Managing stress in humanitarian workers - Guidelines for good practice, Antares Foundation and John Ehnrenreich
Managing stress in staff of humanitarian aid organizations is an essential ingredient in enabling the organization to fulfill its field objectives, as well as necessary to protect the well being of the individual staff members themselves.

Code of Good Practice, People in Aid
The People In Aid "Code of Good Practice in the management and support of aid personnel" is a tool to help agencies offer better development aid and disaster relief to communities in need, and is an important part of their efforts to improve standards, accountability and transparency amid the challenges of disaster, conflict and poverty. The People In Aid Code offers agencies the best framework for effective human resources management, helping them assess and raise their performance.

Good Practice Review: Operational Security Practice in Violent Environments, Humanitarian Practice Network
This manual is targeted towards field-level aid agency managers responsible for security of staff and assets, and offers a systematic step-by-step approach to security management. It reviews major threats, measures to try and prevent them, and guidelines on how to survive and manage an incident if it occurs. A number of crosscutting themes are explored that are relevant to risk control such as personal and team competency, clarity towards national staff, good communications, cultural issues, briefing and training, etc.

UNHCR Handbook for Emergencies
The Handbook is intended as a managers' guide to setting up emergency operations for large-scale influxes and provides advice in a nontechnical manner on how to tackle various aspects of emergency response.

Code of Conduct, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The immediacy of disaster relief can often lead NGOs unwittingly to put pressure on themselves - pressure which leads to short-sighted and inappropriate work. Six of the world's oldest and largest networks of NGOs came together in 1994 with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to draw up a professional Code of Conduct to set, for the first time, universal basic standards to govern the way they should work in disaster assistance.

Accountability Principles, HAP International
The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International (HAP-I) strives to make humanitarian action accountable to its intended beneficiaries: those people whose lives are at risk due to armed conflict or other calamitous events. At the heart of this endeavour lies HAP-I's "Principles of Accountability". The members of HAP-I seek to comply with these principles through self-regulation and accreditation. They also share a vision of a humanitarian system at large that upholds these ideals.

Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) Standards, Interaction
InterAction's PVO Standards promote an ethical code of conduct in many areas including 6.0 "Management Practice and Human Resources." Intended to ensure and strengthen public confidence in the integrity, quality, and effectiveness of member organizations and their programs, the standards were created when the overseas work of PVOs was dramatically increasing in scope and significance.

The Sphere Project
In an international initiative aimed at improving the effectiveness and accountability of disaster response, the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response sets out for the first time what people affected by disasters have a right to expect from humanitarian assistance. The aim of the Project is to improve the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters, and to enhance the accountability of the humanitarian system in disaster response.

Securing the Safety of Aid Staff, Oneworld.net
This article examines the risks of aid work that stretch from terrorism to those less obvious but more common: stress, overwork and "burn-out", through to disease, accidents and even loneliness or depression while tackling a crisis a long way from home. Rising pressures on staff have prompted a growing number of aid agencies to share information, set standards and take practical steps to ensure that the training, support and management they offer will keep workers safe so they can deliver the best results.

Room for Improvement: Management and Support of Relief and Development Workers, Relief and Rehabilitation Network
This report describes the findings and recommendations resulting from an investigation into the support and management provided to workers in relief and development. Methods included a survey of 200 returned workers and discussions with employing agencies.

Stress Creates Walking Wounded, Reuters - Alertnet
Claire Colliard is founder and executive director of the Center for Humanitarian Psychology, a Geneva-based NGO offering psychological support to humanitarian staff. As a former clinical psychologist, she argues that agencies have the responsibility to do what they can to prevent staff being overwhelmed by stress and overwork, through providing good access to information and communications channels.

The psychological health of relief workers: some practical suggestions, Humanitarian Practice Network
Humanitarian emergencies today expose individuals and organizations to new dilemmas and new challenges. Staff turnover is high and burnout is common. This document offers suggestion for development of a stable and experienced workforce whose energies are effectively harnessed through more enlightened organizational policies. When seen in this light, the psychological support of relief workers is simply part of the employer's duty and responsibility - it is not an optional extra.

Room for Improvement: Management and Support of Relief and Development Workers, Relief and Rehabilitation Network
This report describes the findings and recommendations resulting from an investigation into the support and management provided to workers in relief and development. Methods included a survey of 200 returned workers and discussions with employing agencies.

Building Regional and National Capacities for Leadership in Humanitarian Assistance, Dirk Salomons with Matthias Finger, Arjuna Kannangara, Mohamed Yonis
A report prepared for the "Resources for Humanitarian Assistance" Project of the Center on International Cooperation, New York University, The Praxis Group, Ltd., December 1998.