 Well, hello everybody, and thank you for joining us today from wherever you're calling in from. We're really excited to spend the next 90 minutes together talking about forward-leaning relationship-based access. So just to get us started, I thought I would give you a little bit of the lay of the land, how we plan to spend our time together, and then we'll get going into the interesting piece of it all. I see some of you are introducing yourself in the chat and I encourage everybody to do so. It's really nice to see who's out there, where you're calling in from, and what's your interest, what brings you into this conversation. So we welcome you here. We'd like to welcome you to the session that is co-hosted today by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to the United Nations, pardon me, and other international organizations in Geneva and Nonviolent Peace Forest and INGO working on civilian protection. As I said, today we'll be focusing on forward-leaning relationship-based access. We'll be exploring our experiences in places like South Sudan, Iraq, Sudan, and Ukraine, and learning about what access means to people, most impacted by violence, how we can work together with communities impacted by violence to create mutually protective access, and what some of the challenges are in the work that we do. We're gonna get started very shortly with opening remarks, and then we'll be looking for your input. We'll do a Mentimeter exercise, as Julie mentioned in the introduction. So looking for your thoughts and ideas about access, and we'll get to that shortly. And then we're gonna have an opportunity to hear and see about stories and voices from different places through getting to watch some videos. So we have videos from all the countries that I've mentioned. We'll start with South Sudan and Iraq and watch a couple of videos from those locations. And then we've got some great speakers from each of those places who will share with us about their experiences, and you'll have an opportunity to ask some questions. And then we will move on and we'll do the same thing for Sudan and Ukraine. And then we'll wrap up at the end, and that should bring us to the end of our session together. So let's get started without waiting anymore. It's my honor and distinct pleasure to introduce you to Mr. Andre Van Menz. He's the First Secretary of Humanitarian Affairs for the permanent representation of Kingdom of the Netherlands here in Geneva, and our partner in co-facilitating, co-hosting this event. And Andre's gonna get us started with some opening remarks. So I hand the floor to you, Andre. Yes, thank you very much, Tiffany. And let me join you in welcoming everybody throughout the world. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It's great to have you all here in such great numbers. And it's an honor for us from the Netherlands to co-organize this workshop with the Nonviolent Peace Force, which is an important partner for us in amongst others, Iraq and in South Sudan, of which we will see some examples of their work there. In the next couple of minutes and hour. Protection of civilians is an important part of Dutch policy. For starters, the title of our humanitarian policy brief is People First, which really alludes to international humanitarian law and protecting people. Likewise, safety of people and the safety of communities is also central to our security and rule of law policy. And defending human rights in general is a cornerstone of our foreign policy. And that too, of course, is about ensuring that people's rights are protected and their rights are protected. And defending and improving the position of women and girls in particular is also key to our feminist foreign policy. And finally, I wanted to mention another policy area that is important for us, which is mental health and psychosocial support. That is obviously not limited to protection, but in our view, it certainly is an important part of making sure that people in crisis situations have the resilience also later on to overcome that crisis. So having said all that, it's clear that protection and the safety of people and the safety of communities is a priority for us, as it is for many of you having joined us today. But it would be a mistake to reduce it to some niche of humanitarian action, which often happens. I mean, that is something you already knew, but which is something that for me was something that I discovered since arriving here in Geneva where I'm based two and a half years ago. And as I arrived, I was really fresh to the world of humanitarian affairs. And when I arrived, I went through a steep learning curve about the humanitarian system, about humanitarian principles and about humanitarian coordination and humanitarian clusters and about humanitarian delivery and access. And it all seemed very technical. And if it wasn't technical, it was all very neutral and independent. Don't drop the boat, don't jeopardize the access. And all this made very much sense when you think about the delivery of aid. For instance, the delivery of wash or shelter or food or even education and health. And it even in that same vein of thought seemed to make sense when thinking about protection. Until I started to realize that protection is not a technical issue at all. That in essence, it's not just aid to be delivered. Of course, it has also that element when we talk about protection, but it is so much more fundamental. Protection is at the heart of the matter. Protection, humanitarian principles and humanitarian access, even human rights. These are all different sides of the same coin. And they are different aspects of the life of persons facing life-threatening realities. And I think this is reflected in this year's team for the Global Protection Forum. Protection for access. And in the workshop today, which is forward-leaning relationship-based access. I mean, all this is not a discovery for you, but it was and is more and more so for me. And I believe it puts the concept of humanitarian principles in a much more activist light. Sure, the principles are there to ensure humanitarian access, and in particular, access to all those affected without distinction. But beyond that, the protection of people is something that needs to be actively defended and promoted. We are not neutral or independent. Or let me put it differently. If neutrality means standing for the rights of all people, including those most in need, then we are indeed neutral. So all this to say that protection and access go hand in hand and are not mutually exclusive. I guess my main message today in this opening is that it's not only access for protection, but it's protection for access. We need protection for the access. It's not just talking about access. And that means not looking at protection of civilians as a service to provide for which access is needed, but to look at it holistically in terms of community safety and security. It means that the perspective and agency of people should be central, as well as the responsibilities of state and non-state actors, of course. So it's the needs of, and the agency of the people that are central, not the narrow technical goals of access. Because safety and security implies access as well as people's wellbeing. And the other way around, they are inherently intertwined. And I think that's the message today. And that in turn points us to today's discussion, durable access. Access is often spoken of in terms of negotiations. The idea being that we need to negotiate access to provide aid. It is a quid pro quo often, but that is not a durable proposition. Instead it reduces both access and protection to ephemeral bargaining chips if we look at it in a quid pro quo way. What we