"We must develop a security and safety culture"

World Humanitarian Day commemorates the brutal terrorist attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad, iraq, on August 19, 2003. 22 people were killed on that day, including UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Melio. World Humanitarian Day honours of those who have lost their lives working humanitarian settings and those who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions. Barry Steyn, CARE international's Director of Safety and Security Unit, discusses the current threats faced by humanitarian workers and strategies for protection.

Q: Do humanitarian workers face more security threats today than a decade ago?

A: The risks have changed towards non-government organizations (NGO) compared to twenty or thirty years ago, and especially over the past decade. NGOs and humanitarian workers used to be perceived as good people doing good work. Unfortunately, nowadays NGOs can be targeted simply because of who they are and what they are perceived to represent, rather than what they actually do or don't do. These days we can be targeted because we are perceived as outsiders representing a culture Which is foreign and perceived as a threat to some communities.

Throughout the last ten years, there has been a significant increase in the number of serious incidents and fatalities; however, after 2009 we witnessed a drop-off in the number of incidents. But this was not because the risks had diminished. Rather there were fewer international staff working in the field in the most dangerous places. We must remember that the statistics are dominated by specific places such as Darfur, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and over this time period NGOs sent fewer humanitarian workers there due to the safety and security risks.

Q: How are humanitarian strategies evolving in the face of increased risks?

Classically, there are three theories of humanitarian strategy: acceptance, protection and deterrence. The strategy CARE strives for is acceptance. This means that local communities understand that we are there to help. They participate in our work, support us and often protect us from threats. However, this strategy simply doesn't work in many parts of the world anymore, so we have had to evolve our strategies to counteract that.

Protection is about reducing risks for our humanitarian workers by making ourselves a more difficult target. This is done through implementing protective measures and having policies and procedures that make our colleagues less vulnerable to threats. Deterrence involves posing a counter threat, meaning that we need armed guards and escorts to protect our programmes, staff and assets.

If you look at the humanitarian world, there's been a massive increase in focus and investment in safety and security over the past decade. Strategies have changed, and a lot of humanitarians have gone the way of protection and deterrence. We must combine our goal of community acceptance with a healthy dose of realism and find a balance between these strategies.

Q: What are the current risks humanitarian workers face?

Unfortunately, over the last two years we have noticed a steady rise in the number of serious incidents, in particular incidents such as kidnappings and killings. Increasing numbers of NGO workers are being kidnapped these days, whether for political or ideological reasons or because we have become financial commodities in many parts of the world.

We often talk about the security of international staff, but more than 90 percent of humanitarian workers are national staff. They are being kidnapped or killed in much greater numbers than international staff. Everybody has a risk profile, and there's not a one size fits all solution. There's a difference in the type and level of risk faced by male and female staff, national and international staff and for national staff, what region or ethnicity they are from. We must look at every staff profile and analyse what risks they could face at a particular time in a particular place.

Q: What does the humanitarian community need to do to keep humanitarian workers safe?

We are trying to understand the situation better, and we have made progress over the last decade. However, we need to further develop a culture in which consideration for safety and security is the norm. We must increase our spending on resources and make sure that these issues have been considered in every project we implement.

Most importantly, we mustn't lose focus on the acceptance strategy whiie finding balance and cohesion with other strategies. We have to rernemberthat what we do is not about us. it is about serving local communities.