At the beginning of November, the Clingendael Academy trained 22 frontline humanitarian negotiators from Afghanistan in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. All participants were field practitioners working for the Dutch Relief Alliance’s (DRA) international and national partner organizations.

While negotiating on a daily basis, field practitioners usually do not receive professional training to help them hone their negotiation skills.  Field practitioners  who are skilled in frontline negotiation help humanitarian organizations to achieve a bigger impact on the ground. When all parties agree to a mode of operation, the chances of successful and safe implementation are increased.

Field practitioners negotiate with a variety of actors about access to certain areas and the best way to set up an operational response. Our training combined essential negotiation theory and highly practical negotiation simulations, perfectly fitting the working environment of humanitarian negotiators, with plenty space for peer-to-peer exchange of participant’s own deep field negotiation experience.

"I realized about steps of negotiation and its importance. Currently, I am applying the learned skills in my daily life and working environment."

The training was a success. We would like to thank all DRA participants for their commitment and enthusiasm. Our next training for aid workers in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region will be in hosted in Doha, Qatar from 25-27 February 2020.

Are you interested in the 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.