitarian Negotiation in November 2019 and its French version in October 2020, the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) launched the CCHN Field Manual in Spanish on Wednesday, 17 March 2021.
In February 2021, CCHN held a peer circle discussion on negotiating with criminal groups. This mix of African and Latin-American contexts provided an opportunity for community members from both regions to exchange lessons learned and good practices in conducting negotiations with counterparts labelled as ‘criminal’.
