Risk Management for Humanitarian and Development

Mark Deasy

Who We Are

Mark Deasy is an experienced Field Security Advisor and Risk Manager with a track record of providing cost effective security risk management support to humanitarian and development organisations in complex environments.
After 15 years of service in the Australian army, Mark left in 2003 as a Major (Artillery), completed his Masters in International Development from Deakin University (Australia), and committed himself to the field of International Development and Humanitarian work. Since then he has worked in a range of contexts; including Darfur (Sudan), South Sudan, Afghanistan, Thailand, India, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Northern Nigeria and Australia. He has worked as a Trainer for RedR Australia, and incorporated a training component into pretty much all of his roles.
If Mark is not available, then another consultant can be sourced to suit your needs.

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Where We Work

Anywhere you are. We have on the ground experience in Africa (Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia, Somaliland and Kenya), SE Asia (Timor Leste, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia), South and Central Asia (India and Afghanistan) and the Middle East (Lebanon, Turkey – Syrian refugee response) and the Pacific (Papua New Guinea).
However, we have the capacity to hit the ground running within days of initial contact, anywhere in the world – visas permitting!

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What We Do

We provide management support for overstretched and under resourced management teams implementing complex projects in difficult, hazardous environments. We review existing security risk management arrangements, assess the operating context, benchmark with similar organisations (where possible) and provide advice on what needs to be implemented, in priority order. We can also detach someone to your office to assist with the implementation.
We are also experienced in conducting workshops, the purpose of which is to draw upon the experience of your key staff in the Threat and Risk Assessment process, while at the same time ensuring organisational-wide ‘buy-in’ to whatever mitigation measures are recommended and decided upon by management.
It is a time consuming process sourcing the right people for any role, and often the most challenging one is the full-time, expat, in-house Security Manager/Risk Management Advisor. RM4HD can assist with locating such a person, provide a list of CV’s suitable for interview, or detach an individual into your office on a short term contractual basis to cover bases while the recruitment process is underway for the full-time solution.

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Why We Do It

RM4HD is motivated to ensure the technical experts in the field delivering either humanitarian relief programming or technical cooperation projects, base their management decisions on the clearest and most comprehensive Risk Assessment process in the market today. Staff safety is not only essential to success – it is a moral and ethical imperative of management to ensure staff are looked after.

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How We Do It

To better understand how we can provide you the most tailored, useful services as efficiently as possible, we will commence an email exchange/Skype call process that will confirm:

- Organisational Mission, Mandate and Values,
- Any specific, measurable Objectives that must be achieved by the organisation,
- Brief over view of organisational profile – the nature and scope (both thematic and geographic) of project work,
- Recent history off incidents impacting on Project delivery, with particular reference to staff safety, and
- Various administrative details depending on the context.

Once in your office, the consultant will be looking to visit as many Project sites as possible/relevant, interview key staff, and conduct a one day Threat and Risk Management Workshop.

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Mission Statement

To deliver timely, cost effective and evidence based Risk Management support for Humanitarian and Development programmes anywhere in the world.

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Question Everything, Assume Nothing

RM4HD operates according to the QUEAN principle – “Question Everything and Assume Nothing”. When the RM4HD consultant is in your office or project locations, s/he will be conducting interviews, workshops in which nothing will be ‘out of bounds’. It is often the case that an appropriately curious external set of eyes will ‘see’ things that staff deep inside the context have either internalised or not rated as important. It is these things that often result in a haemorrhaging of capability and efficiency.