Gestion des risques de sécurité dans les partenariats

Chapter summary

A partnership is any formalised working relationship between two or more organisations to meet agreed objectives. Partnerships in the aid sector can vary in form, length, scope and degree of collaboration; they can be strategic and long-term, or project-based and short-term. They may be bilateral between two entities, or between several organisations (such as through consortia).

Partnership agreements or contracts often dictate the scope of security responsibilities falling under each individual legal entity. However, responsibilities are often unclear, and the practicalities of security risk management cooperation are not defined, resulting in wide variation in practice. The growing calls for ‘localisation’ within the aid sector have, unfortunately, not resulted in a commensurate discussion of security risk management and duty of care considerations in international–local partnership arrangements. This often means that local actors, who often face the greatest risk of experiencing a severe security incident, receive the least security support (both within their organisations and from their international partners).

Partners face several challenges and obstacles when trying to engage in mutually beneficial security risk management, including:

• Legal and ethical duty of care: Contracting organisations may be concerned that, by offering security support to their implementing partners, they might inadvertently assume legal liability for their partners’ staff. While legal responsibility can vary significantly depending on the jurisdiction and specific circumstances, these concerns may be exaggerated and may ignore the ethical implications of withholding reasonable support.
• Risk transfer: By entering into a partnership, organisations automatically transfer risk, both intentionally and unintentionally. Transferring risk to an implementing partner raises ethical duty of care considerations when there is no clear assessment that indicates that implementing partner staff are at lower risk than those of the contracting partner.
• Funding gaps: Implementing partners – especially local organisations – consistently receive insufficient, sporadic and project-based funding, which makes it difficult for them to develop the backend systems and inputs needed to manage security risks effectively.
• Communication and trust: Effective security communication in partnerships is often hindered by a lack of initial discussions, differing risk perceptions, power imbalances and fears of financial or legal repercussions, all of which require trust-building and sustained engagement to overcome.

A strategic and policy-led approach to partnerships can help organisations address these challenges. The goal is to shift from one-sided risk transfer and due diligence checks to collaborative discussions on how to ‘share risk’, directly involving security focal points and relevant programme staff from all partners. Some practical steps include:

• Before entering into a partnership
  • Define partnership goals
  • Develop clear policies around security within the partnership
  • Include security focal points in early discussions and planning
  • Assess how risk may be transferred between the organisations and develop mitigation strategies
• At the start of a partnership
  • Conduct in-depth discussions on security-related challenges and concerns (this can be guided by some key questions, such as the security needs and expectations of each partner)
  • Use the discussion to clarify how each partner can support the other on security-related issues
  • Discuss each partner’s understanding of, attitude to and tolerance of risk
• During a partnership
  • Take proactive measures to manage and improve communication between partners on security
  • When planning programmatic work, conduct joint risk assessments to inform security plans
  • Share resources, promote capacity-sharing initiatives and secure funding for security needs