Red Cross and Red Crescent personnel from across Asia met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 22 to 24 November 2016, to share their experiences of how to keep their teams safe when assisting and protecting people affected by conflict and violence.

On the first and second days of the meeting, the participants discussed how they use and adapt the SAF in their contexts and the concrete actions, measures and tools they use to ensure acceptance and security when responding to humanitarian needs. The second day ended on an active note with the “Safer Access Stock Exchange”, in which the participants bartered with “Henry Dunant Dollars” to buy and sell Safer Access tools such as security guidelines, safety checklists, beneficiary communication initiatives and communication policies from different countries.

During the session on Health Care in Danger (HciD), on the third and last day, the participants talked about incidents and challenges they had faced during the delivery of health care and how they had responded to them. This, combined with presentations by the ICRC’s HCiD focal points on best practices and an update on recent developments in the ICRC’s HCiD initiative, shed some new light on an area that is central to the work of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The day ended with the practical task of developing a set of follow-up HCiD actions based on the incidents and challenges raised by the participants.

All in all, the round-table reinforced the importance of perception, acceptance and security in ensuring that the Movement maintains safe access when providing health care, assistance and protection to vulnerable people.

Below are some of the participants’ views on why National Societies need the Safer Access Framework: