Women peacebuilders often operate in some of the world’s most dangerous contexts—yet the security support available to them is frequently fragmented, repetitive, and short-term. Recognizing the need for a fundamentally different approach, ICAN conducted a holistic security assessment of its Afghan partners, including members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL).
The result is the Holistic Security Menu: a co-designed, partner-driven model that provides practical and sustainable security support—on women peacebuilders’ own terms.
Rather than one-off trainings or generic toolkits, the Holistic Security Menu offers a coordinated suite of services that address security as an interconnected system: physical, digital, psychosocial, and organizational. Partners choose what they need, when they need it, and how deeply they engage. ICAN covers the costs and coordinates the entire process, allowing peacebuilders to focus on their work, not logistics.
A Holistic, Partner-Led Model
ICAN piloted the Holistic Security Menu from January–March 2025 with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). It is built on three core principles:
- Partner-driven: WASL partners helped design the Menu and decide how it is used. Participation is voluntary, flexible, and responsive to real needs.
- Holistic: Security is treated as more than digital safety or physical risk. It includes mental health, organizational practices, and long-term resilience.
- Sustainable: Services go beyond information-sharing to hands-on support, follow-up, and pathways for transition over time.
The Holistic Security Menu draws directly on the expertise of the WASL network itself, mobilizing gendered, context-specific knowledge from across regions.
What the Security Menu Includes
During the pilot, Afghan partners accessed a range of interconnected services, including:
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Over 70 individual and 13 group sessions in either Farsi or English.
- and group sessions provided by WASL partners Zarina Alimshoeva (in Farsi) and Rescue Me (Nancy and Maya Yammout), delivering Psychosocial First Aid for First Responders.
- Training workshops led by WASL member Neem Foundation.
- Digital Security: In-depth organizational assessments by Digital Shelter, followed by an eight-week training course, Training of Trainers, and ongoing office for additional support.
- Security Policy and Practice: Practical workshops on physical and digital security delivered by women-led teams from Afghan Witness, with resources available for continued use.
- Security Mini-Grants: Flexible stipends allowing partners to implement immediate security improvements—from VPNs to security cameras—based on their own priorities.
Following the pilot, ICAN expanded the Holistic Security Menu to include Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) workshops led by Afghan women-led organization Safety and Risk Mitigation Organization (SRMO), and a referral pathway to support those providing care themselves, working with counsellors from Afghans for Progressive Thinking (APT) to offer support in Dari, Pashto, and English. This second phase of the Security Menu has been supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Built for Sustainability
ICAN assessed every service within the Holistic Security Menu to ensure sustainability and design that moves beyond “training fatigue.” Support was delivered over time, tailored to individual and organizational needs, integrated across security dimensions, and accompanied by follow-up and transition planning.
Most importantly, the model is needs-based, grounded in partner assessments, and adapted to specific cultural, geographic, and conflict contexts—with gendered security realities at its core.
Looking Ahead
The Holistic Security Menu provides a powerful foundation for rethinking how security support is delivered to women peacebuilders. Moving forward, ICAN aims to expand the model across the entire WASL network and adapt it to other types of support needed by our partners such as income generation and self-financing skills—continuing to place trust, choice, and sustainability at the center.
