Professionalising the Humanitarian Sector: A scoping study

This is a scoping study commissioned to consider how a framework for the professionalisation of humanitarian staff would establish a recognised baseline for humanitarian work that is accepted across the sector.

In a sector where consistent humanitarian occupational standards do not exist, several NGOs, INGOs, learning providers and universities have unilaterally moved, over the years, to address the learning and capacity building needs of workers based on their particular interpretations of identified needs. This has led to an ad hoc training offering, with gaps in provision and a lack of pathways and progression routes for the sector, both for those wishing to enter the sector and those wishing to develop professionally within the sector.

With an identified lack of entry and mid-level qualifications, often the only qualifications available to humanitarian workers in developing countries are expensive master’s degrees in a range of non-humanitarian subjects such as business, the environment, geography and human resources amongst others. This has had and continues to have implications for the adherence of humanitarian principles and ethics within organisations and raises the issue of equity of access for those staff not able to access higher education.

For those master’s degrees on offer in humanitarian work around the world, there is no agreed core curriculum, leading to a variety of interpretations of what is essential humanitarian knowledge, and only a proportion of these programmes offer practical internships and secondments. This can lead to recruitment difficulties with agencies’ recruiters having little understanding of the knowledge and skills with which these graduates present themselves.

Following a decade in which the humanitarian sector has sought to develop global standards, codes and representative bodies, there is growing momentum to explore the potential for creating a unified system of professional development, accreditation and association, which could increase accountability, raise the quality and consistency of humanitarian service, open up the profession to talented new recruits, and raise the status of the humanitarian service provider to a level on a par with other professional groups. This also prepares for the forecasted increases in natural and complex disasters where large swathes of civil society in many countries will necessarily be involved in relief work.

In carrying out this task we have received feedback from over 1,500 people through the use of online surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews within the aid community. We have also conducted an extensive review of the existing academic and grey literature as well as a review of the history of attempts to professionalise and standardise humanitarian work.

The study reviews the nature of professionalism today and how this relates to the humanitarian endeavour. We explore the role that certification can play in enhancing standards of professionalism. With the overwhelming backing of over 90% of respondents wishing to see professionalisation a reality in the sector, we also propose that a system of certification be developed to be applied at the international level but that is capable of being applied nationally.

Alongside systems of certification we describe what we believe is the most critical need; the
establishment of a true international professional association for humanitarian workers and the necessary supportive academic and training infrastructure. In all, thirteen key recommendations (see pp. 87-77) have been made with the aim of:

• Creating professional pathways and progression routes into the humanitarian sector
• Adopting core humanitarian competencies for professional development
• Ensuring coherence of core content within humanitarian master’s degree programmes
• Addressing the lack of entry and mid-level qualifications
• Addressing inequity of access to qualifications in Southern countries
• Formalising occupational standards for humanitarian work
• Quality marking of learning and development providers
• Developing a system of certification for humanitarian qualifications
• Creating international relationships for the promotion of global standards

The establishment of the proposed systems would benefit not just the individual professionals but also the beneficiaries of aid programmes, humanitarian employers, host governments and the donor community.