Empowering Humanitarian Staff with Real-World Security, Risk & Crsis Management Skills
- Andy Williams
- Nov 25
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 29
As humanitarian contexts become increasingly complex, program staff are increasingly required to make decisions that affect the safety of their teams, operations, and communities — often without formal training in security or risk management. After three decades working in fragile states and high-risk environments, Andy Williams MSyl now focuses on equipping humanitarian professionals with the practical knowledge, contextual understanding, and confidence to fulfill these responsibilities effectively.
A former security and risk leader for major NGOs, Andy has designed and implemented pragmatic, ethical, and locally accepted security strategies in Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, Syria, Rwanda, Jordan, and the DRC. He understands the realities of humanitarian operations — where acceptance, community engagement, compliance, safeguarding, and ethical decision-making matter just as much as threat analysis and incident response.
Through Peritus Global Training, Andy and his team deliver modern, scenario-based training designed for NGO program managers, security focal points, field coordinators, and duty of care leads — not just traditional security professionals. 90% of the team are practitioners with lived experience in non-profit, humanitarian, and crisis-response settings, ensuring that every course is grounded in the real-world challenges you face.
“In humanitarian work, security isn’t just about gates and guards,” Andy explains. “It’s about relationships, communication, judgement, ethics, and making risk-aware decisions in fast-changing environments — even when you’re not a ‘security specialist’.”
Unlike traditional military-style training, Peritus Global focuses on acceptance-based security, operational risk management, safeguarding, crisis leadership, duty of care, and organisational resilience. Courses are designed to help non-security specialists understand their responsibilities, fulfil their roles confidently, and protect both people and programmes.
Training programmes include:
Security & Risk Management for Humanitarian Professionals
Hostile Environment Awareness & Safety (HEAT)
Crisis and Incident Management
Duty of Care and Organisational Risk Accountability
Safeguarding and Ethical Decision-Making
Security Focal Point & Field Coordinator Skills
Courses are practical, jargon-free, and adaptable to your operational context — from local partner support to INGO headquarters. They help participants develop professional judgement, build acceptance with communities, communicate clearly with stakeholders, and make tough decisions under pressure.
Each programme is tailored to be relevant, realistic, and respectful of humanitarian principles — no unnecessary theatrics, no “cosplay security”. Just professional, ethical, scenario-based learning that builds competence, confidence, and organisational resilience.
If you are a security focal point, program manager, country director, or anyone tasked with risk or duty-of-care responsibilities — Peritus Global Training helps you do that safely, ethically, and professionally.
Contact Peritus Global Training to enhance your security capabilities and strengthen your organisation’s ability to operate responsibly in high-risk environments..
