Why smaller NGOs and universities deserve travel risk management built for them

A Q&A with Patience Ogunruku, Business Development Manager EMEA, World Travel Protection

Most travel risk support has been built for big corporates with big budgets. NGOs, charities and universities have often been left to fit in around the edges even though their people are frequently the ones going to the high risk countries. I’ve spent a lot of time having that conversation, and I wanted to share where I’ve landed on it.

Q1. What problem did you keep seeing that made you feel, “Someone has to fix this for smaller organisations and NGOs”?

When we speak with smaller organisations and NGOs, we hear the same thing again and again. When they hear us talk about a Travel Risk Management (TRM) programme, most of them don’t feel their organisation is big enough for this kind of programme, because it sounds and feels built for large corporates with huge budgets.

And I understand why they feel that way, much of the travel risk management space has traditionally been aimed at enterprise-level programmes: dedicated security teams with GSOC, complex reporting structures, and expensive platforms.

But the reality is, some of the organisations travelling into the most challenging environments are actually the smaller ones – NGOs, research teams, volunteers, and universities doing fieldwork. They still have a duty of care. That gap really stayed with me. I kept thinking, these organisations shouldn’t be the ones with the least support.

Q2. Can you share a moment or case that really crystallised why better travel risk management is non-negotiable for these organisations?

I have a lot of real-life stories to share. A couple of years ago, my son went on a school trip to the Lake District. By day two, half the kids were sick. By day four, a teacher was unwell as well, and the trip had to be cut short. One of the parents called the hostel afterward and discovered that the same outbreak had happened the week before with a different group. A simple pre-trip assessment would have caught this. When providing a pre-travel assessment, it shouldn’t be generic or based on a template used for everyone. It needs to be bespoke to the individuals, the trip, the group, and the destination. That experience stuck with me, because the principle is the same whether you’re sending young student to the Lake District or staff into Mozambique. You do the homework, and with an organisation like ours, we help you source all relevant risk assessments for your trip or assignment.

Q3. How does your own background in TRM shape the way you’ve designed this service?

My focus across EMEA at World Travel Protection (WTP) has been to ensure all organisations, regardless of their size, have access to a Travel Risk Management programme. When I’m helping to put a programme together, I always start by asking: Who is travelling? Where are they going? What are they actually doing? The answers to these three questions shape everything about what they need. This tailored approach ensures our service is both relevant and effective for each client.

Q4. When you speak to smaller organisations, NGOs or universities, what do they tell you they are struggling with most around travel risk?

A few things come up over and over. They’re not always sure where to start, or what “good” even looks like. There’s rarely someone whose actual job is travel risk – it’s usually tucked into someone’s existing role on top of everything else. And it’s often fragmented: an insurance policy here, a country guide there, a WhatsApp group for emergencies, no clear picture of where everyone is. Universities have it more complex still, because they’re managing students, researchers and staff all going to different places at the same time.

Q5. What risks do you see these organisations carrying today that they often underestimate or don’t see at all?

The big one is assuming travel insurance is travel risk management. It really isn’t. Insurance pays out after something’s gone wrong; travel risk management is the work of stopping it going wrong in the first place. Another important aspect is the legal side. Duty of care now extends to volunteers, contractors, consultants, and students, not just full-time employees. And traveller wellbeing is often the quietest risk. People may return from emotionally challenging trips with no support in place. Depending on the assignment, some travellers might experience or witness life-threatening incidents yet receive little assistance afterwards.

Q6. What’s at stake for them if they continue with “good enough” or informal approaches to TRM?

Worst case, someone gets hurt and the organisation can’t show what reasonable steps it took to prevent it. This also leave an open space for donors to start asking harder questions, partners want evidence the organisation can’t produce, and the people who actually do the travelling stop trusting anyone has their back. That last one shouldn’t be underestimated. Once you lose trust, it’s very hard to win it back.

Q7. In simple, non-technical language, how would you describe what this new service makes possible for a small organisation?

It gives smaller organisations the same kind of support other biggest companies rely on: 24/7, 365 days a year access to in-house medical and security assistance by experts.

They have access to pre-travel and post-travel assessments, as well as real-time intelligence about what’s happening wherever their people are without needing to build it themselves. They get our app, our portal, our Command Centres, and our medical and security team. There’s no need to hire anyone or purchase separate software.

