In the UK, the British Red Cross chairs a forum to improve and strengthen communications between non-governmental aid organisations (NGOs) and the British armed forces and relevant government departments.
The NGO-military contact group meets quarterly to discuss policy, technical and operational issues around civil-military relations in humanitarian response.
It’s composed of representatives from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs, the British armed forces, Ministry of Defence (MOD), Department for International Development (DFID), Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), and a number of independent practitioners.
Conference
Every two years, the Red Cross organises a conference for the group and a wider audience. Participants from these organisations are rarely in the same room, let alone on the same panel – so the conferences are fairly unique experiences. Because civilian and military actors work from different philosophical bases, they tend to have their own meetings, conferences, trainings and evaluations – which leads to very different working cultures and different working languages.
The conference is an opportunity for people to come together in a spirit of open-mindedness and goodwill, while recognising that profoundly different perspectives will remain.
Download the final summary notes from the 2011 NGO-military contact group conference (PDF).
Download the 2011 keynote speech by Dr Hugo Slim (PDF).
Download the paper on civil-military relations in the 2010 Pakistan floods (PDF).
Download the report from the 2009 NGO-military contact Group conference (PDF).