Jan Egeland has extensive experience with humanitarian negotiations, both in his current role as Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and from his work on humanitarian issues at the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies.

In this episode of the Talking Humanitarianism podcast, Egeland sits down with Kristoffer Lidén (Senior Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo) to discuss the topic of humanitarian negotiations.

The conversation begins with the recent negotiations of the NRC regarding women aid workers in Afghanistan (see also episode 18 and episode 16). The discussion then turns to the history of humanitarian negotiations and Egeland’s role in promoting this agenda as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in the early 2000s. Finally, Egeland shares more about his role as Special Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria on humanitarian affairs, leading high-level negotiations on multiple fronts.

Listen to the discussion below or on Spotify, Apple and Anchor.

The series on ethics in humanitarian action is organised by Kristoffer Lidén and is part of the research project “Red lines and grey zones: Exploring the ethics of humanitarian negotiations”.