Protect Aid Workers: an innovative mechanism for safeguarding aid workers in high-risk environments  | GISF at HNPW

Summary

Humanitarian actors operate in insecure environments, such as conflict zones, which increases their exposure to violence. Over the last 5 years, 623 humanitarian workers were killed, 937 injured and 661 kidnapped globally, the vast majority of whom were national staff.  

As a response to this, Protect Aid Workers is a new initiative that supports humanitarian workers of national and international NGOs who have experienced a critical incident or are under threat due to their work as humanitarians. Protection grants can be provided to humanitarian NGOs to cover the cost of protection measures and post-incident support to affected staff. The ultimate aim is to protect staff from further harm, support their recovery and improve their immediate and long-term well-being. The pilot phase of the program is being implemented in the Middle East & North Africa. 

Speakers

Heather Hughes (Head of Global Membership and NGO Services, GISF)

Heather was Oxfam GB’s first Global Security Adviser, where she worked for over 20 years, focusing on strategic and operational security risk management including policy and practice, learning and development, supporting and managing serious incidents and crises, lessons learned and networking. After leaving Oxfam GB, Heather was Director of Risk Advisory Services at International Location Safety, where she worked with a wide range of NGOs to support improvements in their security risk management approach and practice. 

Heather has been involved with GISF since its inception in 2006, and was a member of the Steering Group for many years. As Head of Global Membership and NGO Services she supports the strategic work of GISF. 

David Annequin (Program Coordinator, Protect Aid Workers)

David has worked in humanitarian aid for over 15 years. He led various field operations in Guinea, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Myanmar and Lao for the RCRC Movement and Solidarités International. In particular, he was in charge of coordinating the French Red Crosse Ebola response in West Africa in 2015. He then held the position of Head of Emergency Unit at Médecins du Monde from 2018 to 2023. He was entrusted with the role of coordinating the creation and development of the Protect Aid Workers mechanism in November 2023. 

Kate Norton (Operations Director, Legal Action Worldwide)

Kate qualified and practiced as a lawyer in the UK for 7 years, before switching to the humanitarian field in 2004. Before joining LAW, Kate was a country director for both NRC and DRC, has headed up NRC’s global Emergency Response Team and has also been deployed by PROCAP to UNHCR. Kate has extensive experience of working in conflict-affected and fragile states over almost 20 years including Lebanon, South Sudan, CAR, Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Burundi.   

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