About Us
The Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) was founded in 2016 as a joint initiative of five humanitarian agencies: the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations World Food Programme.
Our aim is to facilitate the capture, analysis, and sharing of negotiation experiences and practices among the humanitarian sector and to provide a space for dialogue across multiple organizations. At the core of our activities is the CCHN Community of Practice, a global community of humanitarian practitioners working at the frontlines of humanitarian action.
Our Mission
Our mission is to facilitate the capture, analysis and sharing of humanitarian negotiation experiences . We foster critical reflections, develop an analytical framework and build a global Community of Practice among frontline humanitarian negotiators.
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Our Strategic Partners
Five leading humanitarian agencies and organizations: ICRC, WFP, UNHCR, MSF Switzerland, and HD are our Strategic Partners who have supported our operations and activities worldwide.
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Our Donors
Thanks to the ministries of foreign affairs of Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland we have been able to operate and organize our activities.
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What We Do
Apart from enhancing the humanitarian negotiation ability of our Strategic Partners’ field staff, our experiential learning and peer exchange activities are also available to humanitarian professionals of other humanitarian organizations. We operate in and work on operational contexts in five different regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America.
Claude Bruderlein, CCHN Director used the latest technology to facilitate an onsite Peer Workshop in Athens Greece in September 2020.
Over 70 community members participated in our first Community-Assembly in Naivasha Kenya in December 2019.
Launching the second version of the CCHN Field Manual during the Annual Meeting of Frontline Negotiators in Berlin Germany in November 2020.
Discovering the negotiation steps based on the Naivasha Grid during a Peer Workshop in Cucuta, Colombia in February 2020.
Community members discussing the Common Shared Space tool during a Peer Workshop in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh in October 2019.
Since January 2020, community members can learn to facilitate CCHN negotiation tools in smaller groups with the new curriculum of Training of Facilitators, like the one in Jordan, Amman.
Community of Practice
Our Community of Practice is a group of professionals who share a passion for their work as humanitarian negotiators. They meet regularly in a safe, online space that allows for critical reflection and peer exchange.
Our main goal has been to create a global community of frontline negotiators because the benefit of shared experience and peer support is widely recognized. We are home to over 2,700 humanitarian professionals from around the world. They are eager to learn from their peers through shared negotiation experiences, discuss their work, successes, and failures with a focus on how to do better.
Are you a member of our community? Interact now with thousands of other frontline negotiators on CCHN Connect!
What is the main role of the members?
Members play a decisive role in developing the CCHN’s community of practice. They help design peer-exchange events, and they shape conversations at the local, regional and global levels.
Why is it useful for you to join our community?
When you join this community, a host of opportunities is open to you, allowing you to develop your capacity for negotiation and expand your professional network through regular exchanges and informal discussions.
How to join CCHN Community of Practice?
To join this fast-growing community, you must complete one of our Peer Workshops on Humanitarian Negotiation.
Sign up now for a Peer Workshop!
Interested in enhancing your facilitation skills? Become our facilitators.
Once you complete a Peer Workshop, you unlock the opportunity to enroll in the Training of Facilitator which will allow you to become a facilitator in CCHN Peer Workshops and contribute to transfer knowledge to our community members.
Have you completed a peer workshop? Sign up for the Training of Facilitators.
Our Think Tanks are informal networks of policymakers and other professionals working in the humanitarian, development and security fields in different regions. Their purpose is to address the challenges that humanitarian negotiators currently face in different regions.
Working closely with world-renowned research and policy centres, we will set up an informal network of policymakers and other professionals from the humanitarian, development and security spheres, based in four main regions. Our think tanks members will be able to:
- Share their practical experiences of dealing with the multifaceted COVID-19 crisis;
- Develop their skills and expertise through a certified course on crisis management and negotiation;
- Draw on expertise in public health, crisis management, economic development, migration, negotiation and mediation in order inform discussions and to share ideas from the field;
- Seek and facilitate on-demand informal support from advisers and experts in particular fields at short notice;
- Contribute to discussions about regional responses to the crisis.
Scientific Collaboration
Scientific collaboration brings together leading experts and researchers to develop the skills of humanitarian negotiators. We are committed to connecting humanitarian practitioners with leading academic institutions and training centres in order to transform their negotiation experiences into transferable knowledge. We utilize their specialized expertise to facilitate the capture, analysis and sharing of humanitarian negotiation experiences.
