Munir Zakaria, Assoc CIPD, is a highly experienced HR practitioner in international humanitarian organisations, UN agencies and non-profits. He has a strong background in strategic HR leadership, organisational development and international recruitment across complex, multicultural environments. Munir specialises in crisis-response HR, organisational change and supporting operations serving displaced populations across Africa and other international settings. A certified Mental Health Champion, he promotes workplace wellbeing, mental health literacy and trauma-informed HR practices to build staff resilience and compassionate organisational cultures in high-stress humanitarian contexts.

   

Strategic HR and governance in crisis environments

Q. How do you define strategic HR when operating in fragile or conflict‑affected contexts?

Strategic HR in fragile contexts means being the bridge between organisational mission and human capability under extraordinary circumstances. Through my 20+ years in conflict-affected environments, from Darfur to the current Sudan crisis, I define strategic HR as maintaining operational continuity while protecting our most valuable asset: our people.

During my tenure supporting Darfur operations under challenging security conditions, I learned that strategic HR isn't about perfect processes — it's about creating resilient systems that flex without breaking and maintaining human dignity even when institutional structures are under siege.

Q. What principles guide your decision‑making when balancing compliance, agility, and staff wellbeing?

Four core principles guide my approach:

  1. People first, always.This has meant finding creative solutions eg rotational staffing, remote processing of entitlements, and proactive mental health support, that kept both compliance and care intact.
  2. Informed flexibility. Compliance frameworks exist for good reason, but rigidity kills in crisis environments. My approach is to know the rules deeply enough to understand which are immutable and which have legitimate flexibility.
  3. Transparent trade-offs. I believe in making the invisible visible. When decisions involve competing priorities, such as rapid deployment versus thorough vetting, I document the reasoning, consult stakeholders, and ensure everyone understands what we're optimising for and what risks we're accepting.
  4. Sustainable solutions over quick fixes. My work streamlining recruitment tracking across multiple field offices in Sudan wasn't about speed alone — it was about building systems that would continue functioning when I wasn't in the room, when security deteriorated, or when resources thinned. Sustainable systems protect both compliance and people over time.

Q. How do governance structures support or hinder HR effectiveness in humanitarian settings?

Governance structures support HR effectiveness in several ways: 

  • providing legitimacy: In environments where trust is fragile, governance structures demonstrate that decisions follow principles rather than personalities. This is crucial in multicultural, multi-agency settings like those I've navigated across UN missions.
  • enabling learning: Structured decision-making processes create organisational memory. The policies I helped develop at Relief International during organisational transformation weren't just rules they were captured wisdom from mistakes we didn't want to repeat.
  • balancing power: Governance prevents HR from being purely reactive to the loudest voice or most senior leader. It creates space for strategic thinking and principled pushback.
  • managing risk: Proper governance around sensitive areas such as recruitment, performance management, and medical evacuations protects both the organisation and individuals. My experience coordinating medical evacuations taught me that clear protocols aren't bureaucracy; they're lifelines during chaos.

Duty of care and staff wellbeing

Q.  What does effective duty of care look like in high‑risk environments?

Before the crisis:
  1. Risk-informed deployment: Never sending someone into a situation without a clear understanding of risks and mitigation measures. This includes security briefings, medical clearance, mental health baseline assessments, and evacuation planning.
  2. Infrastructure preparation: Ensuring medical insurance is current, evacuation protocols are tested, ‘Rest and Recovery’ (R&R) schedules are realistic, and communication systems work. In my current role managing medical insurance administration for locally recruited personnel, I've seen how preventive investment saves lives.
  3. Psychological preparation: High-risk deployment isn't just about physical danger. Helping staff understand the emotional toll of humanitarian work, eg vicarious trauma, moral injury, isolation, and providing coping resources proactively.
During operations:
  1. Responsive systems: When I coordinated maximum indemnityperiod (MIP) claims processing for Kordofan, Kosti, and field offices, speed mattered. Staff in distress can't wait weeks for reimbursement or evacuation authorisation.
  2. Regular check-ins: Duty of care isn't annual — it's ongoing. This means line managers trained in recognizing stress, peer support systems, and normalized conversations about mental health.
  3. Flexibility in application: Understanding that identical situations affect people differently; someone's third deployment to Darfur is different from their first. A staff member with family in the conflict zone has different needs than someone without local ties.
After critical incidents:
  1. Structured support: Post-incident protocols that don't just check the box but genuinely support processing and recovery. This includes professional counselling, modified duties, and time.
  2. Institutional learning: Every evacuation, every security incident, every near miss should inform systemic improvements. My work in MSRP (Management System for Resourcing and Planning) compliance and reporting includes capturing these learnings.

