Field Training. SAIT Instructor assists trainee during the Emergency Medical Field Exercise.

With the continuing rise in number of armed attacks, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and kidnappings currently ongoing in Iraq, the UN Agencies and implementing partner’s need for the mandatory joint IOM-UNDSS Security Awareness Induction Training (SAIT), remains as vital as it was when first established in February 2004.

Over the past 30 months over 1,000 staff passed through the training and gone on to operate in Iraq, and indeed other volatile parts of the world better equipped to deal with the ever changing security threats that these missions pose.

SAIT has proven to better equip all staff with Basic security requirements for operating in Iraq. The four day training course covers a range of subjects including convoy and travel procedures, communications procedures, IED, mine and ambush awareness and avoidance, medical evaluation procedures, hostage survival, hijacking and incident management. The course culminates with a practical field exercise in which the students are put through a number of likely scenarios. Only staff who pass the course are permitted to travel and work in Iraq.

Over the past 12 months SAIT has implemented further one and two day courses to further enhance staff safety such as: Serious Incident Control, Communications, Office Security, Surveillance Detection, Navigation and Driving Induction Training. This training is open to all UN staff and is designed to be globally specific as oppose to Iraq specific.

The SAIT training team continually strives to compile and deliver security driven material to ensure safety for all UN and implementing partners working in insecure environments globally.

SAIT has been supported by:
ECHO, and UNAMI