Global Humanitarian Overview 2024

Expanding the critical role of humanitarian diplomacy

Humanitarian diplomacy aims to achieve humanitarian goals through diplomatic means. Humanitarian diplomacy is the use of high-level engagement to influence parties to armed conflicts and their sponsors to pursue humanitarian objectives. It requires the nurturing of relationships at the highest level and is an important component of the Emergency Relief Coordinator’s (ERC) vision for the future of humanitarian response.

As a way of addressing both long and short-term needs, humanitarian diplomacy can be used for different purposes, and is practiced at different levels by different individuals, from the ERC to IASC Principals, Heads of Offices, Humanitarian Coordinators and others. It can be used to help mobilize influence over actors that are impeding humanitarian access, including state actors and non-state armed groups and to raise protection concerns or respond to global humanitarian issues.

The humanitarian community as a practitioner of humanitarian diplomacy

The humanitarian sector faces an increasingly challenging environment, including the multiplication of state and non-state actors, with 175 million people believed to live under the control of armed groups. Increased bureaucratic and administrative impediments, the rise of new geo-political players and restrictive policies such as sanctions and counterterrorism measures also contribute to a significant restriction of humanitarian space and a more politicized and polarized operating environment. Now more than ever, humanitarians need to find new ways of constructively engaging and positively influencing actors with the potential to positively impact the humanitarian space. This is where humanitarian diplomacy offers a valuable tool, bolstering the ability and leverage to address humanitarian challenges.

For humanitarian diplomacy to succeed, the right conditions must be in place:

  1. Understanding of the geopolitical landscape and actors
  2. Identification of opportunities for agreements
  3. An established and solid network of relevant contacts that can be mobilized in support of negotiations.
  4. An important and non-negotiable point – humanitarian principles must be respected
  5. Ability to leverage the humanitarian community’s relationships with itself and with other actors to ensure that these relationships are used in pursuit of the same, shared humanitarian goals
Aid in Action

The Black Sea Grain Initiative – humanitarian diplomacy to address food insecurity

Ukraine
Baranove, Odeska oblast, Ukraine
Farmer Volodymyr Vasyliovyc, benefited from the Black Sea Grain Initiative - a UN-promoted deal between the parties to the conflict to reopen Ukrainian ports and establish safe corridors for maritime traffic.

The negotiations leading to the signing of the Black Sea Initiative by the Russian Federation, Türkiye and Ukraine on 22 July 2022 demonstrated the ability of humanitarian diplomacy to deliver positive humanitarian outcomes at the global level whilst leveraging commercial incentives. The war in Ukraine and the interruption of exports passing through the country’s Black Sea ports came as global food prices were already spiraling due to the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on international supply chains. FAO’s Food Price Index reached a record high in March 2022.

The implications for crisis-affected countries dependent on food imports were of great concern to the humanitarian community. The Black Sea Initiative and the parallel memorandum of understanding on the facilitation of food and fertilizer exports from the Russian Federation contributed to a sustained stabilization of markets and an easing of prices. Over a 12-month period, the Black Sea Initiative enabled the safe transportation of close to 33 million metric tons of foodstuffs aboard more than 1,000 outbound ships, including 725,000 metric tons of wheat procured by the World Food Programme in support of humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. A multi-disciplinary UN team in the Initiative’s Joint Coordination Centre supported the Initiative’s implementation through continuous dialogue with the parties, joint inspections of inbound and outbound vessels and authorization of movements. The Initiative was not renewed after its third term, which expired on 17 July 2023, but efforts are ongoing with the parties to resume it.

Humanitarian diplomacy is also dependent on circumstances outside of the control of the humanitarian community for example the willingness of conflict parties to negotiate in good faith, and their ability to ensure that their own constituencies are unified. This means that humanitarian diplomacy does not always work – however the process can still help lay the foundations for future successes such as attaining a humanitarian pause or other shared humanitarian goals.

The humanitarian community is engaged in humanitarian diplomacy in many contexts.

  • In Afghanistan, following the Taliban takeover, the ERC actively engaged in humanitarian diplomacy with the Taliban leadership, advocating for humanitarian principles, access to education for women and lifting bans facing Afghan female aid workers in Afghanistan.
  • In Syria, communication channels have been established between the ERC and national authorities, allowing for high-level strategic dialogue.
  • An IASC Principals humanitarian diplomacy and advocacy pilot is currently underway, which complements the ongoing efforts of the ERC and other stakeholders in the humanitarian system. The initiative aims to strengthen collective engagements that could influence both the circumstances and actors impacting principled humanitarian response in Burkina Faso and Haiti.

In many of these examples, humanitarian diplomacy is in its infancy and space remains for the humanitarian community to broaden efforts and find new forms of leverage that can have a positive effect on decision-makers and humanitarian objectives. Past experiences demonstrate the enormous benefits when the humanitarian community, Member States and other stakeholders align and commit to advancing humanitarian diplomacy.

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