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Global Interagency Security Forum

Formerly EISF
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Humanitarian Programmatic Issues

Communications technology and humanitarian delivery: challenges and opportunities for security risk management

The European Inter Agency Security Forum (GISF) is pleased to announce a new publication presenting discussion papers which will look at how communications technology is creating new security risk management challenges and opportunities for agencies working in humanitarian response. The publication will present information on current technologies and their use in security risk management; explore the impact on security of both humanitarian actors and affected communities; analyse the ways in which technologies are influencing how humanitarians operate and their security; and generate debate on how communications technology can contribute to risk management.

29 Apr 2014 Blog

Humanitarian negotiations with armed groups

There are a combination of factors peculiar to humanitarian negotiations with armed non-state actors (ANSAs). Talks often take place in extreme, high-stake environments with little common negotiating culture between parties. In addition, staff need to negotiate in practice what is not negotiable in principle under both organisational and legal frameworks, which are far-removed from reality on the ground (a recent HPG Policy brief described how ‘senior managers are often unaware of how ground-level staff obtain access’). Aid workers are often negotiating from a position of relative weakness – little leverage and few alternative negotiating tables present themselves, and there is a strong possibility of second-best options being the only achievement. Are organisations and their staff members ready and equipped with the necessary tools for these types of complex negotiations?

4 Apr 2014 Blog

Évaluations de la sécurité

Évaluations de la sécurité (2013) est un guide simple qui peut aider lors de l’examen d’un système de gestion de la sécurité d’une organisation. Une évaluation des systèmes de gestion de la sécurité (SGS) est une évaluation, basée sur des données…

31 Mar 2014 Resource

The Future of Humanitarian Security in Fragile Contexts

The Future of Humanitarian Security in Fragile Contexts: An analysis of transformational factors affecting humanitarian action in the coming decade stems from a recognition that the humanitarian landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade.

31 Mar 2014 Blog

Nigeria 2015: looking beyond endemic insecurity and changing politics

Amid convulsive politics, the northeast of Nigeria has reached a critical security situation yet once again. Communal violence is adding to the growing humanitarian response gap, with Boko Haram not the only threat to the country’s security. Last weekend alone, at least 100 people were killed and 2,000 were displaced after 40 gunmen stormed villages in central northern Kaduna state. Despite Nigeria’s booming economy, inequality is rampant in the country, and the deteriorating security situation in northern states may further destabilise a country of 170 million that seems to be struggling to stay united. How the government deals with the ever-growing Islamist threat, inter-communal violence, and their humanitarian consequences will be important factors in determining the outcome of 2015 elections.

19 Mar 2014 Blog

Auditorías de seguridad

Auditorías de seguridad (2013) es una sencilla guía que puede ayudar a la hora examinar el sistema de gestión de seguridad de una organización. Una auditoría de sistemas de gestión de seguridad consiste en una revisión basada en pruebas de la…

1 Mar 2014 Resource

Security risk management and new technologies

Aid agencies operate in many conflict-affected contexts that are considered by Western powers as threats to international peace and security. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) controversially used to respond to these threats, have already changed the contexts in which aid workers find themselves in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now, the potential introduction of LARs (Lethal Autonomous Robotics- weapons systems that can select and engage targets without intervention by a human operator), could further change the humanitarian operational context, as well as the types of threats aid workers are exposed to in the field.

28 Feb 2014 Blog