need for sustainable protection is a bottom-up societal approach. Call it an excess approach, an approach that involves community and community actors that empowers these actors and gives them the voice vis-a-vis those bearing arms. That in the long run, allows them to be part of the peaceful solution. Let's take for instance, women and girls. We shouldn't look at them only as vulnerable groups in need of some protection against sexual and gender-based violence, but rather give them the agency as an interlocutor able to claim and reclaim their basic rights. And then that way, empowered people will be accessible and protected at the same time. And in the end may not even need our assistance anymore. Thank you. Great, thanks so much, Andi. Great thoughts and positions to get us started and let's get into it from here. So before we get started with the videos and hearing from our speakers, we wanna have a chance to have a little brainstorming amongst ourselves. And so we'll use the tool of Mentimeter to be able to hear from you all. You'll see Natalie's put the link in the chat for the Mentimeter to do a quick poll and we will have three questions. We have, what does access mean to you? If there's anything that we've learned, is access means something to everyone, but it's not always the same. Who needs access and who holds responsibility for access? Those are the questions that are gonna be coming up. So if you can go ahead and click the link and start entering your answers to there, then we'll start to see those come up on the screen and we'll get a sense of sort of how we all have a different experience and understanding about what access is or what do we all see is really the same. Great. We'll give you a few minutes to go ahead and do that. Lots of interesting responses coming in for, what does access mean to you? Opportunity, trust, equality, freedom of movement, no obstacles to do something, precursor to normalization, receiving aid, wonderful opportunity without discrimination. Oh, this is great. This would make excellent artwork we should all have on our walls. Freedom, la liberté, answer in any language you like. It doesn't have to be English, it's okay. Wonderful. Liberate, life with dignity, fulfilling an obligation. That's interesting. Protection, great. Natalie, can we go on to the second question? Who needs access? Here they come. Humanitarians, everyone, beneficiary, people in need, NGOs, person, vulnerable, conflicted areas, conflicted affected areas, affected people, combatants, NGOs, people, the press. So we've got some real contribution that we see here. Access is important to everyone and it seems like everyone needs some kind of access. Great. And let's go to the last question. Who holds responsibility for access? Local communities, security forces, duty bearers, state, authorities, everyone, NGOs, armed actors, people in power, those in power, government, security entities. Great. Ocha, anybody from Ocha on the call? Got some heavy responsibilities coming up. Anybody holding power over a territory? Excellent. Good. Okay, Natalie, we can close it up. Thanks so much, everybody, for your participation. It's really interesting to see the responses coming in and the diversity and really a sense of inclusivity when we see those answers. We see, in essence, everybody needs access. It means a lot of things and it's really about freedom to do what you need to do, to do what you want to do in a safe way. We see that for people affected by conflict and deprivation and violence. And we see this for those of us in responding and participating who are largely part of the humanitarian community, looking at how we can gain access to communities who are affected by violence, conflict and deprivation, and how we can be in support of as well as to be safe while we're doing that. And then really that everybody has a role in access. It's not just one person, one organization's responsibility, but it is in fact, we all have a role to play in gaining and maintaining and securing access. And that's a great start to our conversation. So thanks everybody for sharing your thoughts with us and let's get started and move on to our next session. So for, as I said at the introduction, we're gonna have an opportunity to jump in to a couple of different locations. We did it through the use of video to make sure that we didn't have any challenges with connectivity, the storms or whatever was gonna happen and risk not having the opportunity to really get a sense of what was going on. So we're gonna start with a couple of videos. We'll do them right in succession. So the first one will be from South Sudan and then two short videos right next to each other that'll be about Iraq. And then we'll hand it back over to Andre to moderate a conversation with our speakers, Kuzinai and Reem who are from working in South Sudan and Iraq respectively, to talk a bit about what we see in the videos and what their experiences are related to access. So tech geniuses, can I turn it back over to you and can we get started with the videos? What access means to you as women protection team? I will not tell you exactly because I already have a lot of experience with the free service and I hope you will also get some experience and I'll thank you. If you work at the Mahl Jaradah, you can get a lot of experience. That's what I would say. So what are the access to WPT? The best access that I can get How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? How has it impacted your lives as women? If you also look at the challenges they presented, you realize that there are many. As nonviolent peace force, I wanted to share with you how we work with women so that access could be improved. First of all, as an organization, our methodology of an armed civilian protection enables us to always consider the issue of primacy of local actors. So in the issue of the formation of the WPGs, we established them so that we encourage and support them to participate in community and security issues and also ensuring that we facilitate self-protection. So the whole issue is about us as nonviolent peace force building the capacity of the women protection teams so that they can also have access to basic services and access to livelihoods so that as well as being able to protect themselves and others. So as we work with them, some of the activities that we engage with them is providing a commandment and protected presence. And as we speak, it's not only NP that does that, they are also to conduct the patrols independently and jointly with nonviolent peace force. And by doing that, we are also facilitating the issue of sustainability even if we are not around in South Sudan. The other issue is the issue of accompaniment. We are talking about access. Some survivors might not be able to access services because the situation will be volatile or it will be insecure. So the women are able to accompany the survivors to be able to access basic services. Also, we have been building the capacity of women and also advising them as you saw they say they are moving in groups. As nonviolent peace force, we also discuss with them and also give some of those advices so that they can move in groups. And many times when they move in groups, no instance happens along the way. We also encourage them for them to access services and we've been engaging with local authorities, government and other humanitarian aid trust for them to consider the community as a whole. And the other issue is the issue of protection mainstream also allows organizations to consider the issue of access. It will enable them to realize that everyone needs access. Thank you very much. Thank you and thank you that you introduced yourself. I should have