Empowering Humanitarian Staff with Real-World Security, Risk & Crsis Management Skills
- Andy Williams
- Nov 25, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 24
Why Security Responsibility Now Extends Beyond Specialist Roles
As humanitarian contexts become increasingly complex, programme staff are often required to make decisions that directly affect the safety of their teams, operations, and communities — frequently without formal training in security, risk, or crisis management. In many organisations, risk ownership has shifted well beyond specialist roles, placing significant responsibility on programme managers, field coordinators, and senior staff operating under pressure.
Effective security in humanitarian settings is rarely about rigid procedures or tactical responses alone. It is shaped by judgement, context, relationships, and the ability to interpret risk as situations evolve. While compliance and policy frameworks remain important, meaningful duty of care is ultimately supported by capability — the confidence and decision-making ability to respond appropriately in complex, high-risk environments.
After more than three decades working in fragile states and high-risk environments, Andy Williams MSyl now focuses on supporting humanitarian professionals to develop the practical skills, contextual understanding, and professional judgement required to fulfil 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 Democratic Republic of Congo. His experience reflects the realities of humanitarian operations, where acceptance, community engagement, safeguarding, and ethical decision-making are as critical as threat analysis and incident response.
Through Peritus Global Training, Andy and his team deliver scenario-based training designed specifically for humanitarian organisations — not just for traditional security professionals. Courses are built for programme managers, security focal points, field coordinators, and duty-of-care leads who are often required to manage risk alongside their primary roles.
More than 90% of the Peritus Global Training team are practitioners with lived experience in humanitarian, non-profit, and crisis-response settings. This ensures training is grounded in real operational challenges and organisational realities, rather than theoretical models or generic “one-size-fits-all” approaches.
“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 or compliance-driven HEAT training models, Peritus Global Training focuses on acceptance-based security, human factors, and decision-making under pressure. Training is designed to help participants understand not only what to do, but why, when, and how decisions influence incident outcomes and organisational risk.
Training programmes include:
Security & Risk Management for Humanitarian Professionals (SRCM)
Crisis and Incident Management
Duty of Care and Organisational Risk Accountability
Safeguarding and Ethical Decision-Making
Security Focal Point & Field Coordinator Skills
Security as Judgement, Not Just Procedure
HEAT training provides a foundational level of individual preparedness, supporting awareness, confidence, and personal decision-making in hostile, conflict, or post-conflict environments. Organisations can further strengthen security culture, leadership decision-making, and crisis response capability through Peritus Global Training’s core NGO Security, Risk and Crisis Management course.
All courses are practical, jargon-free, and adaptable to operational context — from local partner support to INGO headquarters. They are designed to improve professional judgement, support early and proportionate decision-making, and reduce avoidable escalation during critical incidents.
Practitioner-Led Training for Humanitarian Professionals
Each programme is delivered in a professional, supportive environment that prioritises participant wellbeing while ensuring learning remains realistic, relevant, and operationally meaningful. There are no unnecessary theatrics, no performative or militarised role-play — just ethical, scenario-based learning that builds competence, confidence, and organisational resilience.
For organisations seeking to strengthen duty-of-care practices beyond compliance alone, Peritus Global Training supports staff and leaders to operate more safely, responsibly, and effectively in high-risk environments.
