Managing risk and security: How humanitarian organisations adapt in conflict zones

Abstract

Humanitarian aid workers (HAWs) face increasing risks in conflict zones, with 2024 marking the deadliest year on record. International humanitarian organisations (IHOs) must address this trend to continue delivering aid and protecting HAWs. This study investigates how IHOs adapt to the evolving risks in these contexts and explores challenges that adaptation measures may entail. A qualitative research design with a constructivist grounded theory approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews with 12 key informants from three IHOs, supported by secondary sources. Two themes were identified: (1) understanding contextual factors and (2) politicisation of humanitarian aid (HA). Risks were described as context-dependent, with threats increasingly coming from governments and a reduced respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL). To remain resilient, IHOs rely on soft and context-sensitive approaches. Adaptation measures include internal processes such as risk assessments grounded in local understanding, context-appropriate staff employment, and ensuring transparency and informed consent. These support external approaches, including acceptance strategies through negotiation, community engagement, provision of relevant aid, and advocacy. Challenges involve the meaningful incorporation of local perspectives, trade-offs in staff selection, and reduced adaptive flexibility due to the professionalisation of security risk management (SRM). Violations of IHL and a lack of accountability hinder these efforts. This study shows that adaptation is influenced by both internal strategies and external actors, embedded in contextual dependencies, social dynamics and power structures. Tensions between SRM practices and actual protection, as well as the shifting nature of threats should be explored further.

Popular Abstract

In today’s world, violent conflicts are on the rise and the delivery of humanitarian aid, which entails basic needs such as water, food, shelter or healthcare, is becoming even more important, as many people’s lives rely on it. However, delivering aid has become increasingly risky, with 2024 being the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers. Organisations address the risks they face in the conflict zones by firstly using soft strategies, such as communication, local understanding, and transparency, to keep their staff secure and to be able to continue delivering aid.

Threats and Risks
We identified that the physical threats humanitarian aid workers experience, ranging from kidnappings and killings or having their facilities attacked, are a result of the risk environment in which humanitarian organisations operate. These threats don’t appear out of nowhere, they are often shaped by deeper, complex, dynamics in the surrounding environment. The study found that key risk factors include the perception that the organisations are aligned with political agendas, that threats are increasingly coming from governments and that the laws that are meant to protect the aid workers, such as International Humanitarian Law, are being increasingly distrusted, leading to their physical insecurity in the field.

Our Study
After identifying how humanitarian organisations view the risk landscape in the conflict zones they operate in, we aimed to investigate how these organisations navigate and manage the security issues surrounding them. While the topic is highly relevant, there is not a lot of research done about the organisations’ perspectives and looking at what organisations do to adapt. In order to gain direct insights, 12 interviews were conducted with experienced staff from three humanitarian organisations: Médecins Sans Frontières, the Danish Refugee Council and CADUS, gathering insights from people in various positions, each with over a decade of experience in countries like Syria, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The interviewees shared stories of adapting to evolving risks, describing it as a balance between flexibility and context-specific strategies, while also following standardised procedures and protocols.

Adaptation Measures
The interviews revealed that organisations try to tailor their work to the needs of the affected population. To do so, they try to collect sufficient understanding about the local context by conducting risk assessments incorporating local people and their knowledge. They also seek to build acceptance through engaging and communicating with the local community, providing valuable work, showing that they are neutral and speak out for violations against human rights on higher political levels. The organisations are working around and towards what we call soft adaptation, a broader understanding of security that goes beyond fences and protocols. This was a preferred adaptation strategy among the interviewees, who viewed these methods as crucial for staying resilient and adapting to the risks they encounter. Soft adaptation is often intangible, complex, relational, and dynamic. It relies on communication and relationship building, trust, and mutual understanding, all rooted in knowledge of the unique conflict context. These measures originate within the organisations and extend outward into their surrounding environments and the actors they engage with to build acceptance.

Challenges to Adaptation
Still, these measures do not come without challenges. Organisations working with soft adaptation encounter obstacles such as excessively complicated administrative procedures, so called bureaucracy – and difficult trade-offs with other security strategies like physical barriers or withdrawal from affected communities to protect their staff. In addition, organisations feel powerless when international laws are being disregarded and violations are not being accounted for. Security measures are intertwined with power structures and contextual and political dependencies, so humanitarian organisations cannot eliminate all risks.

Conclusion
Overall, our findings can be used to improve understanding of how organisations adapt in practice and to further develop security management protocols and procedures. Also, they provide a timely snapshot of how humanitarian actors are responding to today’s changing risk landscape, needed to understand and further explore the complexities of humanitarian aid in conflict zones, which spans from management and headquarters to operations in the field.

• author: Messerschmidt, Marie-Luisa and Guth, Emelie
• supervisor: Marcus Abrahamsson
• organization: Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
• course: VBRM15 20251
• year: 2025
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Science General
• keywords: Security risk management, humanitarian aid, humanitarian aid worker, conflict zones, adaptation, politicisation, acceptance.
• language: English
• id: 9206303
• date added to LUP: 2025-06-27 07:52:56
• date last changed: 2025-06-27 07:52:56