Civilian-Military Humanitarian Coordination Workshop

CHRHS and HRP have organized six Civilian-Military Humanitarian Coordination Workshops, each attended by nearly 100 military and humanitarian leaders, designed to enhance the collective humanitarian response capacity of civilian and military actors by supporting a community of practice, identifying key opportunities for professional education and training, and developing a comprehensive research agenda focused on global humanitarian civil-military coordination.

Traditionally a two-day workshop held at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, the workshop explores current and future challenges in civilian-military humanitarian responses, including natural disasters, complex emergencies, and routine humanitarian engagements. The event aims to improve civilian-military humanitarian responses by meeting the following four objectives:

1. Enhance the response capacity of UN OCHA, USAID OFDA, humanitarian NGOs, Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, international militaries, and other key organizations through supporting a Community of Practice in civilian-military issues and promoting information sharing that can inform policy and processes during humanitarian crises.
2. Expand and strengthen a network of practitioners, academics, and leaders who routinely work civilian-military engagement in the humanitarian space.
3. Continue to highlight key opportunities for professional education, training, and development for key decision makers to identify the best practices associated with overcoming cultural, policy, technical, and legal challenges for coordination and information sharing.
4. Develop and refine a comprehensive research agenda focused on civilian-military coordination considering international approaches to effecting solutions.

Research Symposium on Civilian-Military Humanitarian Coordination

On March 28 2022, CHRHS and HRP hosted the third Research Symposium on Civilian-Military Humanitarian Coordination, five presentations of recently completed empiric studies, several of which have grown out of working group discussions at our prior workshops, which cover a range of contemporary challenges in global humanitarian action. This year’s presentations cover several timely topics, including humanitarian-military relations in complex emergencies; humanitarian access in the era of strategic competition; humanitarian action in the age of climate change; trends in Russia’s foreign humanitarian assistance; and stabilization initiatives in the Lake Chad Basin.

Watch Full 2022 Research Symposium Recording