
The provision of pre-deployment security
This particular course will enable students to
perform a basic day-to-day security risk
management (threat and risk assessments),
whether in the head-quarters on the strategic
level or in the field on the operational level,
thereby improving their risk awareness and
contributing to more profound and
knowledgeable decision-making process.
Humanitarian organisations that are delivering
aid in conflict stricken areas, and aid workers
that operate in the context of international
armed conflicts are formally under recognised
protection of international humanitarian law
and rules. However, the volatility of conflicts,
as well as players like non-state armed groups,
often do not follow those rules, exposing NGO
workers to various threats to their life.
The world has become extremely volatile and
in the last couple of years security of NGOs
has become an increasingly important topic.
Dangerous operating environment, serious
incidents like killings, kidnappings, violent
assaults are on the rise and humanitarian
workers are not excluded from them. Across
the globe, aid workers are subject to violent
attacks with 2-4 deaths per week worldwide1.
1
Source: http://www.ngosafety.org/about
training to NGO staff and the presence of field
security personnel are important steps in
mitigating risk2. Unfortunately, only few of
very big NGOs have strong organisational
culture of safety and security as well as
enough financial resources to build their own
security departments.
All the others have to rely on governmental
support, or various NGO or personal networks.
There is an issue as well with the typical mind-
set of a NGO worker that doesn’t perceive
security as a major topic, as there is an
extreme confidence about immunity of their
status and their acceptance.
Recently, large international NGOs have begun
to adopt sophisticated and professionalized
“risk management” approaches. They broadly
share a common underpinning methodology,
borrowed from the private sector, which
systematizes the assessment of risk in all areas
at all organizational levels and builds in
mitigation measures 3.
In this course, we would like to enable
students, future NGO employees, to be able to
independently implement proactive approach
towards security by teaching them how to
conduct a basic security risk assessment,
rather than to rely on a ‘personal sense of
security’.
You will learn basics of Security Risk
Management methodology that will help you
determine and prioritise security risk by
determining and evaluating threats, likelihood,
2
Ibid.
3
Source:
https://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/sites/default/file
s/ngo-risk_report.pdf
 SECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT IN NGOs

impact and vulnerability, in order to mitigate

or lower your individual or operational risks.
Main goals:
 How to recognise and map security
threats and cluster them?
 What is the likelihood and impact
analysis?
 How to perform security risk
management in the sense of
determining the risk toward your NGO
or yourself and minimising the impact?
 How to apply it in your own
operational setting, no matter if its
head-quarters or field environment?
At the end of the course as a take-out you will
be able to assess threats and understand risks
to NGO personnel and operations, thereby
helping you make more-informed decisions as
well as measures that you want to implement
for mitigating of minimising your security risks.

Humanitarian outcomes: NGOs and Risk: How

international humanitarian actors manage
uncertainty,
https://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/sites/defa
ult/files/ngo-risk_report.pdf

Davis, J. (2015) Security to go: a risk management

toolkit for humanitarian aid agencies.
European Interagency Security Forum (EISF).

Threat assessment: training module for NGOs

operating in conflict zones and high-crimes areas;
OFDA/Interaction PVO Security Service

Free incident platform:

https://www.riskmap.com/

http://www.ngosafety.org/

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