done that myself. But thanks for these insights and I will come back to you after, but I will move to Reem. Reem has been working in Iraq as a National Protection Officer and has a lot of experience in negotiating also with authorities. Reem, we saw in one of the videos on Iraq, we saw the importance of, let's say, building trust and building relations with institutions but also with the communities. And in particular, there was the issue of a lot of NGOs arriving at a certain point but then not staying around. Maybe using that example, can you say a little bit what the success is of non-violent peace force in terms of securing protection and access and what is it differently? Yes, my name is Reem and I work for MP in Iraq. So the first video that you saw in Iraq was about the situation of the camps and this lady who knew us in Iraq and then she wanted to go back to her camp but she wasn't getting the permissions that she needed to go back. This is because of a conflict between her and her brother who took her children from her and she didn't have any documents so that she could re-enter the camp. So it was very, very difficult but because MP was there and we were working there and since the camps were there in the southern Mosul part, we managed to work. So in MP we communicated all the security forces and also the governmental organizations and those within the camp and we have built trust with them and with the community and therefore we were able to build the trust between all of them, such as the Ministry of Immigration because they actually work with the Iraqis and Jordan especially and we managed to get permission to allow this lady to go back into the camp who was now living outside the camps or living on the streets really and we managed to get her this permission so that she would return to the camp and to take the tent that she had in the past and the problem was that she didn't have her ID card and all the documentation that she was required but because we had built the trust with the security forces in Iraq who were responsible for the area where the camp was, through that trust and our relationships. As I said we have former relationships and we used to visit all the security forces in the past so because of this we managed to get this permission so this woman would re-enter the camp and we managed to return her ID and all her documentary papers which were given with her brother sorry. So as I said building trust and having a relationship is really important whether it's with the security forces, organizations or the communities. We continuously continue with visits with the security forces as a send and with people who sometimes come and visit and with the society as well and all other organizations that are there and I think that when we build such trust and relationships we are able to succeed and any problem that we face or any conflict that we face we are able to resolve by allowing the security forces to take part to solve these problems. It's the same also with the community leaders who actually managed to impact those who live in the camps or in the area. Now there's a second story can I say it in brief it's similar to the one we've just shown this is outside the camp. There were two other stories similar to this one of the women didn't have a house. She was living on the streets for about maybe a year. So through building trust and relationship with the security forces in Nenwa and the Khiyar area which are close to the camp. We managed to get permission for her so that she would live in the camp because she had nowhere else to live in. She had no house and we managed to get that permission so that she would live in the camp as I said. The second story was also about a woman who was a displaced person who came from a different region but she was unable to go back to that region because let's say all the houses were destroyed because of the war. So we managed to get permission for her because she was unable to get them before. So as I said she because she came from a different region she wasn't allowed to live in this region without permission. So as MP and because of all the trust in the relationships as I said with the society community leaders and security forces and the organization that work on protection and GBV and other matters we managed to get permission. As I said the community leaders needed to accept her because they have to give permission for other families to enter the area. So through the Ministry of Immigration and the security forces in Nenwa we managed to get that permission and she was able to come into the camp. So this is another story similar to the ones we showed in the video. Thank you Reem and thank you for telling us some additional stories and they show how important it is to have this long-term relationship. Can I maybe ask a follow-up question briefly? I've heard that the Nonviolent Peace Force does night patrols in the camps as well and we're one of the few if not the only organization does these night patrols. Can you say a little bit why this is important and how it benefited the organization but also in the organization in actually achieving better protection and access? Thank you Andri. I can give you an example of the bento protection of civilian sites. As a result of the meetings we were holding with the community, with the local leaders. We realized that most of the cases or offenses were happening at night. Initially we were conducting our patrols during the day but as I said this issue of the premise of acres and also our applied for protecting civilians we started discussing about a strategy we could use. So we started conducting patrols at night. Initially we were doing the patrols independently and we realized that during the time when we were conducting the patrols there were no cases or no crimes reported. As a result of our efforts we also realized that we managed to even share our good work with other partners including enemies and at one point we also managed to influence them to conduct those patrols at night. So meaning our efforts towards the reduction in criminal activities and our efforts to coordinate with other partners led to the decrease in criminal activities and the community appreciated us because they could move freely even at night and during the day. Thank you. Thank you Kudzanai and Reem. How about your night patrols in the camps? Thank you. Thank you. The question is a really good one. So the question was about the patrols and their presence in the camps. It's very important in my opinion for the organizations and the MP to be present in the camp. I really doubt those patrols at times which were night time so this is our second task because most organizations that work within the camp only work in the daytime mostly in the mornings. So as a protection agency we should really be in the camps at times such as night time. So night time is from 4pm until midnight. At that time there's no other organizations there and even the security forces are away from the camps at that time. So MP saw that it was important for it to be present for that period so they would be there. So we decided to divide it our times so some people work in the daytime and others work for that evening period so that any conflict or any problems that occur within the camps we would be there otherwise it would be difficult to solve them. So as I said any event or incident or any misunderstanding that occurred in the camp was solved through MP. And even when the local authorities or the security forces and the community leaders and the community in general saw that we were working in that time that increased the trust in us. And people felt more secure through our presence because the organization