All staff related to the provision of healthcare to the population are playing an important frontline role to provide the best service among COVID-19 affected patients in Bangladesh. While operating under challenging conditions with a lot of limitations, these frontline healthcare workers need to be guaranteed some protection to continue saving lives and prevent the spread of the virus. Yet, having access to provide protective gear for healthcare frontliners is not instantly granted. By building strong relations with the government, ICRC managed to gain the trust to support them in responding to the pandemic issues, such as prioritizing the safety of COVID-19 healthcare workers.
The efficiency of humanitarian response following a disaster depends on how fast coordination structures are established, supply chains are enabled, and human and financial resources are mobilised.
Negotiating in disaster contexts becomes challenging because of the many parties involved. Often, survivors are turned into first responders until traditional humanitarian response mechanisms are set up. Then, when humanitarian actors step in, it’s necessary to negotiate and coordinate the response among the multiple actors.
In 2023, the CCHN launched its research on negotiating in the context of disasters. Since then, we have conducted a series of interviews to understand field practices, produced a report and developed a thematic session with the project to expand this topic in the future.