Why is incident reporting important?
Incidents harm people and can stop work. If they are not reported, nothing is learned, the same event repeats, and staff or communities stay at risk. Late or missing reports can also breach donor duties and weaken your position in an audit or legal case.
Good reporting is fast, simple and safe for the person reporting.
Reporting culture starts with leaders. If the first report a manager receives meets anger, reports will stop. If it meets thanks and support, they will grow. Say in the induction, and again in team meetings, that early reporting is the expected behaviour and that no one is punished for reporting in good faith.
What counts as an incident?
An incident is any event that harms, or could harm, people, property, programs or your reputation. Write a short list for staff, with examples:
- Injury, illness or accident to staff or community members.
- Security events: threats, harassment, arrest, armed activity nearby.
- Loss of access to a site or population.
- Theft, fraud, loss or damage of assets, cash or goods.
- Safeguarding concerns, including sexual exploitation or abuse.
- Serious complaints about staff or partners.
- Near misses: events that could have caused harm.
Near misses are worth recording, because they show what to fix before someone is hurt.
What is the order of action?
In an emergency, people come first. Then report.
- Make safe. Move people to safety and get medical help if needed.
- Tell the focal point. Call or message the named person at once. Do not wait to complete a form.
- Write the report. Within the agreed time, for example 24 hours, complete the standard form.
- Review. A manager checks, decides on action and, where needed, escalates.
- Close. Record what was done, and what changed as a result.
Prepare before an incident happens. Give every field team a card or a message with the focal point’s number, a backup number and the first three steps. Check each quarter that the numbers still work. Practise a short drill, so staff know what to do when stress is high.
Where connection is poor, agree the fallback: a phone call, a message at a set time, or a radio check-in, with the written report entered later.
What should the report contain?
Use the same form everywhere. Record:
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Date, time, place | Be exact where you can |
| What happened | Facts only, in order |
| Who was involved | Roles; limit names where privacy needs it |
| Immediate action | What was done and by whom |
| Injuries or losses | What and how severe |
| Needs | Support, supplies, decisions needed |
| Reported by | Name, role, contact |
Describe what you saw and heard. Leave out guesses about motive or fault. If you must give an opinion, mark it.
Keep the form short. A form that takes an hour will be skipped or filled in badly. Put the few key fields first, and allow extra detail in a free text box. Train staff with examples of good and weak entries, such as “A man threatened the driver” against “At 14:30 near the market, a man shouted at the driver and struck the vehicle with a stick; no injury; driver left the area”. The second helps a manager decide what to do.
How do you protect privacy?
Some reports are sensitive: safeguarding, sexual abuse, threats against named people. Limit who can read them to those who need to act. Do not share names of survivors or reporters in group messages or wide reports. Never ask a survivor to repeat the story to many people. Use your safeguarding focal point and your policy.
Our article on safeguarding and PSEA basics explains the extra care these cases need.
How do you follow up?
Each incident needs an owner, an action and a closing note. Review all incidents monthly, to look for patterns, such as the same road, the same site or the same type of event. Share lessons with all sites, without names.
Check donor agreements and local law for duties to report certain events; they differ by place.
Do not forget the people involved. Check on injured or shaken staff, and offer support. Tell the person who reported what happened as a result, within what you can share, since a reporter who hears nothing may stop reporting. Where a case needs an investigation, use your written policy, and keep the process separate from the line manager if there is any conflict.
Where EMPOBase fits
In EMPOBase, Field reporting includes Incident reports, so field teams use one form and managers see reports in one place. A separate Safeguarding & PSEA area holds reporting channels and a focal point. Field reporting is online only, so teams in places with no connection need a fallback, such as a phone call to the focal point, with the report entered later. See the field-to-results workflow for how field reports fit into the wider chain.