What is humanitarian communication?
Humanitarian communication is the work an organisation does to explain what it is doing, to the people it is doing it for and to the people it depends on. It is not public relations, and the difference matters most when the security situation deteriorates.
Download the paper (PDF, English)Defining the field
The paper separates three activities that are routinely bundled together.
| Activity | Directed at | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Humanitarian communication | The affected population and the communities hosting them | That people know what assistance is available, where, and on what basis, and that they can raise a problem with it |
| Advocacy | Governments, armed actors and decision makers | To change a policy or a practice that causes or prolongs suffering |
| Public information | Donors, the public in donor countries and the media | To account for funds and to sustain the support that pays for the work |
The three overlap and the same staff often do all of them. The distinction matters because they carry different risks and require different decisions. Communication with the affected population is a condition of doing the work at all. Advocacy can make an organisation a party to a political argument. Public information shapes whether the organisation is seen as independent, which in some contexts is the difference between being tolerated and being targeted.
Why it belongs in security management
What an organisation says, and where it says it, affects how it is perceived by the people who decide whether its staff can move and work. Three consequences follow.
Visibility is a risk decision. Announcing a programme, publishing a photograph, or naming a location changes who knows the organisation is present. In some contexts that increases acceptance; in others it identifies a target. The choice should be made deliberately and recorded, not left to whoever runs the account.
Messaging discipline is a security measure. Where staff are at risk of detention or abduction, what the organisation says publicly about them can change their situation. Every agency that operates in those environments needs a position on what it will publish, agreed with the families involved and taken before an incident rather than during one.
Communication with the community is protection. The most effective protection for staff is usually the population's willingness to have them there. That willingness depends on people understanding what the organisation is doing and having a way to complain about it. An organisation that cannot be approached is an organisation that will be resented, and resentment is a security risk.
The practical implications
- Communication decisions are taken by the same people who take security decisions, with the same information.
- Social media is treated as a movement and presence disclosure, not only as a publishing channel.
- Staff are briefed on what they may and may not post about their own location and work.
- A pre-agreed position exists on what the organisation will say if a member of staff is detained or abducted.
- Community feedback routes exist and are used, because a complaint that reaches the organisation is not a complaint that circulates outside it.
Related
Practical guidance and research on the security of humanitarian staff, for the organisations that send them.