Q8. If you had to sum it up in one sentence, what is the core promise behind this service?

In my own words “Real travel risk management, shaped around your organisation so your people can do the work they came to do, and come home safely”.

Q9. Rather than features, what experiences do you want your clients to have when they work with you on TRM?

I want the head of operations at a small NGO to feel less alone the next time something happens at 2am. I want the international office at a university to be able to sleep when one of their students is overseas. I want trustees to be able to say “yes, we’ve got this” and mean it. And I want the traveller themselves to feel that someone properly did the work to send them out and bring them home well.

Q10. How have you designed this to feel accessible and manageable for teams that don’t have full-time travel risk people?

We carry the heavy lifting. Pre-trip briefings, alerts, location awareness, the 24/7 line, evacuation if needed, are all services provided on our side. The organisation enrols their travellers, points them to the app, and knows who to call. We’ve also made the onboarding quick and seamless, because most of the people I speak to don’t have months to roll out a programme.

Q11. What does “a fraction of the cost” really mean in practice for them, in terms of time saved, stress reduced, or incidents prevented?

It means not having a finance director on her phone at midnight trying to find a hospital. It means a programme isn’t paused because nobody knows whether it’s still safe to go. It means a small early intervention instead of a five-figure evacuation later on. It’s a modest, predictable annual cost in exchange for taking a whole category of nasty surprises off the table.

Q12. When you think about value, what matters more to you than the price tag?

Did our team pick up at 3am and get someone to the right hospital? Did our country briefing flag the protest two days before it happened? Did we get volunteers out of a difficult situation cleanly? That’s the value to me.

Q13. How do you want travellers from these organisations to feel when they step onto a plane or arrive in-country after working with you?

I want the person responsible for travel at a small NGO to sleep better knowing there’s actual support behind them if something happens overnight.

I want universities to feel confident sending students abroad because they know someone is monitoring situations properly and they have access to medical and security expertise if they need it. And I want travellers themselves to feel supported without feeling frightened. Good travel risk management shouldn’t create fear. It should create confidence and trust.

Q14. How does this service support their duty of care, not just their paperwork?

Paperwork matters. You need policies and a documented framework, ideally one that aligns with ISO 31030, and we’ll help you with that. But the real value of paperwork comes from what it enables in the real world: the pre-trip briefing that identifies a risk, the call answered at 3am, the evacuation that runs smoothly.

Q15. Can you share an example (anonymised) of an organisation you’ve helped, and what changed for them after improving their TRM?

One I can talk about openly is a faith-based organisation with volunteers in northeastern Mozambique. The situation on the ground turned and we got two of their travellers out safely. It’s a published case on the WTP blog. You can go on our website to check the full article: https://worldtravelprotection.com/travel-insights/travel-risk-management-missionary-evacuation-northeastern-mozambique/ What made it work was what they’d already put in place: enrolment in our app, intelligence flowing in advance, one number to call.

Q16. How do you see this offer complementing what the Travel Risk Academy is doing in the wider sector?

The TRA has done something the rest of the industry hasn’t really done, they’ve put proper education, community and qualifications at the heart of how this discipline grows. We bring the operational backbone, the Command Centres, the 24/7 assistance, the medical and security expertise. We support all type of travellers and our moto is that every organisation should have access to the programme regardless of their size.

Q17. What kind of organisations do you most hope will find and use this service first?

The ones who’ve been quietly worried for a while. Smaller NGOs working in fragile contexts. Universities sending researchers and students into more complex destinations. Faith-based organisations running international volunteer programmes. Foundations and think tanks doing fieldwork. Schools running residentials both domestically, including the Lake District, and abroad.” Anyone who’s sat in a meeting and said, “we need to do something about travel risk.”

Q21. If a small organisation is feeling overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start, what is the first conversation you want to have with them?

An honest one. Not a sales pitch. Just, who’s travelling, where are they going, why, and what’s already in place. The two or three things that would actually move them forward usually become obvious very quickly.

If your organisation has been wondering where to start, or whether what you’ve got in place is enough, I’d genuinely like to hear from you. You can reach me on email: Pa***************@*******************on.com or find me on LinkedIn: Patience Ogunruku | LinkedIn