was there to support them and was working on everything. So I think the presence for that time was really important which is what we did and this is still carrying on. So we have people who work only evenings just to do that to ensure no new problems arise. Thank you. Thank you very much Reem and we have been getting some questions also in online from the participants and one of them maybe I'll ask first Kudzanay. What about the role of the local authorities or those in power when it comes to making sure that the services that NGOs and international governmental organizations can provide in terms of protection and access. What is their role in making sure that these services are sustainable and that the NGOs can actually do their work. Thank you very much Andrew with regards to access in terms of that sometimes we experienced challenges. However, like I said we've been working with the WPTs and also our community based protection networks and we have been able to help community meetings and also we have managed to link our community based protection network with local authorities so that they highlight the issues they are facing. At times we see that they also try and mitigate and we see them coming in but it's a continuous process. Sometimes we realize that if you can't manage to convince them you have to go again and knock on the door and also the engagement of various community members within the areas where we operate has really helped because sometimes as an organization yes we can go and keep on trying to emphasize the importance of access and also the importance of them ensuring that they are part of the issue of participation. So it's a matter of continuous engagement with them, building trust and relationship so that they also understand the importance of humanitarian partners to themselves and the community themselves. So it's a continuous process and it also requires being trusted by the community, being trusted by other partners. I can say it needs a lot of coordination and collaboration. In some areas it's difficult but in other areas it depends on maybe the context of an area. Thank you. Thank you very much and Reem we have another question from one of the participants, a particular participant from the Democratic Republic of Congo who is asking about I would say the security also of not only the people but also those helping the people such as non-violent peace force. The organizations often depend on the local authorities, on the police forces to protect them but that is not always the case. So maybe a question to you is how do you build trust and the bridge with the local security forces and the local authorities so that you are able to do your work? Yes, it's very important that we build trust and have a relationship with the security forces in the area or in the areas that we work in. And also with those who impact the community because those parties also contribute when it comes to solving some of the problems that occur. And therefore through them we can reach service, deliver services as well. So how do we build trust and relationship with them through visits? And also by participating in some activities and also by knowing them and for them to know our employees and our organization so that they know what MP is or what activities it carries out. So as I said through knowing them and building such a relationship we can solve any problem. And also as I said through visits when we carry out such visits as we said there's quite a few people who work in the security forces. So we have to carry out visits and we do these every fortnight or every four weeks maybe so that they make sure that they know us really well. This is the best way to build the trust as I said by continuous visits and through this we can solve any problem that we face. Now for example we had one lady in the community that was unable to reach the security forces or was unable to solve some problems that they were facing. Because in the community as I said they're always scared of going into the security forces because they aren't. So there is some inherent fear there but through in the camp in Southern Mosul we had a group especially for women where they tell us what their problems are. And then we also have people who come from the security forces and we told them not to worry about them even if they are armed. And these security forces agreed to come to those meetings unarmed and therefore it was a successful meeting. And through that meeting the women managed to communicate with the security forces with ease and with no fear and they were telling them what problems they were facing. And the community leaders also were present and especially the women that impact the community they were there as well. And therefore all the community got to know who they were and they were able to tell them what the problems were. They were also able to identify which security force they would need to go to you know which governmental entity they need to go to so they were able to identify those. And we actually gave them a roadmap of all the government services on offer and which unit does what and what solve what problems they face and so on. And what times they were available for them to listen to the community. And therefore all the problems were easier to communicate. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We have to move to the next part of the program but thanks for being here with us and thanks for your very important work in the places where it matters most. And thank you for the people joining us for their questions. Unfortunately we cannot ask all the questions you have been posting in the chat. But we continue so there might be another opportunity. Thank you very much. Thanks everybody. That was a great discussion and great to see all the engagement in the chat area. There was questions and comments and we've been trying to collect them all. We're learning from you from your own experiences and your own reflections and that's all really helpful to consider. We'll now move on to the next set of videos. So we'll see two videos now. One from Sudan and one from Ukraine and then we'll do the same thing. We'll have a discussion about them so more opportunity to engage. Tech wizards let me turn it back to you. Let's go ahead and see the videos. Our teams prioritized identifying civilian protection needs and priorities specifically in the heart to reach and frontline areas with the focus on civilians exposed to vulnerabilities, namely the elderly and people with special needs. Christina, I am here with Nonviolent Peace Force. We are an international humanitarian organization that provides protection, unarmed protection to civilians in conflict zones. Today we are in Kharkiv, one of the cities that has been affected by the violent conflict in Ukraine most. Behind me you see a damaged apartment block, a huge building that has been hit by a missile. We've spent this afternoon talking with some residents that were able to escape most of the fire and are now sheltering in accommodation nearby. Ongoing violence, reluctance or inability of older people and those with disabilities or health concerns to evacuate, closures of public transport and essential businesses, and socioeconomic disadvantage have compounded and create situations in which people with special needs are isolated and unable to access services. Where these populations have been identified, the majority burden of providing support has been placed on the self-organized local volunteers. During the mission assessment period MP engaged with a variety of local stakeholders including women's centers, human rights activists, religious leaders, representatives of the Ukrainian government, volunteer