Now Available−Recording of the second session of the ICVA & PHAP Learning Stream on Risk Management

Access the video and audio recordings of the webinar on balancing risk appetite and risk tolerance. 

On 8 September, PHAP together with International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) organized the second event of the Learning Stream on Risk Management in Practice aimed at exploring the current state of risk management in the humanitarian sector. This particular webinar focused on the twin concepts of risk tolerance and risk appetite. Following an introductory briefing on these concepts, we discussed with a panel of experts the practical challenges in identifying risk appetite and tolerance for NGOs. 

The session began with ICVA’s Head of Humanitarian Finance, Jeremy Rempel who provided an introductory overview of the definitions of risk appetite and risk tolerance, while providing the difference between risk management versus risk tolerance. Risk appetite is the willingness or desire to take on risk. While this can (and should) vary between organisations, risk appetite in the humanitarian community is generally high due to the inherently high-risk contexts in which humanitarian operations take place. If risk appetite is the willingness to take on risk, risk tolerance is the ability to do so.

Participants then had the opportunity to hear from Oscar Keeble, Senior Enterprise Risk Management Officer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He briefed participants on the history of risk management in the UNHCR, and the need of formalizing risk appetite while remaining cognizant of the risk of introducing risk appetite into a humanitarian organization’s operations.  

Robert Nelson, the Director on Enterprise Risk Management and Compliance with World Vision International followed thereafter with his presentation on how World Vision International developed a risk appetite statement in practice. This was coupled with an examination of how the organization also identifies risk tolerance and its relationship to risk appetite, emphasizing the importance of balancing the twin concepts. 

This event followed the first session in the series that looked at security risk management and duty of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you missed the event, you can now access video recordings and audio podcasts versions of the session on the event page. For increased accessibility, the YouTube version has captions in English.