Sustaining Access: Humanitarian Principles, Practice, and Policy for Today’s Challenges

NOTE: This event is at capacity. We invite you to watch the live webcast through this page.

Today’s humanitarian access landscape is shaped by concurrent complex crises. Politicization of humanitarian action at all levels has led to severe denial of humanitarian access which severs lifesaving assistance from vulnerable communities and threatens the ability of aid agencies to carry out principled humanitarian action. Physical constraints, insecurity, and bureaucratic and administrative impediments also hamper timely response.

The CSIS Humanitarian Agenda and Norwegian Refugee Council are hosting a two-day conference on Sustaining Access: Humanitarian Principles, Practice, and Policy for Today’s Challenges. This conference will convene humanitarian actors, donors, U.S. policymakers, and other key partners to discuss current challenges impacting the ability of aid providers to operate in constrained environments–and explore ways to refine humanitarian practice and policy to enable effective and principled response to hard-to-reach communities.

Featuring opening remarks by Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the full program will explore the evolving access landscape in complex humanitarian responses. Sessions will identify emerging trends in humanitarian access, including the impact of counterterrorism on principled humanitarian action, negotiating with non-traditional authorities, and working with local actors on the frontlines.

This event is in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council and made possible through the generous support of USAID.