 Well, welcome everyone, and thanks for joining this side event of the Protection of Civilian Week in person. This is good to be together as a community. Today we'll be discussing and exploring together the topic of how protection efforts and the local level are driving humane access and with the aim of scaling up the impact of our principled humane action. So a very contemporary topic and progressive topic in many ways. So I'd like to thank the co-sponsors and the organizers for the event to make it possible. So we have the permanent missions of Norway, Belgium, and France as our co-sponsors and for the organizers, the Global Protection Cluster, the Center of Competence on Humane and Negotiations, OSHA, UNHCR, and UNICEF. The format of the session today, we will first hear some opening remarks and then we will hear a number of speakers from different organizations to give us really the landscape and their experience. And following their remarks, I will open the floor for interventions from participants in the room. I'm very sorry for those who join us online that we won't be able to take your questions, but we appreciate really your participation today. And I will give the floor to a few speakers or interventions and we'll hear back from the panel if they want to react or respond to your questions. And finally, we'll have some wrap-up conclusive remarks from our Chief Global Protection Cluster, and this is it for today. So a bit more than one and a half hour almost for us today. It's great. So without further ado, I will introduce the speakers. We will start with Ambassador Monizoul from the Permanent Mission of Norway for the opening remarks and sharing some views on Norway's priorities with regard to protection and access. Then Ms. Louise Aubin from the Resident Coordinator in Niger will share with us the perspectives and experience with humanitarian partners in Niger and building also on her humanitarian leadership, supporting the strengthening of access and protection of civilians. We'll then move to our panelists. And first we will have online Mr. Usama Shorbari, the General Manager of AFAC Academy, operating in Northwest Syria, and who will join us to share about the actual negotiations and engagement in support for protection on the ground. We will then hear from Mr. Rehan Zahid, who is Acting Director of the Centre for Competence on Humanitarian Negotiations and based in Geneva, who works on strengthening the negotiation skills and capacities with humanitarian and protection actors globally. Then we will hear from Arnaud Royer, I hope I pronounced properly, the Head of OHCHR and the Protection Cluster Lead in Haiti, also joining us online to share some insights from the work he and the partners in the Protection Cluster in Haiti are undertaking, engaging with various armed groups, and then Aurelien Buffler from the Chief of OHCHR Policy Advice and Planning section here in New York, who will share more with regards to OHCHR's priorities, approaches as lead agency within the UN system and the humanitarian architecture on humanitarian access. And after that, I will open for interventions, and we will hear the concluding remarks from Samuel Chang, who is the coordinator of the Global Protection Cluster and supporting 31 protection clusters at the country level, that will give us a good overview. This is our program for today, so without further ado, over to you. Thank you, Sir Glenn, and to UNICEF for really setting the scene for this very important discussion here this afternoon. Protection of civilians is at the heart of Norway's humanitarian strategy. It is therefore a great pleasure for me to co-host this event. And I would like to thank the Global Protection Cluster for all your efforts in organizing this meeting, as well as our co-hosts. A particular thanks to our speakers from Syria, Haiti, and Myanmar. As we are sitting here, more than 110 armed conflicts around the world are dramatically affecting the lives of millions of civilians. It is telling that the number of armed groups has exploded, including those evolving into de facto authorities. And we are very concerned that in several regions, protracted armed conflicts and complex humanitarian emergency are becoming the norm, rather than the exception. As the nature of the conflicts become more complex and even confusing, we strongly believe that it is important to uphold the humanitarian principles. And we believe it is important to speak with all actors in a conflict, even with those we disapprove of, to secure access. In the absence of centralized governance and control, we see that more and more access negotiations are taking place at local levels. This makes it even more important to act on the promises from the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit to increase the support to actors at local levels. Local efforts are often being done on or near the front lines in high-risk operating environments. These efforts are having critical, tangible impacts, such as enabling civilians to access medical clinics, ensuring entry of humanitarian assistance into besieged villages, or facilitating safe passage of schoolchildren through checkpoints. But local actors often do not get the needed support and investment. This includes needed acceptance in terms of the role that humanitarian actors have in engaging and negotiating with parties to the conflict. And it includes the investment that enables them to develop needed relationship and trust, both with state and non-state armed groups and communities, to be responsive and flexible while at the same time ensuring proper risk management of staff. Not least, to be able to stay and deliver for as long as needs remain. The discussion here today is an opportunity to further unpack the different roles being played by protection actors, including local and national partners, and to look at how we as the international community can more effectively partner with and invest in efforts at local levels. At the global level, we believe that the centrality of protection must become a reality in the humanitarian sector as a whole. One action we can take is to support the implementation of the recommendation from the IISC protection review. Nor we also support the renewed engagement by the ERC and OSHA to strengthen its overall effort on humanitarian negotiations. We need more sustained assistance and protection services and long-term engagement with communities, even in the most remote areas. At the local level, wherever possible, international engagement should support the protection efforts by local and national actors. We firmly believe that the people affected by crisis need to be at the centre of the response. Humanitarian actions should be as local as possible and as international as necessary, to ensure that people in need receive proper assistance and protection. As for Norway, important funding channels to local and national responders are the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, Norwegian strategic humanitarian partners and the UN country-based pooled funds. Protection will be a main priority when Norway soon takes over the co-chairmanship of the pooled fund working group. Next month, Norway will be hosting the International Conference, Protecting Children in Armed Conflict. Together, we will save the children UNICEF, ICRC and in cooperation with the Special Advisor for Children in Armed Conflict, the African Union and OSHA. So we are calling for a strong political engagement and commitment from all stakeholders. Coming to an end, I would like to stress that even though the operational environment is complex, humanitarian needs are record high and the level of funding is low, we must not lose sight of what we actually manage to achieve. Every day, millions of people in need enjoys some level of humanitarian protection. That is thanks to the incredible efforts by the humanitarian community and not least, local actors. So I hope that the discussion here today will contribute to spark hope and motivation to further support local level protection support. