Humanitarian Space Core Group

"Co-chaired by OCHA and NRC, the IASC Core Group on Humanitarian Space provides a forum for discussion on key present and future challenges affecting the ability of humanitarian actors to operate in a safe and principled manner.

Members of the Core Group include CARE International, FAO, ICRC, ICVA, IFRC, InterAction, IOM, NRC (co-chair), OCHA (co-chair), Oxfam International, SCHR, UNCHR, UNDP/BCPR, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and WHO.

Ensuring there is a 'humanitarian space' for humanitarian actors and populations affected by crises will always be challenging. The objective is therefore not to resolve the humanitarian space issue, but rather to identify and analyse the specific threats to principled humanitarian action as they emerge, and to develop effective response strategies.

With this in mind, the Core Group has set out to ensure that IASC partners are provided with (i) timely and in-depth analysis on priority challenges to humanitarian space ensuring a sound understanding of environment-specific threats and opportunities and (ii) effective tools (training, codes of conduct, guidelines, etc.) to support principled humanitarian action and decision making with regard to humanitarian space dilemmas.

The Core Group also promotes the integration of humanitarian space perspectives in other relevant processes and agendas, by building consensus and developing common positions among the humanitarian community to influence, for example, intergovernmental processes such as ECOSOC or UN policies such as integration.

Finally, in addition to initiatives directly led or supported by the Core Group, the group also aims to serve as an IASC clearing house for a broader set of humanitarian space related initiatives being undertaken by individual IASC partners, research institutions, think tanks, governments, etc. The Group also incorporates in its analysis relevant aspects of the work of the Integration Focal Point Group, the Civil-military Relations Forum, and the Steering Group on Security."