‘Race’, ethnicity and nationality have a significant impact on the security of aid workers. However, this impact has been insufficiently explored, with conversations often remaining sensitive, if not taboo. While organisations have begun to use staff profiles to better understand the risks individuals face, they often don’t mitigate these specific risks. Based on interviews with humanitarians across a range of roles and regions, this article highlights some of the key security issues that organisations must consider to fulfil their Duty of Care toward aid workers of colour:

1. The relation between ‘race’, ethnicity, nationality and security;
2. The impact of racism on the security of aid workers and organisations;
3. NGOs’ practices regarding ‘race’, ethnicity, nationality and security.

By identifying these issues and the ways in which ‘race’, racism, ethnicity, and nationality affect the security of staff and organisations, this new GISF article seeks to encourage further conversations, enabling security managers and aid workers to discuss and reflect on the security and safety of aid workers of colour. The article also provides a number of recommendations for organisations to improve their SRM practices in the short-term, and also to create long-term organisational and cultural change that enables inclusive security.