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madame Ambassador. Thank you for outlining also the actual commitments and actions Oslo Norway is taking in that endeavor. I note in particular your words about the importance of partnership and of investment not only financially but investing in trust, investing in relationship, investing in risk management which are non-monetary investments but nonetheless critical to make a difference on that agenda. So I would like to welcome again Miss Louise Auvin, our UN resident coordinator in Niger and who brings also huge experience in humanitarian leadership role including serving as a regional representative of UNHCR, deputy director of international protection and now as resident coordinator in Niger, you are leading our humanitarian response in a context that where access to protection is significantly constrained and as in any conflict situation highly politicized I suppose the civilians are bearing the brunt of humanitarian consequences of the situation. So what is your experience leading and supporting access and principled humanitarian action in Niger? What are the approaches you've seen in terms of protection and humanitarian actors taking these such efforts forward and maybe also what are the main challenges you see? Madame Ambassador, Madame moderator, colleagues, panelists, our fearless leader, the DVC coordinator ladies and gentlemen, it's a real pleasure to be here. You thanked the organizers of the event by naming them but I do want to underscore just how important it is to create space to be able to talk about this and in particular and this is my new hat, my dedicated hat which is the resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator of a country I've grown to highly not just appreciate but admire and I want to spend the full time allotted to me to be able to talk about Niger. I've chosen three lessons, I call them lessons, three sets of observations I wanted to share with you about the dimensions of humanitarian access and protection as we lived them and worked through them in Niger and I've chosen three, call them tension points that we're still working on. The first lesson and I think this is particularly significant for people who've been to Niger and for some time, building on Niger's own tradition of dialogue, there's a wise saying in Niger that goes something like this, repel the enemy with a sword, he's bound to come back, repel the enemy with truth and he will always stay away and in its fight against armed groups whether in the tri-border area that Niger shares with Mali Burkina Faso or in the Lechad region on the border with Nigeria, Niger has consistently reminded international partners and neighbors that a military approach alone will not suffice to vanquish the Boko Arams, the Al-Qaeda's or Islamic State-linked armed groups which prey on communities struggling with unresolved social grievances, political exclusion and economic deprivation. Communities particularly in border areas are the real rampart in the conflict. They navigate between on the one hand non-state armed groups, threats, violence and extorted offer of protection and on the other hand the state often absent in the way it is most needed, I mean with all of its attributes, dispensing fair justice, making available basic social services and enabling conditions for livelihoods. Yes, Niger is the dubious honor of having one of the highest demographic rates in the world while ranking near the bottom of the Human Development Index and with levels of insecurity at its borders the stakes could not be higher nor more pressing to respond to what people need from their government. And so accelerating inclusive development at local level while re-establishing the state's presence and role is the best bet for a securitized effort to have a lasting impact. Social and political dialogue is a long-standing and central feature of Niger's multi-ethnic identity and how it's negotiated stability so far. In fact, national institutions are dedicated to ensuring inclusive and peaceful dialogue. A notable example stemming from the peace agreements after the two are rebellions is the Autotorité à la Consolidation de la Paix or the Peace Consolidation Authority which is active across the whole country catalyzing inter-communal dialogue through quick impact projects designed by communities and through peaceful coexistence agreements concluded by communities themselves, Bani Bangu being the most recent significant effort. The UN and partners and country contribute to this balanced strategy that Niger pursues and which relies heavily on communities participation. The UN's newly adopted Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework aims to increase human security and quality of life, leveraging programs of stabilization, peace building and durable solutions to force displacement specifically in insecure and isolated border areas where fear, hunger and displacement are most sharply felt. The determination of such areas of convergence to focus UN mandates, NGO experience and local partnerships were the result of a year-long joined up country analysis with government including community level consultations. Step number two, negotiating alternatives to safeguard the security of humanitarians. Access in Niger is challenging in normal circumstances. Poor road infrastructure, regular flooding and sheer distances make humanitarian actors reliant on the only air alternative that is UNHAS, the UN Humanitarian Air Service and you'll forgive me here to plug UNHAS because I'm in a room full of potential donors that should be engaged. We need more predictable longer-term funding for this essential air service in Niger. But access has in the past years become more challenging, giving the volatility of insecurity. Following the tragic killing of a non-state armed group, by non-state armed group of foreign aid workers in the Kurei Park in August 2020, you'll recall, the government of Niger imposed a blanket use of armed escorts for all movements on the whole of the territory, asserting its responsibility to ensure the security of foreigners in Niger, including humanitarians of course. But as you can imagine, the measure had severe consequences on our operations. The cost of escorts had to be shared with the state, carving out significant amounts out of our programs. The number of field missions was curtailed and a gap of understanding grew each day between authorities and the nature of the work needed to be carried out so imperatively by humanitarians and protection actors, inclusively. Most importantly, the dialogue with communities and that critical insight into how they coped so core to our work were fast-eroding. I led months of negotiation between representatives of the humanitarian country team and this includes NGOs, UN and donors and the government and in May 2021, the prime minister presiding over a national access committee was convinced into reversing the mandatory use of escorts based on two things we proposed, the decentralization of decisions on security arrangements for humanitarians closer to the point of delivery and an active promotion of realistic alternatives to armed escorts to render them truly a last resort. This was a watershed moment as it allowed us to set up and strengthen the work of regional level civilian military committees where joined up security analysis is discussed and includes a dialogue on protection risks faced by communities and what needs to be done about them. All eight regions of Niger hold regular, usually monthly, SIMCORD meetings we call them bringing together regional authorities, security forces and humanitarians. The governor of course still oversees a security committee where decisions are made but the SIMCORD allows for different perspectives to be shared and informed decision making. In addition, all humanitarian actors, UN and NGOs, agreed to a notification system of field missions in a bid to promote transparency and understanding of humanitarian work and providing an opportunity to plan ahead in a bid to exploring alternatives to armed escorts like driving in convoys or securing the area prior, during and after field missions. An average of 1,000 missions per week are carried out through this mechanism promoting better coordination with state security actors, more regular and sustained presence of protection actors among communities, better reporting and response to