At GISF, we believe that collaboration and inclusivity are essential to developing effective and impactful research. Through blogs, research projects and translations, we strive to represent many voices and welcome contributions from a diversity of actors and sectors. If you or your organisation would like to get involved in making or disseminating our upcoming research projects, please contact Dimitri Kotsiras at dimitri@gisf.ngo.
Current projects and collaborations:
Recently completed projects and collaborations:
- State of Practice: The Evolution of Security Risk Management in the Humanitarian Space
- GISF NGO Security Toolbox
- Humanitarian Security in an Age of Uncertainty: the intersection of digital and physical risks
- Good practices, lessons learned, and the unique challenges affecting security risk management in urban humanitarian responses
- Blogs and Translations
Current projects and collaborations:
SRM Policy Resource and Toolkit
GISF is working to create a digital interdisciplinary SRM Policy Resource and Toolkit that will inform organisational SRM strategies linking to some of the most current standalone and transversal policy thematic areas in the humanitarian and development arena, ranging from governance and organisational resilience to staff care and localisation.
Neutrality, Access and Making Localisation Work
This upcoming report will unpack the challenges in conceptualising and operationalising the principle of neutrality, looking at how its role in acceptance-based strategies has evolved over time, and explore its interaction with the localisation of aid. It will also offer some practical recommendations to help practitioners navigate these challenges.
Glossary
GISF is creating a glossary with terms commonly used in humanitarian security risk management (SRM). This glossary will serve as a common resource for security experts and non-experts to engage with important terms and concepts found across SRM literature and commonly used in SRM discourse. The glossary is expected to be published later in 2024.
Recently completed projects and collaborations:
State of Practice: The Evolution of Security Risk Management in the Humanitarian Space
As a subject of humanitarian policy and practice, security risk management (SRM) has been an active and growing – yet largely understudied – area of operations. Only a small number of comprehensive, sector-wide analyses of SRM have been published over the past two decades, and none of them are recent enough to cover the significant developments of the past several years.
To address this gap, Humanitarian Outcomes, Global Interagency Security Forum (GISF), and Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN) partnered to conduct a global review of SRM in the humanitarian space, under a project funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). This report, co-authored by Humanitarian Outcomes and GISF, is the first output of this research programme, which will also inform a newly revised edition of the HPN publication Good Practice Review: Operational Security Management in Violent Environments, last updated in 2010.
You can access the publication here.
GISF NGO Security Toolbox
The GISF NGO Security Toolbox provides easily accessible guidance, resources and tools to help NGOs integrate good risk management practices into their operations during humanitarian responses. The toolbox enables both security specialists and non-security staff to access practical resources and tools on the go, and helps them put in place basic safety and security measures quickly, without having to start from scratch. As connectivity is often limited in emergencies, the toolbox can also be downloaded for use off-line. The toolbox is divided into six sections, looking at:
- Assessment
- Planning & implementation
- Incident response
- Information management
- Collaboration & coordination
- Training
In the form of guides, templates and SOPs, the toolbox offers various resources to ensure that appropriate security measures are being implemented in volatile environments. It also includes our new long-read NGO Security Collaboration Guide and the Security & Safety Training Pack. You can access the toolbox here.
Humanitarian Security in an Age of Uncertainty: the intersection of digital and physical risks
This GISF research article explores the ways in which security risk management (SRM) in the aid sector is changing in response to the opportunities and risks stemming from the evolving digital world
Specifically, the article looks at the (a) external threats in the digital world, (b) internal vulnerabilities in the digital world, and (c) application of the NGO security risk management triangle in the digital world.
You can access the publication here.
Good Practices, lessons learned, and the unique challenges affecting security risk management in urban humanitarian responses
This GISF research article identifies the unique elements in urban environments and the humanitarian security risk management (SRM) considerations resulting from these dynamics. With urbanisation on the rise worldwide and the proliferation of humanitarian responses in densely populated areas, understanding the unique parameters of SRM in these contexts is more vital than ever.
A significant constraint to humanitarian aid in urban settings is that security concerns prohibit access to populations clustered by specific characteristics. There is, generally speaking, a lack of expertise and knowledge in navigating these challenges.
You can access the publication here.
Blogs and Translations
The GISF Blog
GISF welcomes contributions to our blog from anyone who has a particular interest or expertise in security risk management or related issues. If you would like to write an original piece for us, please send a brief summary of your ideas to christian@gisf.ngo.
Translations
GISF seeks to make its resources accessible to a large audience by increasing the translations of its work. We are currently in the process of translating many of our most popular resources.
View existing French translations and existing Spanish translations.
If you’d like to get involved in our upcoming research, get in touch at dimitri@gisf.ngo. Find out more about all of our research guides, papers, and translations on our Resources page.