The Humanitarian Reset acknowledges that the sector faces a profound crisis of legitimacy, morale, and protection. Humanitarian principles have long underpinned acceptance and operational safety, relying on a functioning international legal order and shared respect for IHL. Today, those foundations are weakening. Across contexts such as Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza, humanitarian personnel are deliberately targeted or perceived as aligned with one side, regardless of their mandates.

This panel explores whether acceptance-based security remains viable within the emerging Reset. If neutrality is no longer recognised or honoured by state and non-state actors, what does that mean for the humanitarian footprint, risk thresholds, and our ability to deliver on life-saving priorities? As the Reset calls for difficult decisions about what is possible, lighter coordination models, and a more realistic understanding of risk, the sector must confront the uncomfortable reality that one of its core protective assumptions may no longer hold.

Bringing together perspectives from NGOs and UN agencies, this session will debate the future of acceptance, and what a pragmatic, reset-ready approach to protection and operational risk management should look like in an era where humanitarian principles are increasingly under attack.