Ethiopian Civil-Military Coordination Guidance
Ethiopian Humanitarian Country Team. Ethiopian Civil-Military Coordination Guidance. (Ethiopia: EHCT and OHCR, 2019). https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/humanitarian-civil-military-coordination-guidance-ethiopia-march-2019.
These guidelines for the interactions between civil society and military actors in Ethiopia in 2017 provide both context for ongoing humanitarian issues in Ethiopia and inform considerations for wider humanitarian collaboration with the government and the military. This document, written by the Ethiopian Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), makes clear that the coordinating process is difficult but is essential for ensuring that humanitarian efforts are able to be sustained throughout a conflict. And while coordination is helpful between government and NGOs, this report acknowledges that it is not always in the best interest of humanitarian groups to coordinate with military groups and governments as this may alienate the people they are serving and dismantle trust previously built between communities and organisations. This represents the importance of public perception for the work of humanitarian groups to be done effectively. In order for peacebuilding to happen, it is absolutely imperative that trust between organisations and communities is maintained. For this to happen, humanitarian organisations must remain aware of the contexts in which they operate and be cognisant of how their actions will affect the populations they serve and in turn affect their own work in the future.
Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/humanitarian-civil-military-coordination-guidance-ethiopia-march-2019.