CASE: Non-governmental organisation operating in Africa and Asia
Client
The client is a medium sized NGO, which is part of a global humanitarian alliance with programmes in 136 countries. With a an annual turnover of nearly 300 million DKK our client has primary activities in 7 countries in Africa and Asia. There are 90 employees in the Copenhagen Headquarters with frequent and increasing travels to low and medium risk destinations and one high-risk.
The client is very active in terms of fundraising with a host of ambassadors and media celebrities, whom they take to programmes to maximize media exposure and boost fundraising.
Problem
Increasing risks in key countries – mostly in Africa – combined with a management realization of the need for and an employee demand for a systematic duty-of-care approach.
Challenge
The very flat organisation primarily employs academical staff. There are plenty of warm humanitarian values, a processual focus and a certain degree of anarchy. Management must solicit support for policies, discuss procedures, may have to abandon non-compliance disciplinary actions and may be challenged by the demands of incident and crisis management.
Generally, those managers closest to operations (HR and COO) are the safety and security (Duty-of-Care) champions.
Solution
The client initially approached Bishoff Advisory regarding training of staff in Travel Security Awareness. Though we prefer training focussing on the specific operations, in this case we conducted generic training sessions due to the client’s particular needs.
From training arose the need for threat assessments of programmes in Africa, briefing and training of staff and ambassadors. Then a safety and security policy was written, shortly followed by procedures. Bischoff Advisory provided tracking of travellers prior to and during travels.
We helped management identify a Crisis Management Team, which was trained in the necessary crisis management skills (analytical skills, OSINT, OPS room requirements, how to handle next-of-kin, logging, stakeholder mapping etc) and tested the team in fast-paced realistic and recurring exercises.
Seeing the clients need for autonomy, we trained internal Travel Security Awareness trainers, suggested a platform for monitoring incidents, staff, travel itineraries, travel bookings, preparatory e-learning and other administrative details.
Today Bischoff Advisory primarily assists with quality assurance, reviews and oversees crisis management training. Over the years we have developed a close relationship and have deep insight in how the organisation works. So far, there has been no incidents.
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Contact
Bo Bischoff
+45 70 70 74 56
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