Q. Can you share lessons from managing medical evacuations or supporting staff through entitlements and rest and recovery (R&R)?

Several experiences stand out:

Lesson 1: Speed and compassion aren't opposites

During a complex medical evacuation from Darfur, I learned that efficiency in crisis is an act of care. The staff member didn't need my sympathy in that moment they needed decisive action, clear communication, and flawless logistics. Having pre-established relationships with medical facilities, insurance providers, and airlines meant we could focus on the person rather than building processes in crisis.

Lesson 2: Communicate, then communicate more

Evacuations create anxiety that extends beyond the individual. Their colleagues wonder if they're next. Their families need information. Leadership needs updates. I learned to establish communication protocols that balanced privacy with appropriate transparency of what gets shared, with whom, when, and by whom.

Lesson 3: The recovery doesn't end at the airport

The evacuation itself is often easier than re-integration. Whether it's medical recovery, family support, or eventually returning to duty, the continuum of care matters. I've worked with staff returning after evacuation to ensure they're welcomed back appropriately, their needs are understood, and unrealistic expectations are managed.

Lesson 4: R&R is strategy, not luxury

In managing entitlements and R&R schedules, I've seen the false economy of skipping rest. Staff who take regular, genuine R&R are more effective, make better decisions, and sustain longer. This required educating operational managers who viewed R&R as productivity loss helping them see it as productivity investment.

Lesson 5: Entitlements build trust

During my time managing comprehensive benefits and compensation administration, I discovered that consistent, transparent entitlement management builds institutional trust. When staff know their insurance works, their R&R will be honoured, and their claims will be processed fairly, they operate with less background anxiety. This isn't soft HR; it's operational resilience.

Lesson 6: Localisation of care

Working with locally recruited staff in Sudan during ongoing crisis, I've learned that duty of care can't be one-size-fits-all. International staff can evacuate; national staff often can't. This creates ethical tensions we must acknowledge and address through localised support systems, family assistance, and honest conversations about unequal risk.

HR technology and data

Q. What role does data play in improving decision‑making in volatile contexts?

Data is critical but must be used wisely: 

  • Data enables pattern recognition: During my work on recruitment analytics and tracking development, I discovered that data reveals patterns invisible to individuals. We were unconsciously recruiting from similar networks, creating geographic imbalances, or missing qualified female candidates — issues visible only through systematic analysis.
  • Data challenges assumptions: I've used workforce data to demonstrate that our 'urgent' hiring needs weren't urgent based on historical patterns, or conversely, that what seemed manageable was a crisis in formation. This shifts conversations from opinion to evidence.
  • Data supports resource advocacy: When advocating for HR budget, staff positions, or system investments, data transforms the conversation. I can demonstrate recruitment pipeline bottlenecks, cost-per-hire comparisons, or turnover impact quantitatively. This is especially powerful in resource-constrained humanitarian contexts.

My approach is 'data-informed, not data-driven' — using analytics to enhance rather than substitute for experienced professional judgement.

