Toolkit overview

Humanitarian access working groups (HAWGs) have become a common feature of humanitarian responses across the globe over the past decade and there are now over 25 in operation across a range of contexts. Many are co-chaired by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and organisations such as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) or non-governmental organisation (NGO) forums.

There is a growing body of resources on humanitarian negotiations and access more broadly, including tools and templates, but there is only limited guidance on how NGOs can maximise the opportunities afforded through the co-chair role, and how to navigate the specific challenges that HAWGs, and particularly NGO co-chairs, face. 

The European Union’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) has recognised this gap and supported the development of this toolkit, which offers practical guidance on the fundamentals of coordinating an HAWG from its establishment through to the delivery of activities in support of the wider humanitarian community. It is mainly intended for NGO co-chairs, but is equally relevant for United Nations (UN) co-chairs and other HAWG members.

A group of stakeholders, composed of NGO co-chairs, humanitarian access practitioners and members of NGO coordination bodies informed the toolkit through an iterative design and consultation process that included surveys, design sprints and bilateral interviews. ECHO also funded research on the role HAWGs play in supporting engagement with non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and de-facto authorities, which informed some of the toolkit’s content.

Recommendations

A series of recurring insights and best practice emerged from the consultations and research for the toolkit that should be at the forefront of any NGO co-chair’s work, either when establishing an HAWG or coming into an existing group. 

They may seem intuitive, but these practices address many causes of the challenges HAWGs face. 

1. HAWGs need to have strong links to the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). This is regularly articulated in an HAWG’s terms of reference (ToR), but it does not always happen in practice. HAWGs and HCTs should work closely together, not as detached entities.  An HAWG should function as an advisory body to the HCT and provide operational support in line with the latter’s priorities.
2. Structure and membership are important to get right. Enough attention needs to be given to how HAWGs are structured and how their members are chosen. This is the basis for longer-term relevance and success. 
3. Understanding the wider humanitarian architecture is vital. NGO co-chairs need to have a strong understanding of where their HAWG sits in the humanitarian coordination system and the dynamics within that system between organisations, forums, donors, and senior humanitarian staff. This knowledge helps to ensure that the collective humanitarian architecture supports the HAWG’s work.
4. Effective consultations with UN agencies and NGOs are at the core of all good HAWG work. An access strategy and workplan are among the many deliverables that need to reflect HAWG and HCT members’ needs, and those of the wider humanitarian community. They should not be dictated by the agencies in the co-chair roles. Without taking the time to engage in proper consultations, an HAWG will find it difficult to move beyond information-sharing activities.
5. Endorsement and implementation processes need to be managed carefully. A balance needs to be established between securing buy-in and avoiding becoming bogged down in time-intensive endorsement processes. For implementation, constant communication, and feedback, and assigning clear roles and responsibilities are crucial to bridging often imperfect endorsement processes. 
6. NGO co-chairs need to maintain a connection to project implementation locations. Travelling to project locations will give NGO co-chairs a greater understanding of HAWG members’ challenges, more exposure to external interlocutors and ultimately more legitimacy. 

This toolkit does not represent the full breath of activities that fall under the umbrella of humanitarian access. There will be many activities that individual organisations conduct to improve access that HAWGs rarely take on. The following sections should be seen in this light, as a representation of what an HAWG does, not what individual organisations do. 

PDF versions: You can access the English PDF version of the toolkit here and the French version here.