protection risks and an objective measure of the mutually reinforcing approaches by the state and by humanitarian actors to provide presence and services among communities in most need. While armed escorts have not entirely disappeared, trust between humanitarian and security actors has grown and so have efforts to pursue sustained area-based security contributing to communities' own feeling of security. Noteworthy is that when the state security personnel are drawn from communities themselves, the level of trust and effectiveness in security also grows, a significant feature for those internally displaced persons expressing a willingness to return to their villages. Lesson number three, communities are central to access that protects. A group of NGOs, UN actors and donors from the humanitarian country team in Niger worked on a national access strategy. This guide for humanitarian actors on the ground clearly and simply sets out the practical purpose behind humanitarian principles and it helpfully explains the limits of humanitarian work. Most helpfully perhaps, our access strategy broadens and legitimizes the range of trusted community members and structures able to improve access, the locally recruited national guard because of their deep knowledge of dynamics in and among communities, but also the savvy local women's associations and youth rights groups indirectly contributing to safe passage and presence of protection actors because of the more pedagogical way they can explain what we do and why we do it impartially or independently. Local leaders in Niger play an essential role in access that protects. Their legislated stature means a high degree of accountability. They are the go-to authority to arbitrate family and communal disputes and they are highly respected for doing so fairly. And their role in protecting the most vulnerable in the community is taken very seriously. By way of illustration, there have been remarkable advances to identify, respond to and prevent the marriage of children in Niger ahead of legislation because of the stance taken by traditional chiefs. Humanitarian actors and protection actors in particular cannot do their work properly without a deep understanding of community dynamics and the roles played by different community representatives. In turn, an important role is played by protection actors here, strengthening local capacities to devise community-based protection and bespoke solutions for communities themselves, but also to legitimize the contributions of less visible members of community by engaging and giving them space. The end result is in all community acceptance of humanitarian presence and diversified effort to ensure safety and protection. Now for some frank talk about some barriers to access. If I've not articulated clearly enough the security pressure under which all this is getting done, you'd be forgiven for thinking that all is flawless, with collaboration being so exemplary. But there are significant barriers that remain to access and I'd like to raise a few of these. First the perceived competition between the state and NGOs. Pushing back non-state armed actors imperatively requires the state not only to re-establish its presence in border areas, it requires that the state deliver and be seen to deliver those basic services need up most, justice, health, education, food security. Humanitarian actors cannot be seen as substituting for the state, but rather be seen as part of efforts to strengthen the social contract. Here protection actors in particular play an important role in enabling frank dialogue about protection risks and how they can best be avoided, targeting both duty barriers and rights holders. In addition we're now robustly pursuing a localization strategy, not as a means of transferring the risks of working in volatile remote areas in Niger, but in recognition of the unique knowledge that local actors have and their techniques for reaching and engaging communities differently. Niger is the first recipient of a new and innovative funding model that many of you are supporting to support humanitarian operations in West and Central Africa. The first regionally hosted pooled fund helps us reach underserved locations in Niger and thus enhance humanitarian access and by channeling funding to local and national partners. Two funding envelopes have thus far been allocated, growing the number of eligible Nigerian NGOs from 9 to 15, there's room and appetite for this to grow. Seeing professional national NGOs with adequate resources working alongside communities will help grow trust and the complementarity of humanitarian aid with state development efforts. Tension point number two, regional dimensions of the conflict and cross border coordination. The regional nature of the security crisis in the central Sahel challenges our ways of working. As non-state armed groups operate across borders so do civilians as they are forced to flee when they're not coerced into following some armed groups through abductions, extortion, forced recruitment. Some of our programs include cross border dimensions and some like our recent peace building fund project with the north of Binah are designed for cross border impact. But cross border programming is difficult. Measuring impact, coordinating mutually reinforcing interventions, getting actors aligned despite geography, all this remains challenging but necessary. Interestingly we're improving coordination in that in our, at our instigation, civilian military coordination calls have now begun between Niger and teams in Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Chad for more joined up analysis and the start of discussion, of discussing protection responses based on those variable realities of access in border areas. Finally, making diversity and tradition complementary. In this high strung, securitized context characterized by incursions driven by non-state armed groups among border communities, security strategy is driven from the center but local engagement is essential. Regional state authorities and local traditional chiefs represent a cornerstone in the civilian security effort. And here's the rub. The prominence given to youth and women in our responses can lead to perceptions that humanitarians are ignoring security dynamics at play and inadvertently undermining the authority required of traditional leaders and local authorities. We've done quite a bit as I've mentioned throughout to promote a better understanding of humanitarian principles and work but it is critical that we further strengthen trust and partnership. The flagship initiative for which Niger is one of four pilot countries is such an opportunity. The more local and the more accountable humanitarian aid is, the more confident authorities are about their own people driving decisions that impact communities, particularly when traditional leaders and local representatives are engaged. The objectives pursued by the flagship initiative can in a context where the state and this is such a case, the state is genuinely concerned for its people. It can strengthen therefore the social contract by recognizing the valuable contribution of a mix of community actors. I hope these few reflections were helpful, at least drive some of our discussions later this afternoon and I very much appreciate your interest, not just in the humanitarian work that's being done in Niger but how we're doing this quite collectively and with the strong leadership of a government that cares for its people. Thanks very much. Thank you so much. I felt I was in Niger. The description was truthful and concrete and thank you for the frankness on the challenges but also really the focus on the solutions, this lessons learned and remembering, reminding us that it has to be anchored in local traditions, in also building on, not on but also with the local actors, civilian, military, formal, non-formal, traditional actors. I think that was really inspiring and resonating for me a lot. You spoke of trust and partnership again, I think these are recurring words here already. We'll hear now from, we moved to Northwest Syria and we'll hear online from Usama Churbaghi, the general manager of AFAC Academy. Usama, welcome online. Thank you so much for joining us. It's quite late where you are. We look forward to hearing your first-hand experience in engaging and leading in negotiations and engagement with different interlocutors in your context, in particular for the protection of the civilian population. The floor is yours. Over to you, Usama. Thank you for your time, invitation and the opportunity to share our experience in Syria. So I'm Usama Churbaghi. I am from Syria. I am pharmacist. I got my PhD in molecular biology from Paris 7 and I'm general manager of AFAC Academy which is a local NGO. Usama, I don't know if you hear us. So thanks to... You're back. That's okay. Go ahead. