Humanitarian Access Negotiations with Non-State Armed Groups

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the operational challenges and emerging good
practices in negotiations on humanitarian access with non-state armed groups (NSAGs) during humanitarian responses in high-risk countries. It draws primarily on research conducted for Secure Access in Volatile Environments (SAVE), a three-year research programme (2013–2016) exploring the question of how to deliver a high-quality humanitarian response amid high levels of insecurity. The research involved extensive fieldwork in four of the most dangerous aid settings during those three years: Afghanistan, South Central Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.