Learn from experience.
Shape a global community.
At the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN), we bring together professionals working across different humanitarian organisations, contexts and world regions to create a community of practice around the topic of humanitarian negotiation.
We provide humanitarian practitioners with a safe and confidential space to exchange on their practices and develop their negotiation skills in our experience-based workshops.
Together with the members of our community of practice, we capture and analyse current negotiation practices to develop strategic negotiation tools. We also provide tailored support to organisations wishing to build the negotiation capacity of their staff members.
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Meet the community
The CCHN community of practice is a global network of humanitarian professionals who share a passion for humanitarian negotiation and learn how to become better humanitarian negotiators together. Our community members meet regularly in a safe, confidential, and informal space to exchange their experiences, develop new negotiation approaches and feedback their learnings into the community.
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Our story
The CCHN was born out of the realisation that accessing people in crisis relies on the ability of humanitarian workers to negotiate.
And yet, there are few opportunities across the sector to develop negotiation skills; the confidential nature of frontline negotiations makes it difficult to learn from the experience and perspectives of others.
In 2014, a group of humanitarians gathered in Kenya to discuss their challenges negotiating access, assistance and protection for people in crisis.
Reflecting on their experiences, those professionals created a conceptual framework that helps humanitarian workers prepare for and manage field negotiations more systematically.
The framework was called the “Naivasha Grid”, after the Kenyan town where the meeting took place. Those were the early roots of the CCHN community of practice.
2014
The Naivasha Grid
A conceptual framework to plan and manage negotiations is created by humanitarians meeting in Kenya.
2016
The CCHN is born
Five humanitarian agencies come together and create a centre of competence on humanitarian negotiation.
2021
End of pilot phase
Following a five-year incubation period, the CCHN becomes a permanent initiative.
2022
A new 5-year period
The CCHN community is leading the development of the humanitarian negotiation domain.
What does the CCHN do?
To support a more systematic approach to frontline negotiations and help humanitarian negotiators improve their negotiation skills, we facilitate the capture, analysis and sharing of humanitarian negotiation experiences and practices through different activities.
Fostering a community of frontline negotiators
We bring together a network of humanitarian negotiators working across different organisations, contexts and world regions.
Experience-based negotiation workshops
We provide humanitarian practitioners with a safe and confidential space to exchange on their practices and develop their negotiation skills.
Support to organisations
We provide tailored support to organisations wishing to build the negotiation capacity of their staff members.
Research and development
Together with the members of our community, we capture and analyse current negotiation practices to develop strategic negotiation tools.
Governance
The CCHN is run by a governing board that provides direction to its activities; adopts and reviews its objectives, annual work plan and budget; and reviews the results of its activities.
The governing board is composed of three members of the CCHN community of practice, in their personal capacity; four representatives of humanitarian organisations who fund the CCHN; and one negotiation expert.
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