Introduction to Humanitarian Negotiations

The ability to negotiate is one of the most shared and used soft skills among Humanitarian workers. From Head of Mission to truck driver, almost all personnel involved in humanitarian operations does negotiate, every day, on various topics ranging from access to protection. Interestingly though, despite the sensitivity of negotiation and its potential positive or negative impact on humanitarian organizations and interventions, the recognition of the need to prepare and train current and future relief workers in this regard is fairly recent. The first humanitarian negotiation manual was issued in 2004, and it is only in the last decade that systematic training on humanitarian negotiation was developed and provided to humanitarian staff and teams. This course introduces you to the planning and implementation of humanitarian negotiations, including context analysis and engagement with interlocutors. The adult-education and experiential methodology approach of the course, based on real case scenarios and role play, enables you to get first-hand experience of soft skills and inter-personal competences required for negotiation in humanitarian action.

The course is planned as an online training from June 8 to 10. It is eligible for the Certificate of Advanced Studies at the academy for humanitarian action in the area of "Foundations of Humanitarian Action". The course fee covers the costs for participation as well as catering during the course.