United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mar 2018
InterWorks facilitated a 4-day Essentials of Humanitarian Negotiation (EHN) workshop from 20-23 March 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. Participants were from diverse backgrounds, offices, and countries, representing UNHCR, NGO and government counterparts. The course focused on the skills and practice of humanitarian negotiation. The course trainers provided short presentations of key components of humanitarian negotiation and provided scenario-based, role play exercises through which key elements could be explored, utilised and practiced.
The primary objectives of this workshop were to:
- Strengthen the ability of participants to negotiate effectively in humanitarian situations with Government authorities, other humanitarian agencies and other actors, beneficiaries and others in their own agencies
- Enhance collaborative negotiation skills, strategies and techniques
- Apply learning from the workshop to participants’ personal/professional negotiation challenges
The workshop included multiple opportunities for participants to practice collaborative negotiation skills such as asking questions, listening, generating solutions and finding win-win solutions to negotiation challenges. It also included sessions on the centrality of protection and negotiating with non-state armed groups to highlight the importance of humanitarian principles and international legal frameworks as critical components of the “interests” of humanitarian negotiators. A new session was added related to negotiating in interagency coordination contexts
I really appreciate this training particularly the process for every topic. This is very relevant to my work and the context of my place. Facilitators are all good, very knowledgeable to know well the topics they facilitated.
– Workshop participant
