Introduction

The Inclusion Area of Common Concern (AOCC) addresses how humanitarian action can be delivered equitably, to respond to the needs and priorities of affected populations in all their diversity. Inclusion is grounded in a recognition that humanitarian crises impact population groups differently due to barriers to accessing assistance and due to patterns of discrimination within societies.

Inclusion requires deliberate efforts to identify how population groups are differently impacted by crises and why; and to proactively address barriers to accessing assistance, while engaging the most marginalized population groups as actors in the response. In this way, inclusion is at the core of all aspects of humanitarian action, across all sectors and in all settings.

Inclusion intersects with other AOCCs in multiple ways. For example, humanitarian response will not be fully accountable to affected populations unless the most marginalized have a voice; and localization efforts may risk further entrenching vulnerability and exclusion unless they challenge the local power dynamics that serve to keep some groups in the periphery.

In the context of the humanitarian reset, inclusion is particularly relevant to the commitment to ensuring that humanitarian response is community-driven and focused on those whose lives are most at-risk.

           

 

Objectives

• Promotion of a shared understanding of what inclusion means, and the importance of this principle and approach in humanitarian action

• Agreement on concrete measures to ensure that the Humanitarian Reset does not result in a backsliding of recent progress on inclusive humanitarian action

• Strengthening of an intersectional approach to inclusion, with improved linkages across work on gender, disability, age and other inclusion thematics

• Identification of concrete priorities for advancing inclusive human action in the context of severe funding cuts and a global policy backlash

 

Discussion Topics (at previous HNPW)

• How to apply an intersectional approach that recognizes that experiences are shaped by a complex interaction between gender, age, disability, indigenous status, displacement and other aspects of identity.

• Linkages between inclusion and other AOCCs such as AAP and localization, and how siloes between these areas of work can be reduced.

• Preparedness and anticipatory action as key entry points for a more inclusive humanitarian response.

• Innovation in inclusive humanitarian action, including in the provision of assistive technology and use of AI.