Today I, along with my colleague Peter, were briefed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the office’s role in the project that we will be evaluating. It was our first chance to move from a review of documents to a live conversation. Peter is a “protection specialist”, having worked for the International Red Cross for 14 years. He has extended experience working in conflict situations and our skills are considered complementary to each other – with mine focused more on training and evaluation. The situation is extremely complex in Darfur – no suprises there. The layers of complexity include the civilian protection needs and security issues, and a range of local protection actors, including African Union forces in Sudan (AMIS), UN agencies active in the country (UNMIS), a host of humanitarian agencies and ostensibly the local Sudanese police. Tomorrow we travel to Khartoum.