Current Security Updates

Travel Advisory, UK Government Website
The British government lists travel security advisories and provides access to similar websites of key allied governments. The list of links the UK government provides are: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the US. This website also provides general travel tips.

Security information, Relief Web
Use this website's keyword search function to search for content on a wide variety of subjects. For information on safety and security in the field, review the information they list when you enter keyword "security."

RedR's Security Training, RedR
Field Staff are frequently required to work in extremely insecure situations. A practical way of improving security is through carefully designed and targeted staff training. In addition to improving safety and security, such training can contribute significantly to the effectiveness of humanitarian relief operations. The RedR Security Training Programme is designed to address the needs of NGO's operating in insecure environments.

International Incident Reports, Center for International Disaster Information
This website provides current information about security in particular regions.

Handbooks/Manuals

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 non-technical manner on how to tackle various aspects of emergency response.

Security in the Field, United Nations
This is the U.N.'s detailed guidebook on safety and security.

Research

Context Matters: Identifying Micro- and Macro-Level Factors Contributing to NGO Insecurity, Larissa Fast
This report briefly reviews a study that examines why some NGOs seem to be more secure than others operating in the same area. By looking at characteristics of NGOs that have and have not been targets, the study concludes that there may be some elements that contribute to higher risk.

Security in the Field, United Nations
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.

Security in the Field, United Nations
ICRC's Risks Associated with the Psychological Adjustment of Humanitarian Aid Workers, Australian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies (Article) This article addresses the fact that contemporary humanitarian aid personnel are at risk of experiencing traumatic and daily cumulative stress. Eleven areas of situational and individual risk are proposed that are likely to have applicability across different contexts, countries and people. Psychological adjustment, medical health and staff security are discussed in relation to each of these factors and ways of promoting safety and wellbeing outlined.

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.

CARE International Security and Safety Handbook, CARE
CARE's security and safety handbook assembles the best available information on how to work safely in today's humanitarian environment. The handbook discusses policies, assessments, planning, stress management, and fundamental safety and security procedures. Follow the link to Chapter 7 to find material devoted to the sources of stress, stress indicators, and ways to prevent stress.