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So yeah. So thanks to the support of our international partners like Le Sainte-Côte-Crise de Soutia and Geneva Call, AFAC has achieved significant milestone over the past decade in Syria. We have successfully reached more than 50 conflict affected areas providing IHL awareness to over than 5,000 beneficiaries including 150 women. Additionally, we have created awareness video and distributed nearly than 18,000 booklets and flyers to promote our cause. So during these years, we had several small success story which taught us a lot. For example, we participated in the negotiation with Ahrar-e-Sham and confirmed them to allow humanitarian access into besieged Kafriya and Fuwa in 2016. We succeeded in withdrawing several children and adolescent from this armed group and gave them alternative education and vocational training. We saved the lives of four prisoners from education in Rityan in 2015 only by talking to the local leaders who were interested in IHL and who can, we deal with their culture and tradition in Syria. But the question, how was that realistic for us? So honestly to achieve the better protection of humanitarian space, we need to deal with these groups per the policy of persuasion and deterrence. So societal pressure clarified the consequence of violating the law and accountability in a way which is entirely parallel to encouragement and enticement showing the noble values carried by IHL besides linking IHL with the cultural and religious values of the local community. So during our work, we followed up on factions that underwent training and we studied the extent of their commitment to the provision of IHL. Three of the factions that signed the Code of Conduct in Geneva were selected to inspect and we conducted several interviews with leaders, soldiers, and local council members. And we also completed several questionnaire with civilians in the same area. So the results showed that most violations centered around using schools as military headquarters, interfering in humanitarian NGO works, recruiting adolescent under 18, theft and extortion, and mistreating the prisoners. From the findings, it was evident that there is a total discreteness of sexual violence, which can be attributed to two factors. The first one is that victims tend to conceal such incidents in this case. And secondly, that the local culture strongly condemns and considers this act as a taboo. So we had the idea to examine the mindset and motivation behind these violations and the factors that influence fighters to commit one type of offense over the other. So for instance, we want to understand why a soldier may refrain from sexual abuse while engaging in acts of killing or interfering with the humanitarian aid projects. So what makes people behave in the way they do? So after talking with people inside Syria, we can affirm that the people are, as Abraham Maslow affirmed, the people are forced to strive and struggle to achieve several needs and goals like shelter, food, reproduction, social communication. But then in the case of the Syria war, the question is how people behave among themselves when they are always passing death with the lack of survival resources, a sense of loss and defeat, feeling of pain, frustration, shame, in contrast to the values that call for justice, equality, courage, generosity, freedom, and human respect. So the fighter in Syria experienced a state of dysfunction resulting from the inability to fulfill basic needs compounded by the pressure of fear and death and a sense of disappointment towards a society that had anticipated victory. So these all factors rendered them very vulnerable, constantly grappling with the conflict between values and need. And here we can see the roles of the culture and the local pressure of the people. So if the society's culture and religious beliefs do not strongly condemn such violations, the sense of guilt may be diminished. And as a result, the children may be more inclined to commit the violation than others act widely rejected by the society. So the conclusion is that the more we can link the eye shell with the historical and religious and societal culture examples, the more fighters' behaviors becomes closer to eye shell and the humanitarian space is really conceived. So to ensure the safety of humanitarian operation, it is crucial to address the armed groups through a combination of deterrence and persuasion measure. And it is also essential to actively engage and involve all segments of local communities fostering a strong connection to the value of eye shell. So by doing so, we can create an environment that promotes respect for humanitarian principles and facilitates the delivery of it. Thank you. Thank you so much, Osama. I think you really brought us all back to the fundamentally human elements around protection and that conversation, both from the perspective of perpetrators and also of the victims. And thank you for being so open and frank on the dynamics you observe in your context. And I think it resonates a lot with many other contexts all of us have been working in, unfortunately, but acknowledging also the very, very challenging specific challenges you are facing. We'll come back to you Osama after we take some questions from the room and we'll reconnect on the visual afterwards. Thank you so much. For now, I will pass the floor to Rihann Zahid from the CCHM, the Center of Competence for Humanity and Negotiation. Rihann works for an organization, as most of you may know, who is really specialized in humanitarian negotiations and works very closely with many local also protection and humanitarian actors, not only international, and in crisis all over the world. And through that engagement, you really have a unique insight, I would say, on the challenges that protection and humanitarian actors are actually facing in their negotiation work and their negotiation for protection outcomes or results. Rihann, could you tell us about these challenges, your observations, maybe also how CCHM is supporting more the local level negotiations and how your contribution has been effective in terms of principle, humanitarian action, and for protection of civilians. Over to you Rihann. Thank you so much. And I join my colleagues in thanking Norway and the core organizers for gathering us here to talk about, I think, a topic that is very central and at heart of the center that we work in. And I'll pick up from the second question on how we support local level negotiations and just coming out of the intervention that we just heard from the colleague in Syria, part of the reason that the CCHM was formed was to analyze and capture practice that is already happening in the field. So while we do provide support, centrality to the approach also is to learn from the practice that is already happening, especially at the national and the local level. So it is not just about enhancing capacity and building it, but what can we learn from the frontline actors that day in and day out with little to no support are conducting these negotiations and very difficult ones at the same time and how can we capture and analyze those practices and re-inject them across contexts, across organizations, across various different levels. So having said that, for the past two years, we have been investing and researching in identifying specific challenges as they pertain to protection negotiations. And the results are not very surprising, but it is an affirmation and validation of things that we speak about. And whilst there is a confirmation on the centrality of protection, it's