collectives, civil society organizations, national and non-governmental organizations and emergency response teams. It became quickly clear that these groups are leading the humanitarian response in Ukraine. I don't know, do you have the mobile app with you? Understanding that the humanitarian machine moving into Ukraine is very hierarchical and the response that is most effective is coming from local organizations and civilian led volunteer mechanisms. MP's unique responsibility in this is to be the bridge, being the bridge to fill the gap between the on the ground local organizations and then the humanitarian structures that would be able to provide the much needed service provision. Despite the leading role of local actors in frontline efforts, the vast majority of resources remain concentrated with international agencies. Although some of the local humanitarian organizations interviewed by MP have partnered with international actors to receive funding to conduct such operations, more support is needed. Frontline efforts are further hampered as a result of damaged civilian infrastructures. The Russian forces are continuously targeting Ukraine's power stations causing massive blackouts across the country. Residents are being urged and in some cases forced by circumstances to conserve water and energy. Destruction of houses and lack of access to fuel and electricity due to damage infrastructure could become a matter of life or death. To support self-protection strategies already adopted by local organizations and help them better observe safeguarding and do-know-how principles while implementing humanitarian activities, MP has began delivering trainings on unarmed civilian protection. Training contents have included introduction to unarmed civilian protection methods, at MP's values and principles, namely non-violence, primacy of local actors. In anticipation of the fast approaching winter months, MP aims to continue to support the hyperlocal response structures, focus on civilian protection and the delivery of aid. Ukrainian women's networks have been central to the humanitarian aid response here in Ukraine. We've met with a number of women's networks who are running shelters, who are running evacuation networks, moving women and children from the east and the south areas that have been occupied or under threat by the Russian forces, and moving them into Western Ukraine and into Europe as well. So the humanitarian response has been incredibly women-led, incredibly youth-led and it's been such a privilege to see. Hi, this is Nonviolent Peace Force here today in West Darfur, in the locality of Kerenik. We're in a nomad's community about nine kilometers away from the town of Kerenik called Rusi. And Kerenik is a town that a couple of months ago was attacked, it's the fifth time since 2021 that it was attacked. And about 200 people were killed, many homes were destroyed and many people were displaced towards the largest town in West Darfur called Elginina. In July of this year, Nonviolent Peace Force conducted its first outreach mission to Kerenik locality. The team visited Kerenik town itself, the site of the attack, as well as three nomadic Arab villages in the surrounding areas. The MP team engaged with community members, community leaders, government authorities and humanitarian actors. Yeah, going to Kerenik West Darfur was not an easy ride. Reach out for each isolated community, the trust is important. And during the training in Galala, we were able to earn the trust. How did we do that? I would say it's all about human interactions. Sitting with the community, sharing a meal, tea, coffee, listening to their stories without judgment make the difference. Even during the workshop, our team enhanced the relationship with the community, including the community leaders. I am sure community felt that effort of nonviolent peace force to protect the community. So Galala community in Kerenik locality welcome us and protect us. I feel that human relationship is magical. So we deeply believe that relationship building is key to access the community. MP, using its nonpartisan approach, recognized the importance of working with all members of the community. Rather than target just the displaced non-nomadic communities, as has been common in the humanitarian system in recent years, MP has chosen to devote equal attention to both sedentary and nomadic peoples. I think it's the best meeting. They are directly familiar with the community. And I will introduce them to the community later. They work together. I know that every community in the time of struggle knows that MP is not MP. It's not what you do. It's not what you do. We believe that nonviolent peace force in the past was the most popular among the present. Because now people have the courage to move from the war to peace. And this requires institutions to address the problems that people need like nonviolent peace and the transformation of the war to peace. We want to encourage people to live a healthy life. Since this first mission, MP has now established firm enough contacts that the team can feel safe moving between villages, moving between nomad and sedentary villages, using our relationships as our means of security. The team has been travelling regularly to Karenik, building relationships, gathering protection concerns, and devising strategies to seek to address some of the protection concerns that communities are raising. Karenik has been a witness for a long time. After the incident, people's lives changed from year to war, from safe to non-safety. There were difficulties facing the citizens from all sides. The market was closed, and the roads were blocked by security threats because of the security challenges in the area. They were trying to strengthen the security of the government, and there were also MPs, such as MPs, so that another conflict between the community would take place. And MPs have been talking about this problem. And now there is a connection between communities in Karenik. And now there are security threats, and everything is going well. There are many challenges for the human work in this area, especially in the western part of Karenik. The community believes that the organizations are providing financial support, and protection, and other assistance. But MPs are in a completely different way from the ones that people used to support. They provide the same kind of support, and they don't need any support. If they provide the same kind of support, then there will be no other ministers, no leaders, no security guards, and no security guards. So the MPs are in a different way, and I hope that the organizations will continue to strengthen the security of the community. What the reflection of what they told us is that the access to the normal community has not been happening by the other humanitarian who are working in a humanitarian field. But MPs make it to have access very simple. Because they say the approach that MP is giving them is really catchable. It is like going with their life, their normal life. It is reflecting their normal life. It's not about the luxury, but it is about how they examine it, how they examine those tools. So the MP protection tools are completely different, and they told us, this means if MPs enter any place, it will make... Well, great. Well, thanks. I hope you all enjoyed to see a little insight into two areas affected by violent conflict in Ukraine and Sudan and Darfur specifically. And we are going to welcome our speakers to discuss their experiences in these locations. Just a reminder, again, the chat is open, so if you have questions or comments about anything you saw in those videos or things that you'd like to ask the speakers, please go