Humanitarian Academy

Mini MBA

Mini MBA Security and Risk Management: protecting teams and maintaining access

Exactly three months to protect teams and maintain access: context analysis, risk assessment, acceptance, negotiation, incidents, crises, digital security and governance. Demanding, numerical, free.

  • 3 months · 12 weeks · 144 hours
  • 3 exams · 2 certificates + 1 diploma
  • 3 numerical case studies
  • Verifiable diploma
Start the course
  • Free, unlimited access
  • 12 weeks of in-depth lessons
  • 60 quiz questions and a bank of 90 exam questions
  • 3 numerical case studies and 3 demanding exams
  • Diploma in your name, verifiable online

What you will learn

  • Analyse a context, assess risks and decide with clear thresholds, plans and procedures that are actually applied.
  • Build acceptance, negotiate access, manage incidents and crises, and protect the health and dignity of staff.
  • Manage all of the organisation's risks, share risk equitably with partners and govern security.

Course information

Level
Advanced: month 1 (strategy and programmes), month 2 (resources and operations), month 3 (leadership and diploma)
Study time
144 hours over exactly 3 months (12 weeks: lessons, worked numerical exercises, case studies)
Format
Online, at your own pace, free and unlimited access
Assessment
Months 1 and 2: 25 questions + case study, 50 min, 80%; diploma: 30 questions on the whole programme + case study, 75 min, 85%
Credential
Named, numbered certificate of achievement, verifiable online (QR code)
Reference frameworks
Humanitarian Practice Network (ODI) · European Interagency Security Forum (EISF, now GISF) · EISF (now GISF)

Enrol in the Mini MBA

Choose your pace. Your enrolment sets your start date: each monthly exam opens at the end of the corresponding month, and the diploma at the earliest exactly 3 months after you start.

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Three months, three exams, one diploma

Each month has four weeks of lessons and ends with a timed exam including a numerical case study. A month's exam only opens at the end of that month after you enrol: the diploma is awarded at the earliest exactly 3 months after you start.

Month 1

Exam: 33 questions · 50 min · 80% to pass

Month 1 certificate

By the end of this level, you will be able to:
  • Apply the duty of care equitably and position security in the service of access.
  • Analyse a context, its actors and its trends in violence with correctly interpreted data.
  • Assess risks (likelihood, impact, residual) and decide against the acceptable threshold.
  • Write workable plans and procedures: levels, movements, sites, communications.
  1. Week1Duty of care and security risk management: the frameworkWhy security is a leadership function · Duty of care · The security risk management cycle · Acceptance, protection, deterrence · The acceptable risk threshold and programme criticality · Roles and responsibilities
  2. Week2Analysing the context: actors, dynamics and trends in violenceWhy analyse the context · Analytical frameworks · Mapping actors · Reading incident data · Understanding violence against aid workers · Producing a useful analysis
  3. Week3Assessing risks: threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood and impactThreat, vulnerability, risk · The likelihood × impact matrix · Residual risk and the acceptable threshold · The limits of scoring · Profiles and inclusive security · Writing the assessment
  4. Week4Security plans, procedures, movements and communicationsThe security plan · Security levels · Movement procedures · Site security · Communications · Procedures that are actually applied
  5. Graded case study : Opening a base in Taldi Medium-sized town in a province affected by a low-intensity conflict, fictitious country · 33 questions including a case study · 80% to pass
Month 2

Exam: 33 questions · 50 min · 80% to pass

Month 2 certificate · Opens at the end of the month, after the Month 1 certificate

By the end of this level, you will be able to:
  • Build and measure acceptance, and negotiate access while holding your red lines.
  • Run an incident reporting and analysis system within a just culture.
  • Manage a crisis: crisis management team, hibernation, relocation, evacuation, kidnapping and detention.
  • Protect the health, wellbeing and dignity of staff, and cover risks equitably.
  1. Week5Building acceptance and negotiating accessAcceptance cannot be taken for granted · What destroys acceptance · Measuring acceptance · Negotiating access: preparation · Negotiating access: conduct and follow-up · Coordination and common positions
  2. Week6Incidents: report, analyse, learnWhy report · The reporting system · Classifying incidents · Analysing an incident · Using the data · Reporting and communicating
  3. Week7Managing a crisis: crisis management team, hibernation, relocation, evacuation, kidnappingWhat is a crisis? · The first hours · Hibernation, relocation, evacuation · National staff in crises · Kidnapping and detention · Practising and learning lessons
  4. Week8Health, psychosocial wellbeing, internal safeguarding and insuranceHealth, the first risk · Stress, burnout and trauma · Measuring wellbeing · Harassment and sexual violence against staff · Insurance · First aid and medical preparedness
  5. Graded case study : The Mayo convoy Rural area controlled by a non-state armed group, fictitious country · 33 questions including a case study · 80% to pass
Diploma

Exam: 40 questions · 75 min · 85% to pass

Diploma certificate · Opens at the end of the month, after the Month 2 certificate

