Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS)

Civilian-Military Humanitarian Response Workshop

Thursday, August 16 –
Friday, August 17, 2018

Invitation Only

The "Civilian-Military Humanitarian Response Workshop,” is hosted by Brown University’s Humanitarian Innovation Initiative (HI2), the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and the U.S. Naval War College’s Civilian-Military Humanitarian Response Program (HRP). The two-day workshop will be held at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. This is the third in a series of workshops designed to explore current and future challenges in civilian-military humanitarian responses, including natural disasters, complex emergencies, and routine humanitarian engagements. As a follow-on to the two previous workshops, this event aims to improve civilian-military humanitarian responses by meeting the following four objectives:

  1. Enhance the response capacity of UN OCHA, USAID OFDA, humanitarian NGOs, Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, international militaries, and other key organizations through supporting a Community of Practice in civilian-military issues and promoting information sharing that can inform policy and processes during humanitarian crises.
  2. Expand and strengthen a network of practitioners, academics, and leaders who routinely work civilian-military engagement in the humanitarian space.
  3. Continue to highlight key opportunities for professional education, training, and development for key decision makers to identify the best practices associated with overcoming cultural, policy, technical, and legal challenges for coordination and information sharing.
  4. Develop and refine a comprehensive research agenda focused on civilian-military coordination considering international approaches to effecting solutions.

Participants will spend a good portion of the event in one of seven working groups examining key areas of civilian-military engagement in the humanitarian space: Civil-Military Coordination in Humanitarian Response; Climate Change & Sea Level Rise; Corruption in Humanitarian Response; Information Communication Technologies; International Humanitarian Law; Pandemics; and Urbanization