also clear that the concept is abstract. So depending on the mandate of different entities and how they approach the subject, there is not always a consensus around what it means across organization, across level, across context and cultures as well. Now the difficulty with this, it is not just a definitional academic issue is if we cannot agree on and be clear on what it means, it's really difficult to explain to others when we are negotiating about these topics per se. So different messages not having a single narrative and different semantics around it is part of the challenge and creates some of the misunderstandings that then lead to challenges in talking about these issues. It's very easy when we talk about negotiations and I don't use the word easy lightly. It is very, very hard to negotiate assistance in today's day and world where there's many different groups, there are multi-parties, there's lots of fractures and there's many actors you may need to negotiate with to cover a truck of 50 kilometer distance. It is even harder to talk about concepts that are normative in nature and protection negotiation that are inherently normative in nature. So we may drive them from international law, refugee law, human rights. At the local level or in the context that we are working in, they may have beliefs, value systems and different things whether they are religious, ideological, they may be driving their stances on those topics as well. This is an addition to that they might be laws, whether they might be legal laws or they might be other types of traditional laws that they have which can be in contradiction with our frameworks as well. It is exceptionally challenging to negotiate and try to convince people to change their beliefs, things that people have believed in for a very, very long time. It is almost impossible if I may to try to move the needle on that. So it is a difficult venture which is part of the challenge and because it is a difficult venture, there is a lot of discomfort and shyness from frontline colleagues and negotiators to tackle some of the subjects as well. And I do say this that also especially this can be out of fear of repercussions. There are topics that are sensitive in nature. They may not be liked by counterparts. There might be fears that actors, humanitarian actors may be asked to leave or other repercussions with it. For local and national actors, there are also very real concerns about safety and security. So while international actors can withdraw, national and local actors will be there in that context. So there is also considerations for personal safety and security there as well. Another challenge that comes up unfortunately still a lot is this notion of assistance not protection. And from the first standpoint is from a perspective of the authorities. It is easy to accept things and sell things that are visible and have visible value towards things. So whether it is different forms of assistance, it's food aid, it's wash items, these are tangible things that visibly benefit the community, the authorities have an interest in bringing them in. Not always the same with protection interventions. So already from the get-go, from an acceptance perspective, there might be the direct benefits are less visible. And sometimes there is also a misunderstanding and a misassociation with protection and security issues as well, which is a further reason from being shy from it. And lastly, it is also true that within organizations as well, when there is resource constraints, when there is prioritization, again it is still unfortunately often that assistance is prioritized over protection as well. So in terms of the challenges, these are some of the things that come out. I think in terms of the response and what we've been trying to do to further the dialogue and create opportunities for capacity enhancement on this is first there's in partnership with UNHCR and the Global Protection cluster, we've designed specific workshops. They're not trainings, but really workshops in which experiences can be shared, there can be an application, which particularly deal with protection negotiations. So while in other workshops there might be less time that is spent on how to negotiate norms and normative things here, because it is one of the difficult challenges. It requires a dedicated space in which there is capacity enhancement for that. The second, as I had said at the beginning of this intervention is to create moments and opportunities where we can learn from each other. We can learn from each other in safe spaces. These are extremely sensitive topics, but they are approaches, as the colleague said as well. They are local approaches, cultural appropriate approaches in certain places that we can learn from and see if we can apply them in different places or in the same place as well. So we're creating these spaces for dialogue around protection, both at the global level and in a more decentralized way at the field level. So people also don't have to resort to using communication means, etc. So you can have smaller hubs of safe spaces where people can speak more freely and have a dialogue and learn from each other. And the third and the fourth piece is around being available for tailored support. So as much as we build capacity and connect each other, there will always be challenges that require very tailor-made responses. And given the scale and scope of the challenges that we are all faced with today, it requires capacity building at a larger scale. So it cannot be workshopped at a time, so all of our material is open source and we try to include it in existing learning platforms of different organizations, such that it is spread as far and wide as possible. And the last is we continue to document, capture practice research and see the lessons learned, the good approaches and make them available to actors both at the local and the international level. Thank you. Thank you, Diane. I think in hindsight what you describe as the challenges and what is required to actually do the work that Usama or Louise and your teams are actually delivering on is, that shows how much goes into succeeding and delivering in the way the colleagues on the ground are actually performing. So I'm trying to catch up on time, so I won't comment more. And I'll pass on the floor to Arnaud Royer from in IIT, our Lead Protection Cluster Coordinator. Arnaud, you should be online. Are you connected? Can you hear us? Yes, I am. Can you hear me? We hear you. We don't see you, but it's okay. We hear you if that helps with the bandwidth. Arnaud, I am produced to be far so, over to you. Thank you. If you hear me, that's perfect, even if you cannot see me. First of all, I would like to thank the sponsors of this panel, as well as the Group High Protection Cluster for shedding light on this often forgotten crisis, this other situation of violence in Haiti. So before entering in the core of the discussion about access negotiation and the challenges for protection actors, I would like just to brief you on the protection situation in Haiti. Since mid-July 2021, the protection situation in Haiti has dramatically deteriorated due to the alarming escalation of gang violence, many in the capital. Today about 60 to 70% of the capital is under the control or influence of criminal gangs. In gang control areas, the population has become the direct targets of killings, disappearances, forced displacement, and brutal acts of sexual violence with a view of territorial control. Gang violence has also impact severely the most basic economic and social rights of the population. As compared with the past decade, this has also impacted the way that humanitarian have been working because in the past they mainly intervene in the context of natural disasters in Haiti. In 2023, according to Occia, more than 5 to 1 million Asians will be in need of humanitarian assistance. So that's the situation. Against this background, humanitarian actors have been delivering assistance and been working in an extremely volatile context marked by access constraints. There are two types of access constraints. One is humanitarian actors do not have access to people in gang controls area due to insecurity and violence concerns. The