International Council of Voluntary Agencies and World Food Programme
SECURITY CONSULTATION

Day One, evening, December 6th
Venue: WFP, 11-13, Chemin des Anemones, Genève-Chatelaine

17:30 - 18:30 Arrival, registration
18:30 - 19:30 Light meal
19:30 - 21:00 Introduction, presentations, expectations

Day Two, morning, December 7th
Venue: IFRC, 17, Chemin des Crets, Genève-Petit Saconnex

09:00 Presentation:

• Challenges and opportunities for collaboration on field security among humanitarian actors
• Group work: Case analysis
  • Presentation by participants of cases of security contexts or incidents
  • Lessons learnt on agency collaboration

Day Two, afternoon, December 7th
Venue: IFRC, 17, Chemin des Crets, Genève-Petit Saconnex

13:30 Presentation of the morning's group work

• Group work:
  • Identify elements of informal inter-agency collaboration mechanisms on field security for humanitarian workers
  • Explore implementation options

Day Three, morning, December 8th
Venue: IFRC, 17, Chemin des Crets, Genève-Petit Saconnex

09:00 Findings from the group work

• Lessons learnt from the drafting process
• Continuation of the process

13:00 End of consultation

Explanatory note to the proposed programme
for the ICVA / WFP Consultation on
INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION ON
FIELD SECURITY FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTORS

Geneva, December 6-8, 2000

This consultation is the first step in a consultative process on inter-agency security collaboration in the field initiated by the IASC Working Group. One hoped-for outcome of the present consultation is for the participants to identify elements of a possible informal, practical mechanism on security consultation, collaboration and partnership between humanitarian actors in the field, to explore implementation options, and thereby contribute to the improvement of the security of humanitarian field workers.

The participants will have extensive field experience from operational humanitarian agencies. While coming from UN humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and the Red Cross movement, they participate in their personal capacity. The format will be an open, informal round table dialogue, based on the experiences and visions of the participants themselves. Much of the time will be spent working in groups.

The participants are invited first to define the basic needs for operational collaboration on security on the basis of their own experiences. Then they are challenged to go through the exercise of describing their visions of mechanisms for field collaboration. The potential implications at regional or HQ levels will be taken into consideration, and possible models to transform the visions into practice will be explored.

Even if no immediate consensus can be found, the process of at least trying to formulate mechanisms for field collaboration will reveal much about the concrete obstacles to security collaboration. It will also define elements that could make such collaboration possible.

A report based on the findings of this consultation and a parallel consultation in Washington DC as well as on other research findings will be submitted to the Task Force established by the IASC Working Group to facilitate the present consultative process on security. This Task Force shall then submit a final report to the IASC Working Group meeting in February.

Consultation Secretariat:
ICVA
48 Chemin du Grand-Montfleury
1290 Versoix, Switzerland
Tel. +41-22-950 9600
e-mail: secretariat@icva.ch

Consultant:
Anne Paludan, c/o WFP,
11-13 Chemin des Anemones,
1219 Genève.
Tel. +41-22-917 8494
e-mail: anne.paludan@wfp.org