Organisations have a legal and moral duty of care to take all reasonable steps to ensure that their staff are safe from harm or injury. However, human rights defenders, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, peacebuilders and others are working in increasingly violent contexts and within increasingly restricted civic spaces. The key to keeping staff and partners safe in such circumstances is effective security risk management.

The process is not complicated, but it can be daunting for those organisations and managers new to the approach. As part of our commitment to spreading good practice throughout the NGO community, Open Briefing now offers UK-based organisations a free three-hour workshop for managers and other staff responsible for duty of care and security.

“The workshop was a real eye-opener and extremely informative. The highly practical session enabled us to move forward in addressing our security needs.” Victoria Barnes, Legal Director, Human Dignity Trust

The workshop provides a thorough introduction to security risk management, including:

• Duty of care
• The security risk management framework
• Context assessments
• Risk threshold
• Security risk assessments
• Risk strategies and mitigation measures
• Security plans
• Crisis management

The session also includes a group risk assessment exercise and plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Open Briefing supports organisations with threat briefings, risk assessments, security plans, safety and security training and medical and crisis response travel insurance among other risk management services. We also provide cyber security audits and training and intelligence and research services. We are a member of the International NGO Safety and Security Association (INSSA), the Charities Security Forum, the Humanitarian Practice Network, BOND and the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), and a signatory of the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief. As a non-profit organisation, we are a certified member of Social Enterprise UK.

Please contact us to book a free workshop at your office for between four and a dozen people. Please note, you will need to provide a training room, projector and screen, and may be asked for a contribution towards travel costs.