other constraint is that affected people cannot move freely outside these gang control areas because they are under constant surveillance from gangs elements. So they cannot have access to even services or with challenges, services which are outside these areas. The problem of access is likely to remain and even worse in Haiti. More the national police and local authorities have shown for nearly two years the capacity to regain control of areas under the grip of gangs, but also the deployment of a specialized international force is yet to be materialized. Therefore, different approaches have been carried out by humanitarian actors to overcome access constraints. One is known is of course access negotiation. So UN actors and NGOs in affected areas relying on national, international personnel to develop relationships with key individuals to access gang control areas. Some also are obviously individuals of former staff of humanitarian organization and they facilitate access. On that front, we can say that humanitarian actors and many UN agencies had some success in July 2022 in an area called City Soleil when they managed to have access and deliver assistance to thousands of people. However, from a protection risk and from a protection point of view there are some risks associated to this approach. The risk of interference of criminal gangs in the delivery of assistance through various mechanisms that they have been created over past years such as social foundations under the control of gangs. There's another risk which is the aggravation of the impoverished balance between actors in these areas. We're enforcing on one hand weapons bearers at the expense of powerless groups. From a protection perspective and in addition to access negotiation what are we implementing and what we are also proposing? Actually what we are implementing right now in Haiti with protection local actors is a localized protection approach but a localization approach that goes beyond the rhetoric. A localization which reinforces locally led protection responses and goes beyond local actors as only an implementing partner. First, this approach recognizes that the overwhelming majority of humanity and assistance is already provided by local actors. This approach also relies on protection as well as human rights actors who has a long tradition of working with grassroots organizations in these areas called OBE Organization BAS and Survivors Groups. Over the years a network of community-based partners have been developed to collect sensitive information and support victims in areas where very few international actors have access to. These partners are already present and live in gangs controlled areas with a first understanding and knowledge of social, political and security dynamics among and between the gangs. What we do exactly, our main objective is to invest and empower these grassroots of actors and provide them with adequate support to create their own social and political space in areas under the influence of gangs. Concretely what one, we support and reinforce their monitoring capacity to identify protection incidents but also to collect information regarding victims of these incidents. That's the first, we reinforce their monitoring capacity. Two, we have developed a case management protocol particularly focusing on confidentiality to follow victims of protection incidents. And three, which was a real game changer over the past few weeks the emergency protection fund to respond quickly to the immediate needs of victims and to ensure that no one is left behind. Because we realize over the months that hundreds of victims fall into the cracks of big program interventions. We have hundreds of people who are not benefiting for service delivery when they exist. So we managed to this emergency protection fund that actually provide very small amount of money to local actors actually the capacity of this actor to respond quickly to the needs and to the needs of the victims. In conclusion this approach has two objectives. One is a way and another one is a goal. A way. It's a way to access people and that from a protection perspective in Haiti accessing area is one thing accessing to people is another one. So we make this difference between accessing areas and accessing people. So that's the way. And the goal by implementing a localization protection approach actually we positively impact the power balance between even older and the local population in favor of the latter. And that concludes my short intervention. Thank you. Thank you so much Arnaud. I think that was very inspiring and also we often have news on Haiti where it's not possible it's complicated and I think you illustrate here how we actually really are able to access people and to strengthen their own means to access the services they need and find protection solutions among and between local actors with the support of some international actors and resources. So I appreciate really your very concrete examples. Aurélien will pass the floor to you about Ocha Mandate and again your leadership and leading role in our Himaitan architecture without further ado over to you. Thank you and I can feel you want me to do short, so I'll do short. No, I want to meaningful. Look, I'll go to Ocha's role briefly in a second but maybe as preliminary remarks to two points. First, and it was said by Osama, by Arnaud, by Louise in different way I think we need to approach this discussion with a lot of humility and recognize that when it comes to protection and access local communities will always be the first responders to any crisis and will always have better access than any international organization. And I think if you think about it this way that changes fundamentally the way you approach your role in terms of Himaitan response and how you see access and the access strategies. I would also note that the flagship initiative of the ERC flows mainly from that kind of reflection that we need to build on what people and communities are doing and asking recognizing also that there is an added value for international organization if only because some communities are also under a lot of pressure from some parties to conflict and maybe some international organization have more flexibility in that regard. The second remark when it comes to access and protection I think it's very important to understand that to yield protection outcomes you need sustain and quality access. You cannot achieve meaningful protection outcome but if you just send a convoy once in a while to a place to an area without speaking to people you need to have really presence in the deep field you need to be close to communities and that's in other words access accountability to population and protection are intertwined and in fact accountability to population and access are not ending in themselves it just means to protection and successful environmental response and this is why Ocha has made these two issues central to his strategic plan for 2023-2026 when it comes to Ocha's roles on access negotiation and access in general first I mean Ocha is a service provider and a coordination body we're not in operational agencies we're here to support all the organization and we fully recognize that most humanitarian organization if not all of them have contacts with parties to conflict and are negotiating the implementation of the programs we are certainly not here to replace that but what we can do to support them is help build a common situational awareness of the environments in which we operate who are the parties, what are some of the constraints what are some of the considerations we need to take into account including in terms of protection risks faced by the communities to build together a collective coherent and coordinated access approach across organization if only to avoid that the actions of one organization undermine the efforts of others or are being really instrumentalized by some parties to the conflict another role for us of course is to help build acceptance by the parties I mean this is for instance the role of Ocha civil military coordination because it's really to reach out to military actors on the ground and to explain what humanitarian action is about and try to