VOICE Out Loud Newsletter Vol. 10: Humanitarian Aid and Security

As the security situation and the lack of respect for International Humanitarian Law in countries such as Afghanistan or DRC deteriorates, the diminishing of humanitarian space and the reduced access to beneficiaries has become an increasing concern for the humanitarian community. Delivering humanitarian aid is becoming more and more dangerous as shown by the dramatic increase in the frequency of attacks against aid workers over the past few years. Opinions differ on the precise causes of increasing insecurity for aid workers, but political targeting by local belligerents suggests that it matters how aid workers are perceived. When local populations or warring parties perceive ties between any military/combatants and neutral aid workers, the latter are put at risk. Economic motives have also been repeatedly put forward as plausible causes of attacks on aid workers.

Have the challenges NGOs are faced with changed? Ranging from acceptance by local populations to armed guards, what are the different alternatives for NGOs concerning security management? How to define an 'acceptable' level of risk for ourselves and our local partners? Should humanitarians develop a stronger communication strategy for making their specific mandate better known and distinguishing it clearly from political and military agendas? Data collected and analysed by the Overseas Development Institute present up to date indicators of recent trends, and give first propositions to explain these multiple questions. In addition, in this issue of the VOICE OUT LOUD, VOICE members give their views from the field and their daily work; both on the current difficult security context they operate in, and on how they respond to it to continue to deliver quality aid to people in need of assistance.

VOICE OUT LOUD is intended to contribute to the understanding of the professional reality of humanitarian NGOs. It is addressed to the European decision makers and other stakeholders of the humanitarian community, while giving an insight into relevant humanitarian issues, relying upon the experience and input of VOICE members.