Access and security

Chapter summary

Humanitarian access refers to the ability of humanitarian actors to reach people in need of assistance and protection, and for affected populations to obtain essential goods, assistance and services necessary for their survival and well-being, in ways that uphold core humanitarian principles. Access rests on two fundamental pillars: humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law (IHL), as enshrined in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.

Both security risk management and maximising access are essential for humanitarian action – but they are often treated as two distinct and mutually exclusive objectives. A more productive approach uses programme criticality to guide an organisation’s objectives for access, and uses security risk management to limit the danger in pursuit of those objectives.

Obstacles to humanitarian access typically fall under three broad categories:

• conflict and insecurity;
• bureaucratic and administrative impediments; and
• environmental and logistical constraints.

While security risk management is most directly concerned with the first category, all three have risk dimensions, and efforts to overcome them and expand access could usefully involve security risk management personnel.

Not all access constraints are external. Internal factors can include:

• organisational culture and risk appetite;
• systems and policies; and
• organisational and staff capacity.

Organisations can respond to access constraints with a variety of measures, including adapting programmes, high-level diplomacy, public advocacy efforts, engagement with interagency access working groups, humanitarian negotiations with conflict parties, acceptance measures with local communities and civil–military engagement.

Within organisations, access functions can span multiple standard positions including logistics, advocacy, programme and security teams. Organisations have broadly employed three different models to embed the access function within organisational workstreams:

• employing dedicated staff for gaining and enhancing access;
• integrating access functions with other positions, including security focal points; and
• a hybrid model where access at the operational level is managed by security teams, supported by dedicated technical advisors at head office.