Security challenges in humanitarian assistance

Political, social and climatic changes in the world are accelerating, resulting in man-made industrial disasters, wars, natural disasters, epidemic emergencies and population migrations. As societies are ageing in many countries around the world, there are more and more people in need of social, health and humanitarian assistance.Humanitarian aid in a natural disaster or war zone is not a harmless mission, not forgetting and underestimating the security risks for those who carry out social tasks in the “peaceful and normal” daily life. When performing a task in such a high-risk area, the primary goal of the aid worker cannot be other than to stay alive, because only then will they be able to carry out their mission of helping others. Indeed, would you know what to do in a case of emergency at home or abroad? Do we know what to do when an unexpected event occurs? Can we recognize and manage the security risks realistically?This book will help you to develop or further improve your security mind-set by highlighting various aspects of personal security and safety. However, the tips and guides listed in the book do not deal with a single situation, because each one is going to be different, so it is not possible to list all the different types and the corresponding answers.This literature is recommended alongside humanitarian workers to all emergency workers (police, military, private security, rescue unit and media workers, etc.) who, in the course of their work, happen to find themselves in a critical situ­ation at home or abroad, in a disaster area or in a post-war zone.