This publication is the first in Conflict Dynamics International's 'Access Brief' series entitled "Humanitarian Access and Technology: Opportunities and Applications." Conflict Dynamics' Access Brief series provides topical guidance on policy and practice to humanitarian practitioners in their efforts to secure and sustain humanitarian access in situations of armed conflict. New technological advances that have emerged or become more widely available in the past few years offer promising opportunities to support and improve humanitarian access. Yet technology alone cannot solve the problems of humanitarian access. Some technologies may even generate new forms of risk, and an over-reliance on technology may foster a widening gap between humanitarians and people in need. This Access Brief explores some of the opportunities and challenges of applying technologies to improve access, encouraging practitioners to apply technologies in a manner that is firmly rooted in the core humanitarian principles, committed to sound analysis, creative in generating options, and persistent in working through dilemmas.
