Until recently, Libya was a middle-income country that did not need humanitarian aid. However, with a crumbling health system, minimal social services, and poor water and sanitation near coastal areas, it now faces a pandemic. This situation means that humanitarians have become essential actors responding to COVID-19 in Libya, but they are facing enormous challenges when providing assistance.
Mariya Nikolova, a Legal Training Advisor at the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, explains how she has enhanced her negotiation capabilities while being a member of the CCHN Community of Practice.
The Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) has recently launched a series of webinars on remote negotiation. The webinars have been developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result of feedback from CCHN community members. The webinars will run over several months and aim to facilitate informed discussions within the CCHN community. They will provide practical information, guidance and advice on how to better prepare and conduct negotiations remotely. The first session was held on 31 August 2020 and focused on building rapport remotely.
Qadir Assemy, Head of Office for WFP in Herat province, Afghanistan, talks about the challenges and dilemmas that negotiators face, and the importance of managing stress in their work.
Impacted by the global pandemic of COVID-19, many humanitarians have switched to online training and self-development activities to prepare themselves in maintaining their programs under the current circumstances. To continue providing support for frontline negotiators and humanitarian staff in the Middle-East, CCHN has provided not only online but also hybrid events in a series of Summer Briefing Sessions on the Response to COVID-19.
Innocent Sauti, Head of Programme for WFP in Myanmar, talks about the challenges that come with his work on the frontlines while emphasizing the importance of preparing the staff with humanitarian negotiation skills before going to the field.
On 2 July 2020, 120 frontline humanitarian professionals, field practitioners, policymakers, experts and government representatives from 50 countries gathered online for the 3rd CCHN Monthly Forum. During this event, participants took stock of how non-state armed groups have positioned themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caitlin Longden, Senior Programme Officer for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), talks about the benefits of investing in negotiation skills. By investing in these skills, negotiation teams have been able to build new relationships, gain more access and get faster delivery. These skills are also important for the mental and physical health of the team.
Mónica Bucio Escobedo, UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office in Venezuela, shares how practical negotiation tools help strengthen humanitarians’ capacity to operate. She explains why being prepared reduces risks for her team, her organization and, most of all, the people she is serving on the field.
In this video, CCHN project leads walk you through the different resources they developed to assist humanitarians from around the world in their negotiations and build a global community of practice.
