The current war in Ukraine and the subsequent deployment of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from around the world has highlighted the many potential dangers faced by humanitarian aid workers operating in conflict zones. Humanitarian aid workers may face both direct and indirect threats and aggression while on deployment, and given the rising number of global conflicts, the authors postulate a need to incorporate threat awareness training as part of pre-deployment training.

A list of the top 22 rated NGOs providing international aid was obtained from CharityWatch. All 22 were contacted via their public email addresses or website contact pages to find out if they provide any form of security, tactical or threat awareness training.

Of the 13 NGOs that responded, 7 did not deploy staff into recent conflict zones or surroundings. All 6 NGOs who deployed staff into Ukraine or surrounding border countries, provided either security, tactical or threat awareness training to their staff.

With the rising number of conflicts and disasters around the world, humanitarian aid workers are increasingly exposed to hostile environments and there is a compelling need for NGOs to ensure staff are adequately trained and prepared to handle any dangers and threats they may face.

In this study, all 6 of the studied NGOs which deployed staff to the conflict zone confirmed some type of security or threat awareness training ranging from in-house security briefs to extensive, multi-day, commercially run courses such as Hostile Environment Awareness Training course.