Over the past two decades, humanitarian actors have expanded the geographic scope of their work to more challenging and dangerous environments. As a result, negotiations with armed non-state actors (ANSAs) have become increasingly important in order to gain access to populations in need of their assistance. Yet many humanitarian actors feel that negotiating with ANSAs presents formidable challenges, including a lack respect for international humanitarian law (IHL), hostility to humanitarian principles and distrust and suspicion of humanitarian organisations.
A wide range of external factors have also come to bear on agencies’ ability, willingness and capacity to engage, both individually and collectively, with ANSAs. Chief among these has been the so-called ‘politicisation of aid.’ In contexts such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the majority of funding for humanitarian and multi-mandate agencies is provided by belligerents on one side of the conflict who increasingly view assistance as integral to achieving their military and/or political objectives, potentially undermining the neutrality and impartiality of humanitarian actors. In Somalia, Sri Lanka and Gaza, counter-terror legislation and other measures aimed at preventing aid from flowing to designated ‘terrorist’ organisations has also often forced agencies to make an impossible choice between principles on the one hand and funding and/or access to affected populations on the other.
An in-depth analysis of the role of ANSAs has been largely neglected in much of the literature on humanitarian space and many agencies on the ground fail to adequately understand ANSAs’ interests and motives. Likewise, many agencies have neglected to engage ANSAs in a strategic way or have not developed sufficient institutional capacity to support dialogue with ANSAs. This has sometimes resulted in a failure to train staff on the ground in negotiating skills, often exacerbated by the high turnover and other operational challenges many humanitarian actors face in difficult environments. As a result, humanitarian negotiators often lack adequate understanding of the ANSAs that they are seeking to engage with and are ill-prepared for the process.
This project aims to better understand how aid agencies engage with ANSAs, and how humanitarian engagement ultimately affects access to protection and assistance for vulnerable populations. It will seek to examine various issues and country case studies that illuminate this engagement in difficult political and security environments. This includes what lessons can be learned from experiences of negotiations and dialogue with ANSAs to ensure that vulnerable populations are better able to access assistance and protection. It will also explore the risks inherent to this engagement, including the moral dilemmas that often arise and the compromises that agencies make in order to gain access.
Negotiating perceptions: Al-Shabaab and Taliban views of aid agencies
From the Spanish civil war to Afghanistan: Historical and contemporary reflections on humanitarian engagement with non-state armed groups
Afghanistan after 2014: what's next?
Humanitarian negotiations with armed non-state actors: key lessons from Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia
Geneva: Peace for Syria may be elusive but humanitarian access need not be
What issues are faced by aid agencies delivering aid to the people in war torn Syria?
A deadly dilemma: how Al-Shabaab came to dictate the terms of humanitarian aid in Somalia
Talking to the other side: Humanitarian negotiations with Al-Shabaab in Somalia
Al-Shabaab engagement with aid agencies
We've been here before: the struggle for access in Sudan
Humanitarian negotiations: engagement with armed groups in Sudan and South Sudan
This event will examine the role of humanitarian negotiations with state and non-state armed groups in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Jonglei State. Interviews with armed groups, the results of field research and practical experience in humanitarian engagement...
Humanitarian negotiations: talking to the 'other side'
Humanitarian negotiations are often essential to gaining access to populations in need of humanitarian assistance, but negotiating with armed non-state actors can present...
Humanitarian negotiations: engaging with state and non-state actors in the midst of conflict
This event series will examine the challenges and compromises involved in humanitarian negotiations with state and non-state armed actors, how engagement affects access to populations, and what lessons can be learned.
Talking to the 'other side': humanitarian engagement with armed non-state actors in Darfur, Sudan, 2003-2012
Talking to the 'other side': Humanitarian negotiations in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, Sudan
Humanitarian Exchange 58: Humanitarian Negotiations
For humanitarian workers, the Taliban is a key to access in Afghanistan
Talking to the Taliban
The other side: humanitarian engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan
This event launches a new report into how aid agencies engage with the Taliban to gain access to Afghans in need of assistance. It offers a valuable and rare insight into how the Taliban view humanitarian and development assistance. The report draws on dozens...
Talking to the other side: humanitarian engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan
Talking to the other side: Taliban perspectives on aid and development work in Afghanistan
Humanitarian dialogue with the Taliban: Findings from Kandahar and Faryab
Ashley Jackson presented findings from a research project case study on Afghanistan, "Humanitarian negotiations with non-state actors", focused on humanitarian dialogue in Faryab and Kandaha.