Hostile Environment Awareness Trainings – Human Development Forum Foundation

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The Human Development Forum Foundation (HDFF) offers a wide variety of courses that cannot be entirely reflected in this catalog. Therefore, the following course outlines are given to develop training ideas for interested organizations.

HDFF specializes in tailor-made training programs. Examples of previous successful training participants range from the Bangladesh Ministry of Education to a Business Continuity Planning for an Indonesian Telecom corporation and several
Afghan ministries.

HDFF invites all organizations to submit their training and capacity-building needs, so we can jointly develop project and training ideas suitable for your organization. We also provide training outside ASEAN, e.g. in Nepal and Madagascar.

HEAT for (I)NGO, Government, UN organizations and Corporate

Improve your organization’s “Duty of Care” profile through Stay Safe Training

Around the world, humanitarian workers and organizations’ personnel run an ever-greater risk of becoming victims of conflict and violence. It is therefore essential to improve organizations’ understanding of the riskiness of humanitarian
work. Annually, several hundred victims of attacks, and many more encounter life-threatening situations. These include road traffic accidents, ambushes, kidnapping, war/conflict-like zones as well as natural or man-made disasters,
active shooters, terrorism, or petty theft. Based on international practice and jurisprudence
“Duty of Care” is a key obligation for organizations, and includes the need for organizations to provide training to reduce the risk level for humanitarian personnel.

Against this backdrop, HDFF continues to develop up-to-date HEAT courses. Since 2011 these have been successfully conducted with participants working across the globe, from Ghana in West Africa, to Iraq in the Middle East, to
Afghanistan in South Asia, to Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, and Japan in East Asia. HDFF currently offers several types of Hostile Environment Awareness Trainings aiming:

To increase the understanding of proactive security attitudes and related mitigation measures,
To enhance the resilience of personnel when working in hazardous environments,
To provide personnel with basic tools and techniques needed to avoid or handle adequately endangering or potentially dangerous situations, thus improving the general safety and security awareness for (I)NGOs, Governmental and UN
agencies, media, international civilians, and corporations.
To increase the respective organizational “Duty of Care” profile as recommended by insurance and foreign services advisories.

All HEAT courses are certified by the Asian Institute for Technology (AIT) with a three-year internationally valid certificate.

HEAT.1. Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) – Advanced (4.5 days)

HDFF’s Flagship “Hostile Environment Awareness Training (Advanced)” is an advanced safety training built to address the needs of implementing personnel from (I)NGOs, media, governmental and UN agencies, international civilians, and corporations. It is intended for individuals working, based, or traveling in high-risk “Red Countries,” or high-risk areas within medium-risk countries (as classified by insurance and foreign service advisories).

This HEAT training aims to improve participants’ security awareness and handling of potentially dangerous situations in hostile environments while following relevant and appropriate international regulations. Since this is a core responsibility for employers, this training will also help enhance the organization’s “Duty of Care” profile. The HEAT (Advanced) training will be led by experienced and culturally sensitive trainers, ensuring the highest level of safety for all participants. This is an engaging, scenario-based training that includes three days focused on immersive, field-based role-playing exercises. The training will be led by experienced and culturally sensitive trainers, ensuring the safety of all participants.

The only Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) certified HEAT training in Asia.

Objectives:

To increase the understanding of proactive security and basic field measures taken before, during, and after a mission in hostile field environments.
To enhance the resilience of personnel in hazardous environments by knowing how to manage dangerous situations and related stress, e.g. checkpoint behavior, ambush/active shooter, hostile crowds, IED, weapons effects, kidnapping, rescue by force, First Aid, and fire fighting in the field.
To make decisions effectively as a team leader and function as a supportive team member in hostile environments and stressful situations, and gain a working knowledge of PTSD, Moral Injury (MI), and Psychological First Aid (PFA).

