Risky Business: Reframing the fundamentals of risk management for humanitarians

The discipline of risk management is not new, and there has already been a significant amount of work to translate risk management practice and tools for use in humanitarian operations. Despite this, humanitarian organizations continue to struggle with applying risk management in their decision-making process.

On 21 November, ICVA and PHAP will organize a first webinar in a series aimed at exploring the current state of risk management in the humanitarian sector. This webinar will introduce the concept of risk management and provide an overview of the particular challenges to apply this in humanitarian work. As part of framing how these challenges can be overcome, we will hear from practitioners sharing their experiences of how risk management is carried out in local and international NGOs, as well as UN agencies.

Participants in the webinar will learn about the need to balance management of the risks inherent to the work with the desire to reach people in need in the most difficult contexts. They will also learn about the importance of developing an organizational culture that understands risk management as a discipline that cuts across all levels of an organization.

This webinar is part of the “Navigating Change” Learning Stream which includes webinars, briefing papers, and other resources on how NGOs are managing changing global, regional, and national contexts for humanitarian response.