ahead and we'll do our best to try and at least get to a couple of them. We did have a speaker that you heard in the video, Janti, who had dialed in with us from Darfur, who is supposed to be part of our panel right now. Unfortunately, as these things happen, he has lost connectivity. So we have to speak in his place. We'll be Hubert Oldenhus, who is our Global Director of Programming for Nonviolent Peace Force. And together with our colleague, Christina, who is in Ukraine, who you heard doing the narration and you saw in the video. So, Christina, let me start with you. Welcome. Hi. Good morning. Good to see you. Thanks. Great. Glad we've got connectivity. We were a little worried about that as well. Some of the work that you guys have been doing has been really focused on areas that have not had much presence from a humanitarian, external humanitarian response. So specifically, I was wondering if we could ask you about the work that you guys have done in gaining access to Mikhailov and maybe share with the people how you did that. Go ahead from there. Yes. Yes, absolutely. And thank you for this quick question. As briefly mentioned in the video, we first survived to Ukraine to conduct an assessment. And during that time, it became quickly apparent that the areas that our teams would want to focus and see ourselves potentially adding value to the ongoing humanitarian response were the hard to reach frontline communities. So we've identified three operational basis, which are established. I'm very glad to inform that they are now fully operational. So we have offices in Odessa, Nikolayev and Kharkiv. And specifically in Nikolayev and Kharkiv, the presence of international humanitarian actors is incredibly limited. That is partially due to security protocols that the international humanitarian organizations have to abide by. And that does not mean that having presence in these more affected areas is impossible. So throughout the last few months, MP has continuously showed up in Nikolayev City building relationships with local volunteer collectives with national non-governmental organizations with self-organized groups that came together following February events as the meets presented themselves. And again, I couldn't stress how important this is and true it is, these groups are the ones that know what the concerns are on the ground and how to best address them. There's so much capacity in the ground and it has been there even before 2014. So the way that we try and operate in Ukraine is less about building capacity and trying to show how to address civilian protection concerns. Rather, we focus on supporting the existing local response mechanisms, making sure that they can sustain themselves as we're counting the eight months of the war. So specifically in Nikolayev, we have developed close relationships with volunteer collectives that we help support through trainings. We provide protective accompaniments and protective presence to their activities. We make sure that they have access to personal protective equipment. And to first aid kits that they are aware of safeguarding into no harm principles and how to best embed them in their activities. A major issue that we're seeing in Nikolayev is that because so many international organizations choose to not operate in the city, they're asking volunteers to come all the way to Odessa, pick up material supplies and then distribute them on their behalf. And while they're doing that, they're not providing local volunteer collectives with any personal protective equipment. These volunteers are going to frontline communities in their own personal vehicles that carry bullet marks. And they have very limited support in terms of first aid kits. And they're really putting their own personal safety and security at risk to continue these efforts. And they're getting, of course, no stipends. And as again, we're counting the eighth month of the war. People are looking for stable sources of income to support their families. And the situation, again, is really dynamic and difficult. So with NP, as NP, we've been doing our best to help provide these volunteer collectives with everything they need so they can sustain their activities. And that has given them access to protection and it has given us NP access to the harder to reach frontline community. Great. Thank you, Christina. And Hubert, we have seen common with these two particular examples from Ukraine and also the situation that was described for Karen Nick and Darfur is these are areas that are currently, have recently and currently experienced with very high levels of violence. So get our considered high security, high risk, dangerous locations. And of course, for humanitarian organizations, you know, no matter how difficult or how much we want to reach different locations, we also have to consider security. And so can you sort of help us sort of look at some of the aspects of building access to be able to reach those really more insecure, more dangerous locations? Sure. I must say, first of all, it is difficult. There's no easy answers to this. But what I've seen very much in different locations and especially in the location of Sudan and Ukraine which is discussed is the aspect of creativity, is the aspect of persistence. For example, in the situation of Sudan, of Darfur, it was also a matter of that we want to get into these places without an armed escort. So a lot of the humanitarian organizations going in with armed escorts, we could not talk about unarmed protection and while going into an armed escort, and that's not something that we do. And also armed escorts kind of make a separate tone for a mobilitized approach, which is difficult. And so it requires some more kind of creativity and really deep engagement with communities. In that particular example, it was very interesting to see how the NP teams just approached the communities and had one conversations and just went up to the community leaders. Maybe the first time is that people are not understanding and don't want to collaborate. But the first time today, no one doesn't mean that tomorrow is also annoying. So it requires kind of ongoing conversations. In that particular case in Sudan, at some point the team had the community leaders said, okay, I understand what you want to do here. I'll join with you in the car and we'll go there together. And then the community leader on the other side of the community said, I will join too because you need me as well because to deal with the community on the other side. And so at some point, they have both the community leaders together traveling into that area. And that may sort of take some extra time to get there. But once you do get there, you have a lot more trust coming in and then you can sort of take that and build on because you're coming with the community. We're seeing that time and again as well, and I saw that it's in places like Myanmar and the Philippines as well, where local actors are struggling. How do we talk to the military? They don't want to see me. Sometimes people get really creative and they go to the golf course and have tried to sort of play golf with the military or they approach the white local commander and have brunch with them and sort of get access to a military leaders in that way. And so there is this often a creativity involved and a persistence of like sometimes nine or 10 times and you find the entry point and that sort of gets you further. I also remember from being in Ukraine with Christina, it was difficult in the beginning and so how do you find access and that comes with trying to make yourself useful. And it's not always like doing the thing that you came there to do, but sometimes it means helping out on a