Duty of care concerns the care an organisation must take for people affected by its activities. For NGOs and extractives businesses, that broad idea becomes a practical challenge when people work far from central management, across borders, and through complex partner relationships.
The applicable legal duties need a jurisdiction-specific assessment. A sound operating model also needs local knowledge: which routes remain usable, which medical facilities can help, and who can make decisions when communications are disrupted.
Distinguish the populations you support
Map employees, contractors, volunteers, visitors, and partner teams relevant to the operation. Do not assume they all have identical legal relationships, equipment, or access to support. Establish the responsibilities that apply to each group and identify any gap between organisations.
For an NGO, this may expose different arrangements for national staff, international staff, and local partners. For an extractives operator, it may expose a gap between the principal contractor's procedure and a subcontractor's actual communications equipment.
Discuss those differences openly. A shared policy is of limited use if one group cannot access the response service it describes.
Connect security planning with the work
GISF provides practical security risk-management resources for humanitarian organisations.12 These offer a useful starting point for structuring arrangements, while local assessments determine the controls needed for a particular programme.
An NGO movement plan might need to address access constraints, checkpoints, acceptance, and changing community conditions. An extractives journey may involve long transport corridors, remote camps, hazardous operations, and contractor interfaces. Similar communication workflows can support both, but they do not make the underlying risks identical.
Establish authority at country and site level
Define who can suspend an activity, approve a route change, request assistance, and escalate to regional management. Give deputies access to the information and resources needed to take over.
A central team can provide intelligence and coordination. Local teams may hold the most current information about access and feasibility. The process should make room for both, including a way to record disagreement and resolve it before a decision becomes urgent.
Test contact and response together
An alert is useful only as part of a response. Test whether the right person receives it, whether they understand the requested action, and whether somebody follows up on silence or requests for help.
- Confirm contact details and the channels each group can use.
- Plan for locations where mobile coverage is unreliable.
- Provide instructions in language recipients can understand.
- Set a clear owner and deadline for unresolved cases.
- Record when responsibility passes to another team or provider.
ReachScore™ provides a view of communications readiness within AtlasNXT.3 Treat that view as one input to preparation. It does not confirm a person's welfare or guarantee that assistance can reach a particular location.
Keep an operationally useful record
Record the risk information considered, decisions taken, communications attempted, and assistance arranged. Explain material uncertainty, including when the last known location or contact time may be out of date.
Restrict sensitive information to people who need it. After the event, review whether the response model worked for all relevant groups, including local partners and contractors. Assign improvements to named owners and retest them.
The strongest programme is one teams can actually use: clear responsibilities, workable communications, realistic support, and a habit of learning from exceptions.
Frequently asked questions
Are partner staff automatically the same as employees?
No. Legal relationships and duties differ. Clarify responsibilities and practical support arrangements rather than assuming either complete responsibility or none.
Can headquarters manage every decision?
Central coordination helps, but decisions should reflect local conditions and clearly delegated authority.
What is the priority before a new deployment?
Confirm the assessment, decision-makers, contact arrangements, and realistic assistance options for the people and locations involved.
Explore the workflow with AtlasNXT
Bring a workforce scenario to an AtlasNXT demonstration and explore how communications, incident coordination, and follow-up would fit your team. Book a demo.
References
1. GISF: Security risk management, a basic guide for smaller NGOs.
