Protect Aid Workers: an innovative mechanism for safeguarding aid workers in high-risk environments  | GISF at HNPW

Summary

Humanitarian actors operate in insecure environments, such as conflict zones, which increases their exposure to violence. Over the last 5 years, 623 humanitarian workers were killed, 937 injured and 661 kidnapped globally, the vast majority of whom were national staff.  

As a response to this, Protect Aid Workers is a new initiative that supports humanitarian workers of national and international NGOs who have experienced a critical incident or are under threat due to their work as humanitarians. Protection grants can be provided to humanitarian NGOs to cover the cost of protection measures and post-incident support to affected staff. The ultimate aim is to protect staff from further harm, support their recovery and improve their immediate and long-term well-being. The pilot phase of the program is being implemented in the Middle East & North Africa. 

Speakers

Heather Hughes (Head of Global Membership and NGO Services, GISF)

Heather was Oxfam GB’s first Global Security Adviser, where she worked for over 20 years, focusing on strategic and operational security risk management including policy and practice, learning and development, supporting and managing serious incidents and crises, lessons learned and networking. After leaving Oxfam GB, Heather was Director of Risk Advisory Services at International Location Safety, where she worked with a wide range of NGOs to support improvements in their security risk management approach and practice. 

Heather has been involved with GISF since its inception in 2006, and was a member of the Steering Group for many years. As Head of Global Membership and NGO Services she supports the strategic work of GISF. 

David Annequin (Program Coordinator, Protect Aid Workers)

David has worked in humanitarian aid for over 15 years. He led various field operations in Guinea, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Myanmar and Lao for the RCRC Movement and Solidarités International. In particular, he was in charge of coordinating the French Red Crosse Ebola response in West Africa in 2015. He then held the position of Head of Emergency Unit at Médecins du Monde from 2018 to 2023. He was entrusted with the role of coordinating the creation and development of the Protect Aid Workers mechanism in November 2023. 

Camille Delbourgo (Programme Manager, Legal Action Worldwide)

Camille is the Programme Manager of the South Sudan and humanitarian workers programs for Legal Action Worldwide since March 2020. She worked as a lawyer in civil and criminal law in France before moving to international criminal law and human rights. Before joining LAW, Camille worked in the office of the Co-Prosecutor within the Extraordinary Chambers in the Cambodian courts, for the Swiss association Civitas Maxima and at the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. She also acquired humanitarian experience within the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent national societies in the Central African Republic and the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. LAW is an independent non-profit organisation of human rights lawyers and jurists working in fragile and conflict-affected areas with victims and survivors of human rights violations and abuses.

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