By the end of this level, you will be able to:
  • Reduce digital risks and protect people's data.
  • Manage all of the organisation's risks with a register, an appetite and compliance controls.
  • Share risk equitably with partners and fund security.
  • Govern security, develop a security culture and ensure business continuity.
  1. Week9Digital security and information protectionWhy digital is a security risk · Basic measures · Payment fraud and financial procedures · Devices, checkpoints and surveillance · Protecting people's data · Responding to a digital incident
  2. Week10Managing all the organisation's risks: register, appetite, compliance and reputationFrom security risks to organisational risks · The risk register · Risk appetite · Expected loss · Compliance: sanctions, counter-terrorism, fraud · Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse
  3. Week11Sharing risk with partners and funding securityRisk transfer · Towards equitable sharing · Budgeting for security · Defending the security budget · Consortia, remote management and coordination · Measuring risk management maturity
  4. Week12Governance, security culture, business continuity and final projectThe security and risk management policy · The role of the board and senior management · Auditing security · Security culture · Business continuity · Final project: a risk management framework for a country
  5. Graded case study : Risk governance at the NGO Tamari National NGO present in 4 regions of a fictitious country, 250 staff · 40 questions including a case study · 85% to pass

Who is it for?

Country directors, base managers, security managers and advisers, security focal points, programme coordinators, heads of human resources, compliance and safeguarding, and board members of national and international NGOs, UN agencies and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Demanding level: at least two years of experience managing teams or projects in crisis contexts is strongly recommended.

The certificate

With at least 80% in the month 1 and month 2 exams, then 85% in the final exam, you receive the Humanitarian Mini MBA diploma in your name, with a unique code recruiters can check on Humanitaires Jobs. A free Humanitarian Network account is needed to take the exams.

Key concepts

The vocabulary you need to master for this course and the exam.

Duty of care
The legal and moral obligation to take all reasonable measures to protect staff from foreseeable harm.
Acceptance
The consent of communities, authorities and parties to the conflict to the organisation's presence and activities.
Protection
A strategy that reduces vulnerability through procedures and equipment.
Deterrence
A strategy that poses a counter-threat (armed guards, suspension); used as a last resort.
Threat
Anything that can cause harm: carjacking, kidnapping, shelling, accident, illness.
Vulnerability
The degree to which an organisation or a person is exposed to a given threat.
Residual risk
The risk remaining after measures are applied; the basis for decisions, compared with the acceptable threshold.
Programme criticality
The ranking of activities according to their life-saving importance, which determines the risk they justify.
Check-in call
Scheduled contact between a team on the move and its base, at fixed times and at key points.
Hibernation
Gathering staff in a safe location until the immediate danger passes.
Relocation
Moving some of the staff to a safer area within the same country.
Near miss
An event that could have caused harm but did not; to be reported like an incident.
Just culture
A culture that does not sanction an honest error that is reported, while dealing with gross negligence and deliberate violations.
Risk appetite
The level of risk the organisation accepts, set by the board for each risk category.
Expected loss
Annual probability × cost if the risk occurs; useful for financial risks, not for lives.
Risk sharing
The equitable, funded allocation of risks between organisations and partners, according to each party's capacity to manage them.

References and recommended reading

The official texts and sector reference works on which the course is based.

  1. Humanitarian Practice Network (ODI) (2010). Operational Security Management in Violent Environments (Good Practice Review 8, revised edition). odihpn.org
  2. European Interagency Security Forum (EISF, now GISF) (2017). Security Risk Management: a basic guide for smaller NGOs. gisf.ngo
  3. EISF (now GISF) (2018). Managing the Security of Aid Workers with Diverse Profiles. gisf.ngo
  4. EISF (now GISF) (2016). Duty of Care: A review of the Dennis v Norwegian Refugee Council ruling and its implications. gisf.ngo
  5. RedR UK, Insecurity Insight and EISF (2017). Security Incident Information Management Handbook. gisf.ngo
  6. Humanitarian Outcomes (2024). Aid Worker Security Report and Aid Worker Security Database. www.aidworkersecurity.org
  7. United Nations (security management system) and partner NGOs (2015). Saving Lives Together: a framework for improving security arrangements among IGOs, NGOs and the UN. www.un.org
  8. United Nations (2016). Programme Criticality Framework. www.un.org
  9. Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) (2019). Field Manual on Frontline Humanitarian Negotiation. frontline-negotiations.org
  10. Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2019). Six Core Principles relating to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. interagencystandingcommittee.org
  11. Grand Bargain Risk Sharing Platform (InterAction, the Netherlands and partners) (2023). Risk Sharing Framework. www.interaction.org
  12. ICRC and Brussels Privacy Hub (2020). Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Action (2nd edition). www.icrc.org
  13. Antares Foundation (2012). Managing Stress in Humanitarian Workers: Guidelines for Good Practice. www.antaresfoundation.org
  14. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2018). ISO 31000:2018 Risk management – Guidelines. www.iso.org