thing that you had not considered and very practically making yourself useful and then people see, okay, I need some help with this. Can you do that? We're driving around a local mediator in South Sudan as well before we get an entry point in. And so sometimes we need to think outside of the box of what we came in to do and be a bit creative. And I think the team in Ukraine demonstrated that by making themselves useful and that builds trust and that gets you further. Maybe one last thing that I can add to that as well is there's lots of misunderstandings and miscommunications in conflict affected areas where local communities may not talk to each other. They may be afraid of talking to the military, the police. So sometimes even by just going out and clarifying the different parties in one of the videos in Iraq, we saw that as well where we say we go to the police and they said like, okay, talk to the government and the government said talk to the police. Sometimes they don't talk to each other and so by communicating that and sharing that information, sometimes the actors see them, hey, wait a minute, you are actually clarifying things and it is useful what you're doing. And when you're staying a little bit within your lane and you're not going into kind of accusatory language of like this is, this violation should be addressed and that but you're really keeping it a bit quiet and under the radar and making yourself useful in very practical ways. You often do build that access and trust. So let me keep it there. Thanks Hubert. You're really touching on some of the things that certainly within nonviolet peace force we say to ourselves every day that we need persistence, creativity and flexibility when we're doing this kind of work. There's no such thing as a singular solution or a singular approach to all of these very complex and difficult situations that we all find ourselves in and that is there's always a way forward, there's always a way to be practical and useful. It's just not always the thing that you start with and that's really a good reminder. Christina, in Ukraine, you guys have been doing some very interesting work that I would say really embraces both access and protection and access for protection and vice versa in supporting people who have lost their documents, their important legal documents and don't have access to be able to get to the places where they can to safely get there to be able to reapply for those documents. Can you tell us a little bit about that work? Yes, of course. It is in fact a huge problem in the up-left that are now being deoccupied. A lot of people find themselves without personal documentation whether it was because their properties had been shelled or perhaps they had left thinking they could return and then never found their homes in place because the territories got occupied. Some have never had a passport before and now are in need to get it. The reasons, of course, depend on each individual case. However, without personal documentation, at the moment you are unable to go to the bank to withdraw money or access any other banking services. You're unable to apply for humanitarian aid if you are an internally displaced person. Say you had to flee her son and you're now residing in Nikolai. You're unable to get food packages because due to donor reporting and all sorts of bureaucratic measures, you have to prove your identity upon receiving material aid. It creates huge impediments to civilians. Also, those with special needs that could apply for specific stipends to help support their conditions as they're trying to get appropriate medication. Our teams have been providing protective accompaniments to civilians residing in Nikolai. It would be their Nikolai residents themselves or people that had fled her son and were accompanying them to Odessa where at the moment you have the only immigration office where you can apply for personal documentation. We do this activity in cooperation with local partners to make sure that civilians get access to aid through getting their documentation issued. If I may add, while listening to Hubert talk and how important it is to build trust with the communities that you're trying to do this work with, it really came to my mind the frustration of some of these local volunteer collectives that they experience when meeting with international actors. We're hearing a lot of stories where these collectives admit that they have spoken with many international partners, but they come, they ask their questions, they gather their data and they never return and whatever promises they had put to help get access to particular material aid or to help support with operational cost they never follow through. So a major way for us to build that trust to again continuously show up and this is why in places like Nikolai and Harkiv we have been conducting service mapping exercises through which we identify all of the currently active organizations within those of less with the intention to establish partnerships with them with the intention to advocate for their needs and connect them with international organizations including donors so that they could ask for financial support and also to establish referral pathways so we could continue building that trust and take each other's support when we come across specific civilian protection concerns specifically as it pertains to the elderly and people with disabilities. So it crossed my mind to Hubert when I was hearing your comment. Thanks, Christina. Yeah, that's really helpful. We have a few questions in the chat coming up. Hubert, I'm going to ask you this one. There's a couple of questions related to the presence of armed escort for humanitarian access or humanitarian convoys. Do you think armed escort is a viable option for humanitarian access and conflict situations where government forces are involved? Could you reflect a little bit on that question? Sure. I have not done a proper assessment on sort of the different forms of armed escort and the services that people provide. So within NP, it's not something that we do. But of course, like I said before, we are our trademark is providing on armed protection. And so it is very important for us to not sort of use armed protection to come in and reseting a different message. What that means for other people I don't know. I do know that sort of what I can see is that the armed escorts, especially when government forces are involved, people are kind of mistrusting that deeply. I can also see when we're not sort of bringing in armed escort, even by the fact that we're coming in, people are often already mistrustful. Are you spies of the government? Are you spies of the armed group? So they're coming already in with a lot of trust. A lot of mistrust, I think, and that needs to be earned. And if you then on top of that bring an armed escort that is related to specific party and conflict, you will have to work a lot harder to overcome that mistrust. So you're starting with a huge obstacle. So for me, it's like, it's more a question. Can you find ways first of getting in without an armed escort? And to us, in our experience, communities have been always very supportive in getting access like the example I just mentioned, where they are kind of saying we will get you access. We are building the trust with community leaders and they will get us the access that we're needing. They will be able with us to get the access and deal with people whether they may be a threat to us specifically by bringing in the right people who can deal with specific check once and so forth. I don't know if there are specific cases where armed escorts are okay. I think everyone needs to decide for themselves. But I think even