Securing Access in Volatile Environments (SAVE) - Component 2: Enabling Access and Quality Aid in Insecure Environments

During the inception phase for the SAVE programme (October 2013-March 2014), the research team conducted a review of relevant documents (in English, Spanish, French and Arabic) in order to build on and deepen the literature review commissioned by DFID and conducted by Schreter and Harmer in 2012. In mid-2015, the team built on that work and summarised the recent literature, given the changing pace and importance that practitioners and policy-makers continue to give to access issues. Several advances in research and guidance have been made in specific aspects relevant to what enables access and improves the operational quality of aid in insecure environments. These are reviewed in this document.

The literature review is organised first by thematic area and then by country. The thematic areas are sub-divided by those which focus on issues enabling access, those that look at aspects pertinent to the ‘quality of access’, and those that further understanding about what improves the operational quality of aid in insecure environments. The countries are those of the SAVE programme’s case studies: Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Syria.