Date: 17-21 February 2025
26-30 May 2025
01-05 September 2025
01-05 December 2025

Location: Hua Hin, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price     $3,485 USD
Early Bird $3,095 USD

HEAT DEPLOYMENT TRAINING

HEAT.2. Urban Survival for “Yellow/Green Country Deployment” (2.5 days)

HDFF’s Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) Urban Survival is a basic safety training designed for implementing personnel, short-term mission/business travelers, and management staff from (I)NGOs, media, governmental and UN organizations, and corporations. It addresses the safety needs of individuals based in or traveling to “Yellow or Green Countries,” which are considered medium or low-risk areas as classified by insurance and foreign service advisories. The training equips participants with essential skills to navigate such environments safely and effectively, ensuring preparedness for a range of potential risks. The training aims to increase participants’ safety and security awareness, as well as related “urban jungle survival” skills in hostile travel and/or urban working environments.

The training is useful for all personnel with field operations or intensive business travel. The “HEAT Urban Survival” training will be conducted by experienced and culturally sensitive trainers. It is highly participatory and primarily scenario-based.

Objectives:

To develop an urban environment survival mindset that increases proactive and reactive response capabilities in unknown or turned-hostile travel and urban work environments.
To develop ideas in coping with dangers on the move in urban vicinities and the related stress levels, e.g. situational awareness including theft, fraud, dealing with scams, journey planning, and management, hotel accommodation security, dealing with aggression and violent crime including “Blitz Abduction”, stress management, active self-defense incl. gender-based security, active shooter, evacuation, and firefighting.
To understand and utilize practical tips to protect yourself while traveling in urban working environments.

Date: 15-17 October 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price    $1,300 USD
Early Bird       $1,100 USD

HEAT.3. HEAT Field Travel Survival for “Yellow/Green Country Deployment” (3 days)

HDFF’s Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) Field Travel Survival is a basic safety training designed primarily for humanitarian workers and short-term mission travelers from (I)NGOs, governmental and UN organizations, as well as international civilians and corporate personnel. It addresses the safety needs of those working/based in, or traveling through “Yellow or Green Countries,” which are classified as medium or low-risk areas by insurance and foreign service advisories.

The training aims to increase participants’ security awareness and survival mindset in unknown environments, and for participants to be prepared if a situation turns hostile during field travel and/or field-based work. The training is led by experienced and culturally sensitive trainers, ensuring the highest level of safety for all participants. The training is highly participatory and scenario-based, with predominantly practical field simulations.

Objectives:

To enhance the resilience of personnel by developing a field survival mindset that increases proactive and responsive capabilities in unknown/hostile environments.
To develop skills for mitigating risks while on the move, such as vehicle familiarization, medical preparedness and casualty treatment, pre-travel planning and journey management, orientation (e.g. compass, maps), checkpoint behavior, handling a damaged vehicle, firefighting in the field, and evacuation.
To develop confidence in participants’ capabilities to cope with challenging situations.

Date: 22-24 July 2025

Location: Hua Hin, Thailand

Costs (includes accommodation & transport):
Regular Price        $1,995 USD
Early Bird          $1,775 USD

HEAT KEY SKILLS TRAINING

HEAT Skills.4. Fundamentals for General Public, Government, Corporate, and UN Personnel (2.5 days)

HDFF’s 2.5-day HEAT Fundamentals is a safety/security training designed for personnel from government and UN organizations, INGO, and NGO as well as corporate personnel and the general public. The training addresses the basic safety and security knowledge needed by everybody working or traveling. HEAT Fundamentals is conducted by experienced and culturally sensitive facilitators who are internationally experienced. It is a highly participatory classroom-based training, and participants are expected to engage in role-playing activities.

Objectives:

To assess risks for individuals, teams, programs, and locations.
To increase situational awareness and related risk management capabilities.
To understand safety tasks and apply skills to related personnel security while working and traveling, including situational awareness, risk avoidance, and risk mitigation.

