​Engagement of crisis-affected people in humanitarian action: ALNAP Annual Meeting takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The calls are getting louder and more frequent for better engagement with people and communities affected by crisis. We've grasped the reality that better engagement might mean more relevant and efficient emergency responses. It also could lead to people beingtreated with dignity and preserving a sense of agency. Yet, despite this growing realisation, the insights gained from many ALNAP Members with experience in involving crisis-affected people in programming are scattered and often go unrecorded. This means the analysis and potential for sharing learning are lost.

Key themes include:
• International humanitarian response: the perspective of affected people
• The benefits of engagement: what is the evidence that engagement improves humanitarian response?
• Systemic, structural and cultural barriers to meaningful engagement and how we can overcome them
• New media, new engagement? How can technology support (or hinder) engagement?
• Engagement through civil society organisations: experiences of partnership and capacity building
• Challenges and best practice
• Who participates? The challenge of engagement in stratified societies and societies in conflict
• Engagement and culture: negotiating cultural differences
• The politics of engagement: international actors, civil society, empowerment, and the state.

For more information please contact [email protected]