there, it could be a deep involvement with the community on how that is organized and how this being done could, I think, be very beneficial. Tiffany, I did not complain of anything you want to add to that. Great. Yeah, thanks, Hubert. I mean, I think it's just how we act, it depends on as you've commented on which organization, what your mandate is and what the relationship you have and what your work is. So, yeah, you're speaking very much from the nonviolent Peace Force perspective and I think like with everything we do, these are really complicated questions to ask and there's a lot of factors to consider. So, from our perspective, it's because of the type of work that we do and the way that we are as an organization. We choose not to work with armed escorts but we certainly do understand there are circumstances for other organizations and agencies when that is needed and that is the case particularly when it's rapidly getting in lifesaving, humanitarian relief, we absolutely, there's different approaches to different circumstances. We're getting close to wrapping up but Christina, I'm just going to ask you a little question that came up earlier in the chat is just really like about challenges. I mean, we like to talk about what works and what we're feeling really good about and that side of it but as you've been there for several months and really working on these really difficult issues, what pops up in your mind are sort of what are the most significant challenges and sort of creating access for protection while you're doing this work. Thanks for this question, Tiffany. Actually the first word that comes to my mind is coordination. We found it really challenging to bridge the gap between the local response and the international response in Ukraine. There is a big humanitarian machine now up and running in the country and it sometimes seems quite remote to the challenges experienced on the ground and as we do try to remain forward-leaning and really focus on the areas where the needs are highest the biggest challenge is actually to make sure the referral systems function and that there is a communication and trust between actors involved in their response. And we're trying to solve this challenge by increasing our coordination efforts by building strengthening our relationships with international and local actors. In fact one way that we're doing that is by organizing an event here in Odessa during which we're going to bring all of our partners international and local together to create a platform where they can discuss their needs openly and then use the time to connect with one another and discuss ways that they can service people in the harder to reach rural territories and along frontline areas. And that really means that we need to put all of our efforts towards decentralizing aid to make sure that it's not only concentrated within the metropolitan areas of places like Odessa, Lviv, Nipro and Kyiv but that it reaches the outskirts and the rural areas of those cities where people are residing still because they're unable to evacuate due to financial constraints or because they're simply unwilling or even uncapable, not capable to leave their hometowns due to disability or any other issues. So we're really trying to push for this and advocate for the decentralization of aid to make sure that it reaches communities that are in most need. Thanks, Christina. What a great comment to end on the issue of sort of decentralizing aid. We talked a lot about this, the opening ceremony for the week yesterday and I know it'll come up throughout the week is one of the concrete things that we can do depending on what role that we play whether it's at the global level or regional or international or local organizations coordination. Of course we all know it's part of all of our jobs and it's always the most difficult thing, one of the most difficult things that we do and the real tendency to be efficient and have everything centralized and when in reality the way to be most impactful and to remember not how we do it or what we do but why we do it which is in support of people who are absolutely the most impacted starting from there and working our way backwards for those who are most impacted by violence and deprivation those at the part of the equation who have at that moment in time the least access to power and are therefore in the most need of amplification and support to be able to do that and that does require a more creative engagement than sometimes we do when we are being quick and efficient. Well, great. I just want to really thank everybody for your participation to all of the speakers to Andre my co-moderator and for his opening remarks and co-host for your time and attention today. This has been great to spend this time together. The chat has been live and active. I see there's lots, if you want to continue the conversation for any of us from Nonviolent Peace Force our email addresses are our first initial, so by case T and our last names at nonviolentpeaceforce.org or please find our website and you can probably find just our general contacts there. I've seen a few people ask for contacts so please we welcome your information. I've been trying to capture in the chat addresses and names of organizations that you've been sharing so that we can also be in touch. We've got so much to learn from each other and so much work to do together and so this is a great opportunity to be together in this moment. So just as we wrap up and reflect on where we started we really thought about access as something that when we talk really in the humanitarian architecture the real risk is we start thinking about oh it's somebody's job, somebody has to be an access coordinator, an organization or an entity has to hold the singular responsible for access. And I think what we heard from everybody here who's doing all this great and interesting work and having different experiences is that access is something we all need and it's everybody's responsibility. So well maybe for some people it's in our titles and maybe for some of us it's not but it really is based in relationship building and trust building and most importantly particularly for those of us coming from the outside into areas that are affected by violence by conflict, by deprivation is that we're coming into somebody else's home. Whether it's literally into their home, into their literal home where they live with their family into their community, into their schools into their hospitals. Whether we're from an international organization or even a local organization but not from that community and that access is not permanence. If somebody does agree to welcome us in and to work together then it's not a singular moment in time where we negotiate access and it is complete. It's an impermanent state and it's really part of a longer, more complicated period of engagement that's really about moving forward building those relationships and co-creating, doing this work together and we make mistakes and when we make mistakes we have to correct them and we pick ourselves up and we move forward and it's that persistence and creativity and flexibility that will really help us all move towards a world that is more integrated and we are more interconnected and therefore we are all safer and we're all able to live more full lives as we move forward. So thanks again everyone. Thanks to the tech team who've done brilliant work keeping us going. Really reduced the stress on all of us who are working on content. Thank you for your Hubert for jumping in at the last minute when we lost contact with our colleague in Darfur, Andre, Kuzi, Rem, Christina thanks everybody, thanks to everybody and enjoy the rest of the week.