Humanitarian Practice Network

“...armed actors who want to stop humanitarian assistance do not need to kill aid workers. They need to kidnap them.”

This is a pattern observed by Uchenna Hillprieston Okwara, a former Lieutenant in the Nigerian army who coordinated directly with humanitarian organisations delivering relief to internally displaced persons. Uchenna argues that kidnappings and detentions trigger immediate operational suspensions, force organisations to withdraw international staff, shifts greater risk onto national staff and are associated with worsening food insecurity by disrupting humanitarian assistance to civilians. He also argues that kidnappings, detentions and physical harassment of aid workers should be treated as food security emergencies.

Based on his first-hand experience coordinating civil-military operations in north-eastern Nigeria, Uchenna outlines lessons for negotiating humanitarian access with state military actors. Read the full article to find out more.

When kidnapping kills more than bullets: operational lessons from civil–military coordination in humanitarian crises | Humanitarian Practice Network Why attacks on aid workers disrupt food security more than lethal attacks and 4 vital lessons on civil-military coordination.

In our latest article, Mohanna Eljabaly (General Manager at Yemen Family Care Association) identifies three barriers that continue to shape risk management in humanitarian partnerships: late conversations, unclear expectations and limited inclusion in decision-making. Mohanna argues that these barriers create a system in which risk is addressed reactively, unevenly and with limited transparency.

Reflecting on operational experience in Yemen, Mohanna provides practical approaches to address these challenges. These approaches do not require new systems but rather consistent shifts in how partnerships operate in practice. They can help move partnerships from reactive approaches towards collaborative risk management.

Learn about these approaches.

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Localisation is not only about who delivers aid but also about strengthening the governance, accountability and coordination systems that underpin effective humanitarian action.

In Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), the ASAL Humanitarian Network - AHN, a network of more than 30 local and national organisations, recently coordinated responses to flooding in Marsabit County and drought in Mandera County with different outcomes.

Through a comparative analysis of the two crises, Joan Tarei, a communication strategist and Chris Shimba Ochieng, the advocacy lead at AHN reflect on how the effectiveness of each response was shaped by the strength of county leadership, coordination structures and relationships between humanitarian actors. They reflect on the challenges encountered, from delayed government action and funding bottlenecks to coordination failures, as well as the lessons learned for strengthening locally led humanitarian action.

Read the full article here: https://odihpn.org/en/publication/crisis-response-reveals-governance-differences-in-kenya/

Crisis response reveals governance differences in Kenya | Humanitarian Practice Network Comparative analysis of responses to floods in Marsabit and drought in Mandera and how local leadership, coordination and disaster governance shape humanitarian outcomes in Kenya.

In November 2025, devastating floods swept across North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh provinces in Indonesia, killing people and destroying homes. At first, many assumed the floods were part of the usual seasonal pattern. But as rainfall intensified and the scale of destruction became clearer, it became evident that this was far more severe than expected.

Local actors were among the first to step in and fill gaps in the initial response. Seven months later, Stella Anjani, a humanitarian practitioner working on localisation and locally led response in Indonesia, reflects on what the floods revealed about localisation in practice.

Drawing on conversations with local responders, Stella explores questions around coordination, visibility, risk-sharing and public narratives. She argues that the floods in Sumatra are not unique in revealing these dynamics rather, they offer a timely reminder that localisation in practice is shaped as much by context as by design.

Read the article.

When local response meets national narratives: reflections from the Sumatra floods | Humanitarian Practice Network Reflections from the Sumatra floods on how local actors led the early response while navigating coordination gaps and political narratives.

It’s been a year since the launch of the humanitarian reset that committed to putting localisation, accountability and country-level leadership at the heart of humanitarian reform.

Join Start Network and HPN for a webinar, ‘Reform or Repeat’, bringing together local and national organisations to share honest reflections on what has or hasn’t changed and what must shift for the reset to move from promise to consequence.

📆 Date: Wednesday 6 May
⏱️ Time: 10:00AM (GMT +1)
🌍 Languages: The event will be available in English, Arabic and French
🔗 Register now: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/71tYPgf3TKuGq00Dq7NBNA #/registration

In many humanitarian crises, we wait until a child is already undernourished before they can access support. But could we be doing more to prevent this in the first place?

In our latest article, nutrition experts Kate Sadler, Abigail Perry, Karima Al-Hada’a, Tamsin Walters, Rita Abi Akar, Gladys Mugambi, Rebecca Brown, Lena Cherotich and Gillian McKay, explore why prevention of undernutrition needs to be part of humanitarian response, not an afterthought. By using the existing program tools, the authors argue that the sector can stop children from falling into wasting in the first place.

Preventing undernutrition doesn’t replace treatment, it reduces the number of children who need it.

Read the article.

Stretched but strategic: why we must keep the prevention of undernutrition in focus | Humanitarian Practice Network Humanitarian response must shift from a treatment-only approach to preventing undernutrition by integrating nutrition lenses into its programmes.