create space for discussion on access and protection for our partners I think our role is also to ensure that whatever access strategies humanitarian choose these access strategies do not create more protection risk than they are already and I think that's often overlooked in some context and I think here there's some progress to be done in terms of integrating protection in access strategies and certainly we're happy that more and more protection clusters in the field join discussions on access and then the last role of Ocha is of course sometimes to directly engage with parties to conflict to facilitate and negotiate access when our partners ask us or when there's a need to develop a strategy that can be at very political level that we saw in Jeddah with the ERC trying to convince Sudanese parties to make some progress on access it can be at field level like we've seen in Haiti with the development of human standards or in Sudan where we're trying to develop to really develop strategies that bring us very close to communities in location I was asked to think about some of the issues to member states to humanitarian so maybe I will end with that two three things to two humanitarian colleagues I'm going to go back to the need of really integrate better protection in access strategies and beyond that I think it's fair to say that we humanitarians still have some work to do in terms of putting protection at the center of our action and I think the ISC review on protection came with very important and solid recommendation and certainly we hope that our ISC colleagues will make progress in the coming month on the implementation of some of these then maybe to member states here in New York there's two three things that member states can do very concretely first is use your influence to impress upon parties to conflict their responsibility to facilitate access I mean many member states have contacts and others with some parties to conflict so it's important to use this political influence beyond that please make sure that your action your policies do not undermine engagement with parties to conflict and certainly we strongly welcome resolution 20664 that creates an exemption under UN sections regime we hope that other exemptions will be adopted for unilateral sanctions because this is the kind of policies that helps us in the field engage with parties and communities in the deep field and beyond that I would also call on donors to really adjust the policies first to integrate these exemptions but also to have a dialogue with us on risk management whether it is security risk whether it is a diversion risk we can operate in really complicated areas and close to communities thank you I would ask if I may on member states donors to really also be mindful you heard how critical the localised strategies and approach are and the role of local actors are to actually finding the solutions for the populations providing the protection to the population if we have no means to actually support them engage them strengthen them this is really undermining any efforts on protection so your policies on localisation and on support of local partners and actors protection actors in particular are critically important to be aligned with the discussion we have today on access and protection and we can enable that with that note I will open the floor for any contributions comments and if you have questions to our speakers feel free to address them to indicate to whom you want to address your questions we have limited time so I'll take three questions and go back to our speakers before we wrap up we start with a clean lay from the Triangle Women's Organization and Women's Advocacy Coalition in Myanmar. Thank you for joining us and over to you. Thank you very much so I will represent on behalf of the Triangle Women and Women Advocacy Coalition in Myanmar so access is an increasingly severe and urgent concern in Myanmar so due to the worsening conflict following the military coup in 2021 we have close to 2 million people are now displaced and unknown numbers of people unable to flee for the safety as villages are under cease and a movement restriction imposed so the recent Cyclone Mocha has wreaked havoc in Rakhai and beyond primarily in conflict related areas such as Chin, Sakai, which is a strong present of resistance forces against the military exist. I work with the many women rights organization on the ground across the country who are managing to provide much needed support to communities affected by the conflict. They are often overcoming huge operational challenges and also negotiating access and the delivery of support from the provision of social psychosupport and ensuring these reach some of the most vulnerable women and girls. So these organizations have the trust of the people they are supported by these community and they are well positioned to provide life savings assistance but they need flexible funding outside the former banking system so our banking systems are in place and they need resources to strengthen security measures for their staff and they need to be able to continue investing in the relationship that enable their assets and impact. During the protection of Civilian Week, I plead that the war must not turn a blind eye to this grave injustice against the people of Myanmar. I also would like to thank the international assistance and protection as we have courageously exhibited our commitment and resilience in the struggle for freedom and democracy. So please do not forget us. Please support us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Kinde and for being the voice of women-led and women rights and the prominent representation of France who wanted to take the floor. Merci et bonjour. Just would like to thank the mission of Norway and Global Protection and for organizing this important event and all the intervention we've heard very interesting and we know that has a Secretary General report on the protection of Civilian just stated recently noted on conflict across the globe continue to cause suffering of two million of Civilian Osama war into running from Syria and I think that the Syrian situation showed us how Civilian can suffer and despite this devastating situation humanitarian access continue to become further constrained and we've understood from Aurelian reflect and how complicated access is and how difficult it is to negotiate those access therefore I would like to take the support to express France's deep gratitude to all humanitarians healthcare worker and protection actor my remark will focus selfishly in the front action on this because humanitarian action is a pillar of France of foreign policy and I would like to share with you an example to illustrate our commitment first we will soon be holding the next national humanitarian conference in France during which our new humanitarian strategy will be presented our last strategy call for the tripling of contribution in order to reach 500 million per year in February we will launch a new call dedicated to humanitarian innovation with a total budget of 3 million which we've aimed to support innovative and structural project led by humanitarian partner in the field we were talking about localization and we also launched together with Germany the call for humanitarian action in 2019 which aimed to mobilize the international community in order to more effectively implement international humanitarian law and humanitarian principle and protect the humanitarian space UNICEF participation in this meeting brings me to my second point the vulnerable situation of children in armed conflict more than 20,000 abuses are committed against children every year first of all I would like to commend the work of UNICEF and please if you would convey this message to all your colleagues at UNICEF France has made the protection of children an absolute priority and will continue to advocate for holistic and coordinated and mandate on protection we've also increased our financial support to UNICEF in 2023 with whom we have engaged in an international campaign for the universalization of the Paris principle and commitment on children involved with armed forces and armed groups I also like to focus on the situation in Haiti where