HNPW x GISF | Managing Security Risks in the Digital World

HNPW x GISF

Increasing attacks on aid workers continue jeopardising the sustainability of aid operations. Last year, 484 major attacks against aid workers were reported, 124 of which led to death. The latest  SCORE report identifies insecurity as the main obstacle to gaining humanitarian access.

In this shrinking humanitarian space, security risk management (SRM) aims to enable populations in need to access relief by keeping aid workers safe. Still, SRM’s efforts are often siloed from other parts of the humanitarian sector. This gap feeds misunderstandings about what SRM is and ultimately reduces organisations’ ability to effectively protect aid workers and the communities they serve.

For the first time, SRM is one of HNPW’s nine priority topics this year. Recognising the Global Interagency Security Forum’s (GISF) leading role in supporting collaboration on SRM and improving aid workers’ protection, GISF has been selected to lead sessions on this critical topic. Bringing together experts from across the aid world, GISF will be co-hosting ten open sessions on five SRM topics in partnership with different actors such as the UN, ICRC, FCDO, and Manchester University.

We welcome all humanitarians to join our sessions and discuss how to keep aid workers safe and facilitate access to affected communities. SRM impacts all aspects of humanitarian action, and together, we will improve communication and coordination across the sector and identify how SRM must adapt to face current challenges.

This year’s GISF-led HNPW sessions are (1) Security Risk Management in the Changing Global and Humanitarian Context, (2) Sharing Risk: Building Stronger Partnerships, (3) Acceptance & Access (4) Managing Security Risks in the Digital World, (5) A Person-Centred Approach to Security Risk Management in Humanitarian Response. The sessions will run twice.

Registration for the GISF HNPW sessions is now open. To register and find out more, please follow this link: https://buff.ly/3cZV2yV.’

Session Objective:

To examine how the increasing role of technology and communications is having a direct impact on our humanitarian sector.

This session will examine how much we have all come to rely on technology, software, devices, apps and data to the point where we take it for granted; and how this has placed the global humanitarian sector at risk. Looking at the broad scope of the challenges, rather than technical detail, we look to gain a broader understanding of the issue.

Session Overview:

This 90-minute session will examine some of the current perceptions of digital risk and through examination of recent examples, highlight how these risks can have a broad effect on our sector. It will also seek, through group discussion, to highlight areas where we need to focus our efforts to protect ourselves, our organisations, and the communities we serve.

How to Sign-up

To register for this event, firstly, please follow the link above. This link will take you the HNPW sign-in page, where you will need to register with HNPW (if you are already registered, you will be able to sign in). This should take no longer than five minutes.

Once you have registered an account, you can then follow the same link to sign-in and view the full HNPW event programme.

To find this event, or any of the other events GISF are facilitating, you need to select ‘Humanitarian Security’ under Priority Topics on the left-hand side of the screen. This will filter the search and show you all the events GISF are helping to facilitate.

To register your attendance at this event, or any other event, you need to hover over the R in the box next to the left-hand of the session title. Clicking the R, will make a list pop-up with registration options. Simply press ‘Register’ at the top of this list, and you will be registered for the event.

If you have any questions on registration, please reach out to Megan (gisf-megan@gisf.ngo).