Dates: 29-31 January 2025
4-6 June 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price    $830 USD
Early Bird      $720 USD

HEAT Skills.5. Hostage Incident Management (HIM) (2 days)

The two-day HDFF-designed HEAT “Hostage Incident Management (HIM)” aims to give participants a profound overview of hostage situations, both from the hostage and management perspectives.

This intensive training includes scenario-based management and practical components, as well as media management in hostage situations. Participants will learn through case studies based on the trainers’ practical experiences. The trainers served as hostage negotiators or Crisis Management Team (CMT) members and can share their rich experiences in the field.

Objectives:

Raise awareness for hostage prevention measures.
Highlight the importance of the “Golden Hour” from the victim’s and the management’s side.
Introduce media management in hostage incidents.
Highlight the benefits of a clear hostage incident management policy.

Date: 4-5 March 2025
15-16 September 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price  $850 USD
Early Bird       $720 USD

HEAT Skills.6. HEAT Women’s Security Training (2 days)

The two-day HDFF-designed HEAT Women’s Security Training is a gender-specific workshop that aims to enable implementing female personnel to cope with gender-based security issues. It also includes hotel security-related matters and a female-centered approach to situational awareness. Practical sessions and briefings on PTSD/MHPSS, weapons effects, and active shooter behavior are at the core of this training. This training will increase the mitigation skills of the participants who, in the practical component of the course, will gain confidence in dealing with issues such as aggression and violent crime, and learn basic self-defense techniques. This will increase the confidence of female staff members during their daily commute and work.

Remark: all shared private experiences of the participants stay private!

Objectives:

To increase the situational awareness of female staffs in commute and daily work.
To increase confidence in dealing with challenging situations and matters.
To understand how to cope with aggression and violent crime situations.
To be able to apply basic self-defense techniques in critical situations.

Date: 24-25 April 2025
19-20 November 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price   $700 USD
Early Bird   $570 USD

HEAT Skills.7. HEAT Travel Security Training (2 days)

The two-day HDFF-designed HEAT Travel Security Training aims to enable business and short-mission travelers to capitals and low-risk environments to increase their security awareness and improve their security behavior. The participants will also learn how to cope with hotel security-related matters. They will also be taught the basics of defensive driving, weapons effects, and active shooter behavior, which will increase the mitigation skills of the participants.

Objectives:

To increase the security awareness of traveling personnel while and in hotels.
To increase the consciousness related to defensive driving.
To understand how to behave in active shooter situations.

Date: 24-25 September 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price $720 USD
Early Bird $595 USD

HEAT Skills.8. HEAT Psychological First Aid (PFA) (2 days)

HDFF’s 2-day Psychological First Aid Training is an essential course that enables first responders/First Persons on the Scene (FPOS) to provide aid to psychologically challenged victims. This course addresses topics like PFA skills and techniques, PFA practical topics, and PFA as an important tool for reducing primary stress factors, which are essential skills for frontline team members deployed in the field. This classroom-based training is highly participatory, and participants are expected to engage in role-playing activities. HEAT Psychological First Aid is conducted by internationally experienced and culturally sensitive facilitators.

Objectives:

To provide an understanding of Psychological First Aid and how to apply it
To facilitate the participants’ understanding of Psychological First Aid in the context of crisis situations.
To train basic principles and skills to be able to use Psychological First Aid in challenging situations.

Date: 5-6 February 2025
30-31 October 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price $850 USD
Early Bird $735 USD

HEAT Skills.9. HEAT Negotiation Skills in Crisis (2 days)

HDFF’s two-day HEAT Negotiation Skills in Crisis training is an essential and much-needed course for the implementation of missions. This training is addressed to anyone deployed on the field and their leader. This course addresses negotiations in several contexts: while facing government officials to obtain permission papers, while negotiating for the pricing of supplies, while asking for medical assistance in challenging situations, and while in a situation where no negotiation is possible. The training is highly participatory and mostly scenario-based. It is conducted by internationally experienced and culturally sensitive facilitators.

