The Excel sheet that cost five children their lives

Last month, a colleague shared a story that stuck with me.

A humanitarian organization was running a water and sanitation project. Engineers arrived, started digging, realized the site wasn't suitable, and moved to a different location. They left behind a large open hole.

Then the rains came.

Five children drowned in that hole.

There was no risk assessment. No system to flag the danger. No way for community members to report what they saw. The engineers were specialists in their field. Good people doing important work. They just didn't see the risk.

This is what happens when we have policies but no systems.

Here's what we see across the sector:

Organizations invest in safeguarding policies. They run trainings. Staff sign documents on their first day. And then... nothing.

When someone actually needs to report a concern, what do they find?

A Google Form. Maybe a shared email inbox that three people have access to. An Excel sheet on someone's laptop. A phone number that goes to voicemail.

We've worked with UN agencies still running legacy systems from 15 years ago. We've seen international NGOs where the safeguarding team can't access HR data, and HR can't see safeguarding reports, and neither talks to the risk management team.

Everyone has a policy. Almost nobody has a system.

A staff member witnesses something concerning. They want to report it. But:

They don't know who to contact. The focal point left six months ago and was never replaced.

They find an email address, but it goes to their direct supervisor, who is the problem.

They fill out a form, but nobody acknowledges it. They have no idea if anyone read it.

They want to stay anonymous, but the form asks for their name and department.

They report in Arabic, but the case manager only reads English.

Weeks pass. Nothing happens. They assume nobody cares.

Next time, they don't bother reporting.

The humanitarian sector just went through massive funding cuts. Organizations reduced staff by 50%, sometimes 70%. The people who understood the systems left. Institutional memory walked out the door.

At the same time, programs are scaling up in new locations with quick recruitment. New staff arrive as specialists in health, education, engineering. They know their technical field. They don't always see safeguarding risk in what they do.

And the risks are real. Not just misconduct by staff, but program design that puts people in danger. Open holes that fill with rainwater. Distribution points that force women to travel alone at night. Registration systems that expose vulnerable families.

Prevention means seeing these risks before something happens. That requires systems, not just policies.

We've been exploring partnerships with organizations that build reporting and case management platforms. Not because we want to sell software, but because we've seen what happens without it.

Good systems share a few things:

Anonymous reporting that actually works. The reporter gets a code. They can check back, receive messages, provide more information, all without revealing who they are. The organization never sees their email unless they choose to share it.

Multiple channels. Web form, phone hotline, even voice recording for people who can't write. In languages your staff and communities actually speak.

Case tracking. When someone reports, they know it was received. They can see progress. They're not shouting into a void.

Separation of roles. The person receiving the report isn't the same person investigating it. Independence is built into the workflow, not left to good intentions.

Audit trails. Who saw what, when. Who made decisions. What happened. Documentation that holds up when questions come later.

Integration. Safeguarding connects to HR, to risk management, to program quality. Because a safeguarding concern is often also a program design failure, a recruitment failure, a supervision failure. Silos don't keep anyone safe.

Yes, these systems cost money. But let's be honest about the alternative.

One serious incident, one that reaches donors or media, can cost an organization its reputation, its funding, its ability to operate. We've seen programs shut down entirely because of preventable failures.

The calculation isn't software cost versus no cost. It's software cost versus the cost of not knowing what's happening in your programs until it's too late.

For smaller organizations, entry-level systems now start around $1,000 per year. That's less than most organizations spend on a single workshop.

Safe Path International is building partnerships with platform providers so we can offer implementation support alongside the technology. Not just giving you a login, but helping you configure it for your context, train your team, and actually use it.

Because the technology is only useful if people trust it. And trust comes from how you roll it out, how you communicate, how you respond when reports come in.

We're also developing assessment tools to help organizations understand where they are now. Do you have a system? Does it work? Would staff actually use it?

More on that in the coming weeks.

Of course, systems alone don't guarantee success. We've seen organizations with advanced platforms still fail when leadership doesn't act on reports or staff don't trust the process. That's why we've covered culture, leadership, and accountability in previous newsletters. Systems work best when built on those foundations.

Three questions:

Next week: Safeguarding in Emergencies, with a practical assessment tool

Coming soon:

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Safe Path International helps organizations move from policy to practice: reporting systems, case management, risk assessments, and the training to make them work.

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