Sahel Monitoring

Supporting organisations with sentiment analysis towards the humanitarian space and information on violent incidents affecting aid operations, civilians, education, healthcare, refugees and IDPs in the Sahel region to ensure staff safety and better responses.

Security Risk Management

Aid agency security risk management refers to the processes, policies, and practices that organizations in the humanitarian and development sectors use to protect their personnel, assets, and operations while delivering aid in often volatile and dangerous environments. It is essential for ensuring the safety of staff and enabling organizations to maintain operations in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, or other crises.

Insecurity Insight supports aid agency security risk management by providing guidance on security incident information management (SIIM), guidance on security risk management for the health sector and data and information on aid sectors.

SIIM

Security information incident management (SIIM) is the process of collecting and using information about safety- and security-related incidents that affect aid organisations to ensure staff safety and access to beneficiaries. This website provides detailed guidance on SIIM.

SR4H

Health care provision has unique characteristics that shape its specific exposure to security risks in conflict zones. The Security Risk Management for Health Care (SR4H) Handbook provides guidance on how to implement a range of actions intended to promote respectful and violence-free environments and prepares organisations to respond to violent incidents.

SR4H Handbook

Social Media Sentiment

Insecurity Insight’s Social Media Monitoring (SMM) for the Sahel focuses on tracking public sentiment towards the humanitarian sector. Using a curated set of keywords related to both international and local aid organizations, along with proprietary AI technology, it analyzes social media posts while also tracking the geographic origins of content through IP addresses. The technology also enables filtering by engagement levels (the number of users interacting with a post) and estimated reach (the number of users likely exposed to the content). Social media sentiment analysis provides a quantitative snapshot of public opinions and beliefs held by civilians or beneficiaries in specific humanitarian or conflict zones.

This data provides local aid agencies with: 

– critical insights into how their programs and teams are perceived on social media

– recommendations for effective communication strategies based on community sentiment.

Social Media Monitoring (FR)

Food Security / AA

Anticipatory action (AA) involves “acting ahead of predicted hazardous events to prevent or reduce acute humanitarian impacts before they fully unfold.” Building on its conflict and hunger project, Insecurity Insight has developed a series of anticipatory action mindset briefings focussed on five regions of Mali. These aim to improve understandings of the likely impact of food-related violence (e.g. shootings at markets, the burning of granaries) on food security and support key stakeholders in taking anticipatory actions to mitigate the worst effects of the foreseeable impacts of the violence. Further information on Insecurity Insight’s work on anticipatory action and conflict is available here. 

Food Security / AA

Health Care

Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on health care in the Sahel where the killing and kidnapping of health workers remain a concern. According to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) in 2023, at least 49 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care were identified in Burkina Faso, 18 in Niger and 41 in Mali. Non-state armed groups active in the region, including JNIM, have been identified as key perpetrators of these attacks. The looting and destruction of health supplies, including medicines and equipment, has also impacted the delivery of essential health services. This briefing outlines strategies to address this concern and is available in EN and FR.

Health Care

Education

Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on education in the Sahel where arson attacks on schools by armed groups have been a major concern in recent years. This briefing – available in EN and FR – provides analysis of arson attacks on schools in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali and guidance for aid agencies regarding security risk management. This infographic shows the location of reported arson attacks on schools in West Africa between 2018 and 2023.

Mobile Guides

SIIM for staff

SIIM for staff

This 10-minute guide explains why it is important for staff to report safety and security incidents in their organisations, key steps to take during the incident reporting process, and reporting do’s and don’ts. The PDF can be accessed here and, for those registered with Disaster Ready, the mobile guide can be accessed here.

SIIM for organisations

SIIM for organisations

This 10-minute guide explains how relief and development organisations can effectively manage safety and security incident information. It is based on the security information incident management (SIIM) handbook. The PDF can be accessed here and, for those registered with Disaster Ready, the mobile guide can be accessed here.