Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks

Session title: Keeping last mile of delivery safe for all: evidence based SRM for national frontline health staff

25 Apr 23 (16:00-17:30)

Over 440 health workers working in armed conflicts have been kidnapped, or killed in
2022. The large majority are national staff and not working for an NGO or international organization. International organizations are increasingly working together with their implementing partners, communities, health networks and the Ministry of Health, to keep this staff safe. This session will discuss these efforts, and challenges faced, including examples of collaboration with MoH, as part of system strengthening, joint INGO and NGO efforts and community driven solutions.

Background

Health workers on frontlines around the world risk their lives to continue to provide life-saving services to the over 2 billion people living in active conflict areas. According to data on attacks against health care from Insecurity Insight, a non-profit organization consolidating incident data to provide analysis for the humanitarian community, over 400 health workers working in armed conflicts have been kidnapped, or killed in 2022. In a recent study, one out of five frontline health workers surveyed in South Sudan and Nigeria admitted that they do not feel safe travelling to work, or when providing services. As one health care worker in Nigeria put it, ¨Health workers are targeted because they are perceived to be critical to the society and government, and (an) attack on them is believed to cause severe damage on the society, government's and humanitarian entities efforts in health response¨. 

Widespread impunity for the perpetrators of these attacks means that these atrocities will continue to characterize armed conflicts in the future. To date, little has been done to find a different way forward. While the responsibility to protect lies with the state, the humanitarian and donor community play an important role to keep staff to protect staff from violence and to meet the urgent needs of the population exposed to it.

International organizations are increasingly working together with their implementing partners, communities, health networks and the Ministry of Health, to keep frontline health workers safe. This session will discuss these efforts, and challenges faced, including examples of collaboration with MoH, as part of system strengthening, joint INGO and NGO efforts and community driven solutions.

Speakers

Christina Wille is Director and founding member of Insecurity Insight, an organisation dedicated to improving and supporting data collection on violence and its consequences for the humanitarian and development agenda. The Aid in Danger project covers aid security, attacks on healthcare, education, food security, refugees, and sexual violence. The project uses innovative measures to monitor open sources and works with a wide range of network partner to collate relevant information and supports global coalitions. Christina is a member of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) Steering Committee, an editor of the annual SHCC report, a Consortium Member of the Researching the Impact of Attacks on Healthcare (RIAH) Project, a Board Member of the Humanitarian to Humanitarian Network (H2H), and she serves as advisor to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA).

Shahid Sadiq, the IRC Nigeria Humanitarian Access Safety and Security Coordinator,is a seasoned humanitarian security management professional, who has vast experience of supporting communities in conflict zones in Africa and Asia. Aside being an advisor to the country security management team, he has been involved in critical incident management, staff awareness and also facilitated safety and security trainings for staff. He has supported Oxfam, Mercy Corps and currently working with IRC supporting northeast Nigeria humanitarian response for several years now. In this role, he works collaborates closely with IRC partners to ensure safe programme delivery throughout the northeast.

Leonie Taxis the Health and Protection Data Specialist with the IRC Violence Prevention and Response Team. In her role, Leonie supports IRC engagement in activities to reduce violence against health systems, staff, and patients, and works closely together with health, protection, security, and advocacy teams around the world to document such violence and advocate for change. Leonie is based in México and joined IRC more than year ago, after working for almost 10 years in emergency response with UNHCR and ACAPS.