News

Humanitarian Negotiations Training for Interchurch Aid in Erbil
14 Aug 2019 - 14:59
Bron: Clingendael Institute

From 5-7 August Clingendael Academy provided a humanitarian negotiations training for local aid workers in Erbil, Iraq, at the request of Hungarian Interchurch Aid. 

Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) is an NGO working to support refugees and IDPs in Iraq since 2003. The organization provides food supplies, hygienic items, health and psycho-social care in cooperation with ACT Alliance, the largest coalition of churches and church-related organizations engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world. 

Together with several partners HIA is responding to the protracted crisis in Syria and Northern Iraq. Their aid workers in the field face challenges related to negotiating access to difficult areas, as well as negotiations with other actors and communities. The training was meant to improve their negotiation skills and make them more confident when negotiating in their work. 

Throughout the training, the 17 participants from various international and national NGOs practiced with increasingly complex negotiation simulations varying from one-on-one negotiations between a government and a donor, to multi-party negotiations between NGOs. 

Clingendael Institute

It was a very enthusiastic group of participants and at the same time an interesting experience for both the group and the Clingendael Academy trainers.  The participants were happy with the received training and indicated that there is still more to learn on negotiation for aid workers in Iraq. 

The next humanitarian negotiations training in the region will be held next month in Beirut, in which Clingendael will be training aid workers from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and other countries. 

Are you interested what possibilities Clingendael Academy offers? Please do not hesitate to contact us. Read more about our humanitarian negotiations training and check out our brochure with our mission, methods and training categories.