Before the COVID-19 measures were tightened, CCHN managed to organize a Peer Workshop on Humanitarian Negotiation in Amman, Jordan on 25-27 February 2020. It included 27 participants, a few of them working in the academic sector. This workshop took place after we had launched the new Training of Facilitators curriculum in two trainings at the end of January and the beginning of February.
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.