e-Security in urban emergencies

Since 2008, it has been reported that over half the world’s population lives in cities (UN-HABITAT, State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009: Harmonious Cities, Earthscan, London, 2008, p. 11). With this shift, aid agencies are increasingly likely to conduct more of their relief work in urban areas. As such it is important for relief workers to understand what urban spaces are and how better to define them and the unique challenges that are present when working in them. Responses to urban emergencies are considered more complex in nature compared to rural settings than the sector has traditionally been involved in, as they involve high numbers of very different people, living and working in close proximity with a more mobile and transient population. These people are largely dependent on technical or economic systems to meet their basic needs in an environment where social, political and institutional factors are highly convoluted.

In understanding urban contexts, humanitarian actors and agencies can better answer the question of how all these factors affect their programming and at the same time ask how working in an urban environment may affect their security. Just as crises and responses in urban areas differs to those in rural areas so too do the security issues and types of violence associated to urban contexts. Humanitarian actors face new challenges when considering security risks in urban environments as they can lack or have greater difficulty in establishing influence or acceptance with the populations around them. This means that they need to find urban specific strategies to mitigate potential risks.

The e-security in urban emergencies course gives participants exposure to the necessary skills and knowledge to: participate in the development of security strategies, from conducting context analyses, to how that informs the subsequent vulnerability assessments and risk assessments, through to using security frameworks to mitigate urban specific risks. The course builds directly on the lessons learned in the Urban Humanitarianism course. The duration of the facilitated on-line course is 4 consecutive weeks where all activities take place on-line. It is expected that you spend around three to five hours per week on participating in team activities and completing individual tasks.

Most of the activities are asynchronous, the asynchronous model means that you can log in when convenient for you, whether that is during the working day, in the evening at home or while travelling. However, there will be some webinars where a time will be scheduled and participants will need to be available to participate in tasks, this will cater to different time zones and working schedules. The topics in this course are interwoven to build upon the learning from the course, which will enable participants to remember key learning points and practise taught skills.

Overall aim

Reduce the number of security incidents experienced in urban settings by humanitarian aid workers, through aid workers developing and employing a variety of tools used in a security risk framework.

Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Develop basic context analysis for a complex urban setting, using a good practice structure
• Differentiate the risks faced by diverse humanitarians (particularly with regard to gender)
• Identify security threats of special concern in an urban environment and use a security risk framework to manage them.

Who should attend

The target audience for this course are humanitarians, with practical experience in the field. Participants should have an interest in working in an urban emergency response and have some experience in the humanitarian and/or development sector. This course presupposes a working knowledge of basic humanitarian principles.

The most important thing is that participants are fully committed to completing the course and sharing their own experiences with the other participants they will be working with. The maximum number of participants is 24.

RedR UK is committed to making our courses accessible to any organisation, regardless of size. We offer course scholarships for eligible participants who meet specific criteria. For more information on RedR Scholarships and how to apply, please click here.

Any questions? Check out our FAQs here and our T&Cs here.

If you have any questions about this course or require further information, please contact training@redr.org.uk.

In case of any complaints, please email complaints@redr.org.uk

RedR UK is committed to making sure everyone’s needs are met, including people of different genders, ages and disabilities. If you have any specific access requirements or learning needs RedR are committed to try and make reasonable adjustments to support your needs, please email training@redr.org.uk or phone 0207 840 6000 at any stage of the booking process to talk directly to RedR about your needs.