05 March 1998

BONN: A workshop was held in January in South Africa to enhance the security of UNVs assigned to crisis situations in the African region. Helping make it a great success were the UN Security Co-ordinator’s Office (UNSECOORD), the UN High Commission for Refugees and the UN Development Programme in South Africa. Financed by Japan, it brought together UNV Programme Officers and Managers from eleven countries and highly appreciated resource persons from the UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The workshop was designed to increase Programme Officers’ and Managers’ awareness of security-related field procedures and to enable them in turn to conduct similar training sessions for all UNV Specialists - some 700 in this region. Following sessions to develop country-specific proposals, each participant presented a plan to be discussed with their respective UN Resident Co-ordinator (the Designated Official), Security Management Team, and Field Security Officers (FSO) in order to come up with a draft proposal for UNV headquarters review and funding.

A former UNV Stress Management Specialist who had served in Rwanda led a session on this increasingly important subject for personnel at all levels in hazardous duty stations which should be built into UNV pre-assignment briefings. It was also recommended that UNV assigns stress mangement specialists at country or regional level where appropriate and provide training at the Programme Officers’ training course.

Another recommendation was that, where needed, the agreement of the Designated Official be sought to have the Programme Officer included in the Security Management Team. Also raised were such issues as delays of pouch services in crisis situations, speed of recruitment, slow response times and insufficient communi-cation between HQ and field.

The workshop also served to launch two new resource tools for all UNV specialists which were produced by UNV’s Humanitarian Relief Unit with financial support from the Government of Japan: a Handbook which focuses on security and safety awareness for UNVs, and a safety training video, "Notes from the Field". Participants recommended adding more information on HIV/AIDS, general health and hostage situations.

Given the success of the event, UNV is considering holding further such workshops for other regions.