Tom, 

This is an interesting, but very sensitive, topic. I expect you'd get more
insight from discussions (probably off record) with PVO and IO personnel
than from a list request. You should not  forget the US Peace Corps'
"Crisis Corps", the UN Volunteers and the German Development Service
("DED"), and Technical Assistance Volunteers ("THW", like civil defence
volunteers) which are not really PVOs, but often are treated as such in the
field and have been active in humanitarian assistance.

I know of one large international organization that relies on volunteers
realized that personnel who went to Rwanda during the genocide were
unprepared, leading to the creation of programs to provide pre-departure
training and post-event support (The latter is rare for volunteers or
professional/paid staff ). One outfit which has been fairly open about
their efforts to prepare "volunteers" for operations in dangerous places is
the Intl. Com. Red Cross, although whether their personnel are volunteers
or professionals can be debated.

One lead is Interaction (a body representing PVOs active in international
assistance), which I think is running a project on security training for
PVO staff. A second lead is the material published by RRN (Relief and
Rehabilitation Network) in their "best practices" series. A third is RedR,
which does training for relief workers (mostly in the UK, but also are
providing security training at a number of locations). A fourth is
Interworks ([log in to unmask]), a company which has done a lot of work
on training for IOs and PVOs. Of course, the Sphere and "Humanitarian
Ombudsman" (if i have the name right) projects address in part the issue of
volunteers and humanitarian assistance. You might start from ReliefWeb,
looking at resources and training, which should generate links to
Interaction, RedR, RRN and the two projects and other sources, as well as a
list of PVOs/NGOs to contact.

A more basic question is whether one can insist that volunteers have a
minimum level of training and skill (in security-related areas or others)
before they become involved in a disaster operation. There is no authority
which can keep volunteers away from a disaster, and some PVOs rely heavily
on volunteers, rather than professional (paid) staff, to run large elements
of relief programs. 

Even when PVOs provide "professional" security advisors to support
volunteers, the methods, personal skills and competencies of these
personnel can vary widely, even when they come from the same organization.
A bad advisor can be worse than no advisor. Looking at the use of security
advisors by PVOs would be an interesting and important sub-element of your
research, since they are key (and life-assuring) if the volunteer, or paid
staff, lack background in dealing with safety and security.

At least in western society, the aura of an altruistic volunteer outweighs
a more cold hearted judgement of documented skills and capacities, often
reinforced by volunteers being more flexible than (salaried) professionals,
and sometimes more competent at the eclectic tasks involved in disaster
relief (Volunteers are also cheap, but that is another topic). 

Any effort to "professionalize" volunteers, e.g., require training or rate
competencies, could present a serious constraint to PVOs which rely on
volunteers to run operations, and would probably be strongly resisted.
There is, however, some basic agreement on competencies when using
volunteers: almost any volunteer can end up running a refugee camp, while
only volunteer doctors end up doing surgery (I hope).

As an interesting aside, you might ask Ambassador Holbrooke's views on the
topic. I think he did some volunteer work in Bosnia at one point and
certainly has been in some "front line" situations where relief worker
safety was an issue. 

Good luck, 
C. Kelly


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%