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Key Considerations

• Collaborate with host country authorities, UNSMS members and partners to assess specific threats and determine associated risk levels, SRM measures and levels of acceptable risk to enable maximum programme delivery.

• Support UNICEF partners to put in place or reinforce their security risk management framework. When entering a PCA, UNICEF checks that partners have demonstrated capacities to manage security risks for their staff and operations and to fulfil their duty of care (legal responsibilities) for their employees.  Upon request, UNICEF may provide technical support and/or resources to support partners in strengthening their security risk management framework.  

• Ensure close collaboration between security and programme personnel as required in the SRM and Programme Criticality development and implementation processes.

• UNICEF commits to provide timely responses to SLT-related queries; collect and cross-check information for regular security reports and coordinate mutual assistance in maintaining security incident databases; support the resolution of security coordination problems, and the coordination of security incident response, in the field; make training available to security managers of SLT partners; organize workshops to enhance mutual knowledge of UN, INGO and IO security collaboration; explore further areas of security cooperation between the UN, INGOs and IOs; and seek innovation and efficiencies in security management.

• Utilize acceptance as a security risk management approach that can support humanitarian access. Acceptance by communities and/or threat actors can reduce the likelihood of harmful events occurring and increases the chances of an effective response if a harmful event does occur.  Humanitarian principles underpin acceptance – cultivating good relations and consent for humanitarian activities among local populations and key actors[121].

• Build the capacity of security professionals and managers with security responsibilities on generating acceptance, assessing the degree of acceptance and integrating acceptance in the Security Risk Management process.

• Make use of armed escorts only after a thorough analysis in the Security Risk Management (SRM) process that determines no other SRM measure is available to bring security risks to acceptable levels, as per the IASC Non-Binding Guidelines on the Use of Armed Escorts for Humanitarian Convoys.

• Refer to the IASC Non-Binding Guidelines on the Use of Armed Escorts for Humanitarian Convoys when contributing to the SMT’s evaluation of the potential impacts of using armed escorts. This evaluation should be context and location-specific and should also be informed by humanitarian principles.

• Refer to and comply with the UNSMS Framework of Accountability and the  UNICEF Security Framework of Accountability which outline all UNICEF personnel’s security roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

• The Country Representative is responsible and accountable to the Secretary-General through the Executive Director for the safety and security of UNICEF personnel and eligible family members, premises and assets in their assigned country[122]. As a member of the Security Management Team (SMT), the CO Representative is expected to apply the Security Risk Management approach to all UNICEF activities and operations, ensure that activities of UNICEF are conducted in a way that manages security risks to personnel and eligible family members, premises and assets to an acceptable level, and ensure that security collaboration with  UNICEF partners using the Saving Lives Together (SLT) Framework.

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