Leadership, capability and trust

Q. How do you build trust with staff who are working under extreme pressure?

  • Visible presence: During crisis periods in Sudan operations, I've made myself physically and virtually available. Staff need to know their HR focal point won't disappear when things get hard. This meant working during evacuations, being responsive during security incidents, and maintaining contact with field offices when others withdrew.
  • Competence: Trust grows when people see you know your domain. This meant mastering complex UN/UNHCR staff rules, staying current on policy changes, and being able to answer questions definitively or find answers quickly. My interpretation expertise during eight years with UNAMID built credibility that paid dividends in subsequent roles.
  • Follow-through: I've learned that trust is built in small promises kept. If I say I'll process your claim by Friday, it's processed by Friday. If I commit to investigating a concern, I investigate and report back. Under pressure, reliability becomes currency.
  • Transparency about limits: I build trust by being honest about what I can and can't do. 'I don't know but will find out' or 'Policy doesn't allow this, but here's what I can do' builds more trust than false promises or vague commitments.
  • Advocacy: Staff need to know HR represents them, not just management. This doesn't mean being anti-management it means being pro-people within organisational constraints. I've pushed back on unrealistic expectations, advocated for better conditions, and surfaced staff concerns to leadership sometimes at personal risk.
  • Cultural intelligence: In Sudan's multicultural environment, trust requires understanding how different cultures perceive authority, express needs, and prefer communication. Some staff will directly state problems; others won't without relationship foundation. Adapting approach while maintaining equity builds inclusive trust.
  • Shared hardship: During the pandemic and ongoing Sudan crisis, I've worked under the same constraints of power outages, security restrictions, and personal anxiety as those I support. This shared experience creates solidarity that desk-based HR roles rarely achieve.

Q. What skills do HR teams need to operate effectively in humanitarian or crisis‑driven environments?

Beyond core HR competencies, crisis HR requires specialised capabilities:

  1. Technical mastery: Deep knowledge of employment law, UN/NGO frameworks, and HR systems isn't optional—it's foundational. But this knowledge must be applied flexibly. During my Relief International tenure managing organisational transformation, technical expertise enabled creative solutions within regulatory boundaries.
  2. Emotional intelligence: Reading unspoken concerns, managing anxious stakeholders, and maintaining composure during chaos are daily requirements. My training and growing expertise in mental health literacy has proven invaluable — understanding trauma responses, recognising burnout, and providing psychologically informed support.
  3. Cultural agility: Every humanitarian context involves multiple cultures — national, organisational, professional, regional. Success requires moving fluidly between these worlds. My experience across Sudanese, Central African, and international contexts developed this capability through necessity.
  4. Operational mindset: Understanding the operational mission beyond HR transactions. When I supported Darfur operations, I learned that HR decisions directly enabled or constrained our ability to serve displaced populations. This mission connection prevents HR from becoming an end rather than a means.
  5. Crisis management: Structured decision-making under ambiguity, rapid prioritisation, and stress tolerance aren't innate they're developable. My various crisis management experiences — COVID response, security evacuations, organisational restructuring — built these muscles over time.
  6. Systems thinking: Understanding how HR interventions interact with broader organisational systems. A recruitment decision affects budget, influences team dynamics, shapes organisational culture, and signals priorities. This holistic view prevents unintended consequences.
  7. Communication excellence: Clear, timely, appropriate communication across multiple channels and audiences. During my role as National Recruitment Focal Point, I communicated simultaneously with anxious candidates, impatient hiring managers, concerned senior leadership, and external partners each requiring different messaging.
  8. Ethical grounding: Clear personal and professional values that guide decision-making when policies are ambiguous, or pressures are high. My commitment to fairness, transparency, and human dignity has anchored decisions when easier but less ethical paths were available.
  9. Learning orientation: Humility to acknowledge gaps, curiosity to explore alternatives, and discipline to capture learnings. My continuous professional development from CIPD certification to ongoing training in workplace mental health reflects my belief that yesterday's competence doesn't guarantee tomorrow's effectiveness.

Resilience: Personal sustainability practices that enable sustained performance. My commitment to fitness, yoga, and running isn't separate from my professional capability — it enables it. You can't support others' wellbeing if your own is depleted.

