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

In this episode of the NCHS Talking Humanitarianism podcast, Egeland is joined in conversation 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 in general 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.

This episode is part of a series of discussions on ethics in humanitarian action and follows previous discussions on red lines for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, engaging with the Taliban and the ethics of humanitarian neutrality in Syria.

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”.