RedR Australia Mar 2013
InterWorks assisted RedR Australia, an international humanitarian organization, in the design and delivery of a six-day Essentials of Humanitarian Negotiation Workshop 10 – 15 March in Dookie, Australia. The course, with eighteen participants, is the first time this training was specifically offered to the Australian humanitarian sector.
The Workshop was designed to focus on the skills and techniques of negotiation, applied to situations where humanitarians use them: negotiating with government interlocutors, non-state and irregular actors (including armed elements), partner agencies, fellow staff members and beneficiary populations. Above all it will apply these skills to humanitarian situations in the field where access, respect for human rights and humanitarian space are at stake. It will emphasise techniques such as reaching mutually beneficial solutions, correctly analysing your own and the others’ negotiation positions, active listening, mitigating anger and hostility, and many other techniques. The ultimate aim of the workshop is to train humanitarian workers to be better able to advocate and defend their positions on behalf of their organisations and beneficiaries. This practical scenario-based workshop gave participants the chance to engage in a variety of complex negotiations.
