Mission Statement: Provide Ukrainian NGOs with Safety & Security Coordination

Context of Humanitarian Work Today in Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused great harm and suffering to the general population and has required the Ukrainian Military to defend and protect the Country.

The response of the Ukrainian people has been to form NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) to support the military, to support the civil population and to rebuild the country as the Russians are pushed back and outside the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. 

When the NGOs do their work they often experience insecurity, injury and sometimes death. They are often specifically targeted by the Russians as a terror tactic. 

As a result of this insecurity the work of the NGOs suffers and those who benefit from their work go without that assistance.

This is the Problem! How to improve the security for NGOs.

The key to a successful response is a coordinated response. NGOs working together under a unified security coordination system. That does not mean taking away their independence, it only means working together in the area of security. Cooperating to provide improved security for all. This is easier said than done. 

It was done most successfully in Cambodia 30 years ago when 30+ International NGOs banded together to deal with the threat posed by the Khmer Rouge. This powerful rebel faction had withdrawn from the UN sponsored peace process and proceeded to shell, shoot at and rocket all those who stood in their way. The NGOs involved in reconstruction were fair game and they needed a way to safely continue their work for the Cambodian people. This need led to the creation of the "Battambang Security Coordination" system, spearheaded by J. Andrew Pendleton, at the time UNHCR point person in Battambang province, Cambodia. 

This is the Operations Manual for the Battambang Security Coordination system: https://hsnu.org/btb-sec/

It was unique for its time and has never been reproduced. Today it is more common for individual NGOs to have their own security coordinator and procedures. This individual approach ignores the obvious advantages of working together such as sharing information and resources. 

HSNU has brought together two of the key people responsible for the creation and operation of the Battambang Security coordination system, J. Andrew Pendleton, the author of the system, and Wallace Richard Rowat, his deputy emergency response coordinator. 

Continue to Method. How we can make a system like this work in Ukraine.