People-centric humanitarian response in conflict

The ICRC in partnership with OCHA

A public event exploring the application of 'Accountability to Affected People' in conflict settings. Online and in-person.

International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent

<h2>Event Summary
</h2>Organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in collaboration with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this public event aims at challenging our thinking and approach to the concept of 'Accountability to Affected People' in conflict settings. The event aspires to stimulate thought-provoking dialogue, innovation, and collaborative problem-solving within the sector, focusing on both significant paradigm shifts as well as tangible, actionable solutions.

This event is public and open to all participants. Participants can join the event in-person at the ICRC Humanitarium in Geneva or online. 

<h2>Background
</h2>After years of growth of aid budgets and a matching evolution of the professional standards that come with it, the current pressure on funding, felt by the ICRC and others, sees humanitarian organisations at a crossroads. We find ourselves left with all the commitments made in terms of compliance, system improvement and reporting requirements while also trying to put in practice increasingly nuanced approaches to accountable, inclusive, localised and sustainable humanitarian response.
With aid workers spending an increasing proportion of their time tied to their desks and working on administrative tasks rather than in proximity to people affected by conflict, have efforts to professionalise the humanitarian sector generated more harm than good when it comes to bringing tangible impact on one hand and operationalising the principles of humanity and impartiality on the other hand?
This, combined with the contextual challenges in conflict zones due to growing access constraints, polarized information landscape as well as security and duty of care concerns, introduces new layers of considerations for humanitarian organisations when it comes to engagement with communities. Faced with hard choices to reorient priorities and activities, how should humanitarian organisation navigate this opportunity to put people affected by conflict and frontline workers in the driving seat to define people-centric humanitarian response?
Navigating information provision in polarized spaces, moving beyond survival towards dignity and the overall well-being of affected communities, assessing data handling practices, exploring participatory approaches to sensitive issues, grappling with the feasibility of a « do no harm » motto in conflict settings to preparing for a new world of climate change driven crises. 
These are some of the thematics we hope to explore in this event with practitioners from the sector, academia, think tanks, private sector actors and community-based organisations.

Tuesday Sept 12

The opening session will take us back to the origin of the humanitarian ideal, examine its evolution and align it with this event's emphasis on a people-centered approach. We'll scrutinize the need for humanitarian responses that resonate with those affected by conflict and other forms of violence, considering both incremental improvements and the more radical changes required to fulfill this vision. This session will set the tone for the entire event, detailing the mindset and approach that will guide us. Furthermore, we'll interconnect this overarching purpose with the specific focus of individual sessions, delineating recurring themes over three enlightening days. We aim to make this an opportunity to reflect on the vital need to balance empathy and good will with the recognition and management of bias and power, as well as the essential demand for technical expertise in humanitarian response

Opening session: people, principles and processes

The humanitarian sector is grappling with a crisis of legitimacy from internal and external factors. Internally, aid organizations are acknowledging negative consequences and deep-seated issues like racism, prompting a focus on listening to affected communities. Externally, rising populism and scapegoating are fueling mistrust and division in societies, and further isolating and excluding vulnerable people. How can agencies rebuild trust and fulfill mantras like ‘do no harm’ and ‘leave no-one behind’? Are there harmful consequences or hidden costs? This session will explore tensions in matching aspirations with field realities, addressing political contexts, and internal struggles to address diversity and accountability.

‘Do no harm’ and other mantras: do they help or hinder humanitarian action?

Break

In the realm of humanitarian response, how do we evaluate the true costs and benefits of community participation? The session, "The Measure of Dignity," will delve into the interplay between the tangible costs of engaging with communities and the intangible values of dignity, agency, and long-term sustainability. Informed by the ICRC's mandate to protect lives and dignity, the session will explore whether funding truly represents value and if dignity is at times undervalued or overlooked. How do we budget for dignified processes, and what are the costs of not engaging with people, particularly in conflict zones? This session will discuss strategies and best practices for maximizing the value of community participation, opening a multifaceted discussion on striking a balance between ethical imperatives and practical considerations in humanitarian work.

The measure of dignity

In armed conflict, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted, often marginalized and neglected in humanitarian efforts. Though international humanitarian and human rights law recognizes the rights and needs of persons with disabilities, many still face barriers that prevent full participation in humanitarian action that include physical, attitudinal, communication, institutional, and environmental factors. As the humanitarian sector increasingly acknowledges the necessity to move away from viewing people with disabilities as passive beneficiaries and empower them as agents of change and partners in humanitarian action, this session will discuss what redefining our approach to disability inclusion means in conflicts and stir conversation around key challenges and opportunities, including how to ensure interventions are inclusive, build strong accountability measures and challenge systemic biases inherited from the medical to disability.