to agree with the crisis multi-dimensional we've heard the population is suffering from hunger children are no longer going to school and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating I would like to pay tribute to all the actors working on the ground and wait for our full support we've increased our food aid to Haiti and we will remain committed to facilitating humanitarian aid and we'll call upon all the international community to do so and finally I think that this is important because we've heard of course madame resident coordinator what you said about community like negotiation not to forget woman and youth whose contribution and participation must be a priority has defined peace and security and your peace and security agenda it is also important to engage with displaced person with disability so that therefore it can be heard and I will thank you thank you so much and thanks for appreciating this effort but we would not be able to do anything actually on our own it's really a collective work and a lot really relies on on our local partners and human rights activists and other people on their behalf thank you is there any other speaker who would like to take the floor in the room no so maybe I don't know if our panelists want to react to interventions otherwise I will give the floor to Samuel over to you for the concluding remarks thank you all right thank you I myself am also speechless at really the valuable contributions from our panelists we had a world tour indeed from Niger to Haiti to northwest Syria our colleague from Myanmar also sharing and of course the important work done at the global level supporting all of the efforts that we value and appreciate at the local level so sincere thanks once again to all of you for sharing your contributions and again as Rehan noted we are all learning from one another and we can't emphasize that enough we do also want to of course thank our co-sponsors and organizers for this permanent missions of Norway Ambassador Yule Belgium France as well as of course all the organizations behind it these are our allies our champions our backers for all these valuable and integral efforts toward access at the country level from the global protection cluster maybe I can share a few thoughts first of all this issue has been one of our core priorities over the last year and that has been how we can better understand how access constraints globally are impacting protection action specifically and how can we achieve better complementarity between respective efforts around humanitarian access and protection we've done this because we see unprecedented levels of protection needs around the world protection needs have gone up by 42% in the last two years in terms of the number of the population in need we've also seen a pronounced and worsening access situation in many crisis situations around the world including a deteriorating situation in 23% of our protection clusters including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso Columbia, Myanmar South Sudan and Sudan for the 31 active protection clusters this is an ever present reality that impacts our everyday work on the ground in protection recently in December following a series of conversations, consultations roundtables, practitioner workshops we launched a report together with OCHA entitled access that protects an agenda for change in that report we called for protection to be more clearly placed at the heart and at the center of access related efforts and for all stakeholders to help take this forward not only for the delivery of goods but for the expectation and the rightful expectation of protective actions and outcomes in this agenda for change we recognize two priorities first around protection as a collective objective of access efforts and that involves of course negotiation with duty bearers on protection first and foremost and second the second priority we identified was around sustainable and quality access for protection meaning access that's not just one off that's not conditional but investing in community capacities is part of that but with strong backing and continued advocacy for action today's event rightfully shine the spotlight on the local protection actors including community based groups women's organizations all those that are leading the way in many of the context around the world in the face of these challenges we've seen very clearly that protection actors, local actors they are not sitting on the sidelines for local actors this is not even an option to sit on the sidelines through often very risky and behind the scenes work protection actors at the local level they make access a reality they make this real they help us reach the most vulnerable they identify those that are victims of the international community we hear it from our participants today in terms of understanding the mindset behind the violations growing admirably we hear it from our participants today in terms of understanding the mindset behind the violations growing admirably violations growing admiration for a country in terms of their practices in terms of accessing areas accessing people not just areas identifying victims, convincing people mediating the power of talking is actually an underrated strategy for protection building on these insights and best practices that we've raised today from the global protection cluster during this week which is about the protection of civilians we'd like to share maybe just the following three final messages first humanitarian access must be viewed and measured from the perspective of local actors and how they and we can deliver protection outcomes from the global protection cluster we commit to promote these efforts and call on donors and member states to support community-led protection through more direct, we've heard it flexible quality funding and capacity building I think this is actually the humanitarian innovation that we're looking for is strengthening these types of efforts on the ground we recognize the cost and the requirements of this safely operating in high risk environments on front lines and we understand the requirement for strong international backing for this investment in community-led approaches is vital and we've seen it very very clearly here today the local actors who have the relationships they have the trust they have the understanding, they have the credibility to make once again access and access that protects and so we must not leave them on their own but we of course support them and we back them as appropriate second message is that protection, we've heard it, is a negotiation it's always a negotiation it is rarely given easily it's rarely given freely from the global protection cluster we are focusing our efforts on building these capacities and skills of front-line workers like our Center for Confidence and Humanitarian Negotiation is dedicated to we call on all stakeholders to explore more opportunities to scale these up to scale up protection-focused negotiation capacities to identify joint agendas together with donors, with those that are on the frontlines and to increase the accountability of leadership to ensure humanitarian access negotiations start and end with protection third and finally we acknowledge the importance of global reporting and accountability including from the Security Council to provide the needed political support for local efforts from the global protection cluster we are working to strengthen and support qualitative analysis evidence of how protection impacts, access impacts protection and we call on all stakeholders to amplify the importance of access for protection by national and international humanitarian actors including those in areas outside of government control so once again we thank you all for joining us today we would like to share with you those final three messages and we hope you take those forward and amplify them thank you so much Sam on that note I really want to thank dearly Kinley Usama who are really on the front line the one making it happen of course Arnaud and Louise who are also our ambassadors and leaders on the ground and many of you invest in trust, invest in partnership and keep protection at the center of everything you do thank you