Looking ahead

Q. What should HR leaders, across sectors, learn from humanitarian HR practices?

Humanitarian HR offers powerful lessons for all sectors:

  • Purpose-driven resilience: Humanitarian HR operates in environments where mission clarity sustains people through extreme hardship. Every sector can benefit from connecting individual work to larger purpose. When staff understand how their contributions matter beyond the transactional, engagement and resilience increase.
  • Duty of care as strategy: The humanitarian sector has learned, often through tragedy, that duty of care isn't corporate social responsibility; it's operational necessity. Mental health support, work-life boundaries, and genuine wellbeing investment aren't 'nice to have', they're 'must have' for sustainable performance. Corporate sectors are beginning to realise this, but humanitarian HR has lived it for decades.
  • Equity under constraint: Humanitarian HR operates with limited resources, intense time pressure, and multiple competing priorities yet maintains commitment to fair, transparent processes. This demonstrates that equity isn't a luxury of abundance but a choice under any circumstance. Corporate environments with far more resources have less excuse for inequitable systems.
  • Agility within frameworks: The balance humanitarian HR strikes between policy compliance and contextual flexibility offers lessons for rapidly changing corporate environments. You can maintain standards while adapting approach, rigidity masquerading as consistency helps no one.
  • Whole-person approach: Humanitarian HR recognises that staff facing personal crisis, displacement, or trauma can't simply 'leave it at the door.' Addressing whole-person needs isn't unprofessional, it's realistic and effective. As workplaces globally face mental health crises, humanitarian HR's integrated approach to supporting staff becomes increasingly relevant.
  • Rapid learning cycles: Humanitarian contexts demand fast experimentation, quick failure recognition, and rapid adaptation. This agile approach to HR — testing, learning, iterating — offers an alternative to the slow-moving change processes common in corporate HR.

Q. How do you see the role of HR evolving in mission‑critical or high‑risk operations?

Several trends will shape the future:

  • From administrator to strategic partner: The evolution I've experienced, from HR Assistant to HR Associate to strategic committee member, reflects broader sector movement. Future HR in high-risk operations will need deep operational understanding, strategic thinking capability, and business partnership skills beyond transactional excellence.
  • Technology-enabled, human-centred: Systems like MSRP (Management System for Resourcing and Planning) demonstrate technology's power, but the future isn't choosing between digital and human, it's leveraging technology to enable better human judgment. AI might screen resumes, but evaluating someone's suitability for Darfur deployment requires human wisdom. The skill is knowing which decisions to automate and which to reserve for human judgement.
  • Duty of care expansion: As we understand trauma, mental health, and wellbeing more sophisticatedly, duty of care expectations will expand. My work in workplace mental health literacy positions me to contribute to this evolution moving from reactive support to proactive wellbeing architecture.
  • Localisation: The humanitarian sector's commitment to localisation has HR implications. We need to develop local HR leadership, adapt policies to local contexts, and address the equity tensions between international and national staff that I've witnessed firsthand.
  • Evidence-based practice: The future of HR in high-risk operations will increasingly leverage data analytics, research, and rigorous evaluation. My work on recruitment analytics reflects this direction — using evidence to inform practice rather than relying solely on experience or intuition.
  • Integrated risk management: HR's role in risk management security, reputation, compliance, operational will deepen. This requires HR professionals who understand risk frameworks, can assess trade-offs, and contribute to enterprise risk management beyond traditional HR domains.
  • Wellbeing as infrastructure: Rather than treating mental health and well-being as individual issues or support services, future HR will embed well-being into organisational infrastructure how we design jobs, structure teams, allocate work, and measure performance. My training as a wellbeing champion positions me to advocate for this transformation.
  • Ethical leadership: As humanitarian operations face increasingly complex ethical dilemmas who to serve, how to work with problematic governments, how to balance staff safety against mission HR's voice in ethical decision-making will grow. This requires HR professionals with moral courage, ethical frameworks, and willingness to raise difficult questions.