Nothing about us without us: disability inclusion in conflict

Photography, video and other imagery are tools that humanitarian organisations use to bring attention to the experiences of people affected by conflict. Yet, how is this content gathered, edited, shared, and stored? Who decides what is published and for how long? Decades of publishing choices have created stereotypical images of conflict affected regions in the minds of global audiences. Publishing someone’s images for millions of viewers to see and archived forever is not without consequences. In this session, we will explore whether we need to fundamentally shift the way we work to center dignity and informed choice in this landscape, and if so, what that transformation might look like.

Images of crisis: Ethics and responsibility in humanitarian communication

Wednesday Sept 13

Networking 

Climate change, a threat multiplier, exacerbates tensions in conflict areas, placing intense strain on humanitarian aid and further complicating people-centered response. This session aims to deepen participants' understanding of the intersection between climate change and humanitarian crises for a more informed and effective response. To do so, it will explore the immediate impact of climate change on humanitarian response in those contexts, scrutinizing current strategies, and questioning their longer-term sufficiency in regions like Somalia and Syria. It will discuss the ethical challenges of climate-resilient, people-centered approaches in conflict settings, and the need to bridge the humanitarian-development divide. The session will conclude with a forward-looking examination of the necessary radical changes to integrate climate change adaptation into conflict response, considering its impact on humanitarian principles and response models.

Will the humanitarian sector survive climate change?

“People affected by conflict and violence are best placed to understand their situation and the risks they face and are the first to take action to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.” This is the underlying premise for humanitarian actors aiming to work with affected people to support them in addressing the protection risks they face. The complex, hostile environments created by conflict and violence present multiple challenges to these efforts, particularly for external actors. Access to communities and ability to have a dialogue in safe environments are constantly challenged. Diversity within a community can be both a strength and a challenge, as community members themselves may perpetuate patterns of threats. This session will explore some of the realities and complexities of working with conflict- and violence-affected people to reduce the protection risks they face.

Protection work with and for communities affected by conflict

Humanitarian organisations collect and use personal data of people affected by conflict for multiple purposes. As digitalization reshapes humanitarian landscapes, introducing a multi-layered approach to consent---consent to collect, consent to store, consent to use and process, consent to share with third parties--becomes crucial. Safeguarding the personal data of individuals is an essential aspect of protecting people's lives, dignity and physical and mental well-being. What should accountable humanitarian organisations do when in spite of best efforts, there is an incident of data breach or unauthorised use of personal data? How can we ensure people affected by conflict are not passive “data subjects” but informed stakeholders? This session will explore the strategies humanitarian organisation use to navigate these challenges, discuss shortcomings and explore what they can learn from other sectors to ensure they can act as a trusted manager of sensitive information.

People in conflict as data subjects and the role of humanitarians

While accepting that transparency and communication are core pillars of people-centered programming, humanitarian organizations struggle to respond meaningfully to the information needs of affected people. The proliferation of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, including those coming from armed actors, poses additional challenges. For people affected by conflict and the humanitarian organisations working in conflict settings, the information ecosystem presents a different but specific set of challenges. Bringing together practitioners from civil society, humanitarian organization and technology platforms, this session will explore how different actors can play a role in helping civilians in armed conflict navigate the information environment. Key questions will be: what are the potential risks and challenges to different actors engaging in sharing “useful”/“verified” information? How can various actors collaborate meaningfully to detect, assess and respond to misinformati

Information as aid AND as a vector for harm

Thursday Sept 14

Humanitarian action is typically defined around saving lives and alleviating suffering. This locates the humanitarian technical expertise at the centre of the equation, giving primacy to technical service delivery that in effect reduces crisis-affected people's physical and material needs. This obscures the broader lived experience of the humanitarian crisis. This session will explore how aiming beyond these survival objectives, to impact at the level of affected people’s sense of well-being can create more space for ‘people-centered’ action in which the agency and expertise of crisis-affected people is more systematically drawn upon to find more meaningful solutions to the challenges they face, impacting on well-being in the process. We will also explore how impact at this experiential level is being measured.

Well-being: towards a more meaningful response in conflict settings?

As part of our closing session, we'll reflect on the integration of a people-centered approach within humanitarian work in conflict settings. This path is challenged by the need to reconcile not only needs, resources, and mandate but also history, power, and bureaucracy. This session will discuss approaches to making people-centered practice more natural and systematic, including considerations related to culture, systems, and incentives. Our call to action emphasizes the options that aid workers, humanitarian agencies, and donors have to implement these changes, and what may be needed to foster a true partnership with affected people. This session unifies our conference's themes and aims to provoke actionable insights for a more effective, humanitarian response.

People-centric humanitarian response in conflict

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