Global Safety and Security

Prioritizing the safety and security of each employee and every volunteer, intern, and partner who work on behalf of Winrock is integral to our work culture and environment. Winrock is committed to minimizing safety and security risks and ensuring our workforce is provided the information, support and training to reduce risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our work. 

Safety and security are responsibilities shared by both the Winrock workforce and the organization. Winrock operates in every country, especially higher-threat countries, under two guiding principles:

1. Our commitment to keep our workforce safe and secure.
2. Our commitment to execute projects effectively to contribute to meaningful development.

Winrock’s Global Safety and Security (GSS) department proactively addresses the security needs of our workforce and projects by: 

• Monitoring the global security and safety environment
• Providing advice and guidance to mitigate developing threats
• Responding to incidents
• Integrating security into the project life cycle, beginning with the design of each proposal

It is critical that each member of Winrock’s workforce understand and manage the health, safety, and security risks when working in some of the least-developed countries, hostile and post-conflict situations, and most remote areas in the world.

• Every employee and member of Winrock’s workforce has an obligation to learn and understand the context and security issues where they are located.  Each must adhere to all pertinent policies and plans concerning safety and security and will be accountable for their actions.
• Each employee has the right to withdraw from or refuse to take a work assignment or travel in an area due to safety and security concerns.
• Winrock has the right to suspend activities or withdraw employees from situations that it considers to be too dangerous.
• An employee does not have a right to remain in a location if they have been instructed to withdraw from it by an authorized Winrock representative.

Effective safety and security management for Winrock is a leadership function. Managers at each tier of the organization are responsible and accountable for ensuring that safety and security policies, standards, plans and procedures are well-integrated into the Winrock project life cycle.

Winrock managers have an obligation to ensure that risks to employees are identified and managed, and that employees receive the support, resources, information and training they need to reduce any risk exposure.

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