In response to growing concerns regarding the insecurity of aid operations and the resulting decline in humanitarian access, the present study, commissioned by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), set out to identify and document those strategies and practices that have enabled humanitarian organisations to maintain effective operations in contexts characterised by high security risks.
In the second half of 2010 an independent research team, led by former Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, undertook six field studies in complex security environments, conducted interviews with 255 humanitarian practitioners and policymakers, surveyed over 1,100 national staff members, and carried out a desk-based review of organisational literature and case-based evidence. This report synthesises the findings as well as specific inputs and guidance received from the study’s Advisory Group.
Much of the report is practical: What’s working, and why, and what lessons can be drawn across contexts and between agencies? The resulting compilation of practices offers an opportunity for peer learning and knowledge sharing among humanitarian practitioners across complex security settings. In addition, the study examines the wider, political constraints to humanitarian action in complex security environments, factors over which humanitarian actors have less control, but which they could more effectively approach through increased coordination and advocacy. The key issues and messages discussed in the report are:
- Maintaining effective presence through risk management. The objective for humanitarian actors in complex security environments, as it is now widely recognised, is not to avoid risk, but to manage risk in a way that allows them to remain present and effective in their work.
- Alternatives to bunkerisation. Humanitarian organisations need to do more to avoid ‘bunkerisation’ which distances them from the local community, thereby increasing vulnerability and perpetuating a negative cycle.
- Duty of care and responsible partnership. International humanitarian organisations have significant room for improvement in tackling the inequities between international and national aid workers in terms of providing adequate security resources, support, and capacities.
- Secure access requires sustained humanitarian dialogue. A headline finding of this study is that the greater an organisation’s demonstrated capacity to communicate and negotiate with all relevant actors, the better access and security is achieved for humanitarian operations.
- Humanitarian principles matter. The core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality underpin acceptance and provide the basis for warring parties to accept humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict.
