Pilgrims wins contract to safeguard IESC staff
IESC, a not-for-profit, private economic development organisation, works with other agencies, governments and businesses to promote stability and economic growth in the country.
Pilgrims will be working with IESC to risk assess and help plan the movements of IESC staff within the country and assess risks to their on and off-duty locations. The company will also train and oversee members of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) assigned to protect them, manage logistics, including vehicles and drivers and train IESC staff on safety drills.
In Afghanistan, IESC operates the Assistance in Building Afghanistan by Developing Enterprises (ABADE) project, under a cooperative agreement from the US Agency for International Development. Pilgrims is required to work flexibly to meet the often unpredictable needs of both the client and its project.
“ABADE works with private enterprises which submit requests to the programme for assistance,” said Peter Kaye, director of business development at Pilgrims. “They are served on a first-come-first-served basis, so advance planning for where ABADE staff will work is not possible. We therefore get short notice to assess and clear locations for site visits and to plan travel.”
Kaye says the recommendation of a satisfied client played a factor in Pilgrims winning the contract. “We believe IESC chose us on the basis of our good relationship with the APPF as well as our verifiable RMC license and weapons permits for expatriate risk managers,” he explains.
“Pilgrims is putting a responsive team in place that has a strong working relationship with the client to support their objectives. We have fielded a team of risk managers with extensive experience in Afghanistan who understand how to prioritise support to the client and how to develop workable solutions, allowing our client to conduct field visits and missions safely.”
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Above: Pilgrims COO David Freear (left).
“It is an honour to be working with an organisation that is clearly working hard to bring long term stability and prosperity to Afghanistan,” said Pilgrims managing director, Bill Freear. “The whole team at Pilgrims feels privileged to be playing their role in that process.”
Pilgrims Group is a global risk management and security organisation with expert teams working around the clock to ensure the safety and continuity of its clients’ businesses and employees wherever they are required to operate. From the UK and USA to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Nigeria, Pilgrims teams work across all sectors, in particular government, non-government organisations (NGOs), oil and gas, finance, telecoms, media, construction and infrastructure businesses and pharmaceutical.
The team is currently working with numerous NGOs to help these organisations evaluate and manage risk to enable them to continue their work to bring stability and peace to areas of unrest.