Objectives:

To facilitate the participants’ understanding of negotiations in challenging situations
To increase the participant’s understanding of the limitations in negotiations.
To train basic principles and skills of negotiations in different settings

Date: 6-7 March 2025
17-18 September 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Cost:
Regular Price     $800 USD
Early Bird    $695 USD

HEAT.10. Customizable HEAT Skills Week (4×1 day) (medium)

The environments in which humanitarians, monitoring and development organizations, governments, and corporations operate is increasingly volatile and dangerous. As a result, there is a growing demand for specific safety and security skill-building for implementing personnel, as well as business/mission-oriented travelers.

Some security and program management are looking to pick and choose topics, while others want the opportunity to refresh their knowledge in certain areas. Experts and trainers of HDFF are aware of these specific and diverse training demands. In order to meet this need, HDFF has designed a “Customizable HEAT Skills week”, consisting of four separate “one-day events” on key safety and security issues relevant to implementing staff and travelers.

HDFF encourages you to pick and choose your own schedule based on your individual interests and needs.

Who should attend?

Every staff or business/mission-oriented traveler
Safety and security-related NGO personnel
NGO HR and administrative personnel
Interested laymen

What is included in the separate programs?

Day 1 – Leadership in Crisis: Security Risk Assessment

Are you able to conduct a basic safety and security assessment for programs and locations? In this session, you will learn to identify risks and threats to your personnel and organization. The aim is for participants to adopt basic risk assessment techniques that allow everyone to quickly and efficiently identify risks and conduct threat analysis for daily work.

Day 2 – First Aid at the Office and in the Field

This certified First Aid workshop will include the latest international guidelines & protocols for CPR & First Aid. The program contents include:

How & when to activate the local EMS (Emergency Medical Service), including “Scene Safety Assessment”.
Barrier use for layperson rescuers.
Primary assessment & recovery position.
One person rescuer Adult Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
Primary Care Skills – conscious choking skills, bleeding injury management, shock management, spinal injury management.

Additionally:

Severe Bleeding, hemorrhage control
Causes – accidents, injuries, medications and illnesses.
Symptoms – blood discharge (wounds, mouth, ears) & bruising
Management of suspected spinal cord injuries
Shock management & prevention
Treatment – Emergency First Aid for Trauma; professional consultation; reasons to consult medical professionals
What to avoid and general guidelines for the treatment of severe injuries and traumas
Environmental screening

Day 3 – Evacuation Planning and Fire Fighting

Worldwide security incidents related to political unrest are often closely connected to fire, resulting in injuries and/or loss of life for personnel. In case of political turmoil or safety incidents like big fires, do you know how to evacuate your staff? Did you ever draft an evacuation plan? For small fires, do you know how to use a fire extinguisher?

This exercise is designed to teach evacuation planning and includes a practical hands-on fire extinguisher drill.

Day 4 – Incident Management/ Incident Reporting & Communication in Crisis

Internal reporting and external communication are key elements of the general personnel’s work. But do you know how to report a safety/ security incident properly? Do you know how to make a short statement to the press in a crisis? Practical exercises and simple guidelines will help general personnel to handle these challenges appropriately.

All sessions will be facilitated by a combination of HDFF trainers, as well as key professionals in the security and humanitarian sector. Participants are welcome to attend as many sessions as they like, reflecting their own or their organization’s needs.

Cost: $240 USD / per day

Multiple booking discounts:

Book 2 days: $450 USD

Book 3 days: $595 USD

Book 4 days: $790 USD

These discounts apply to individuals booking different courses throughout the week.
The fee includes all training materials, refreshments, and lunch, as well as an HDFF certificate.

For all 4-courses attented, there will be an AIT certificate awarded.

Date: 16-19 December 2025

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

REGISTER HERE!