Professionalisation: the next steps

ELRHA has been addressing the professional development needs of humanitarian workers for the past 18 months through a scoping study, International Forum and championing of the initiative to over 1,500 stakeholders around the globe. We have identified the major problems stopping the flow of trained people in the sector and have also received overwhelming enthusiasm and support from 90% of people it consulted on the issue of professionalisation of individuals in the humanitarian sector.

ELRHA’s next objective is to transform the way the sector responds to professional development of its staff through the creation of a global platform for consultation and coordination on the development of an international framework for professional development. The platform involves a series of consultative “regional hubs” (see diagram) that will ensure that the needs, opinions and opportunities in each region are identified and included.

During this process we will enlist the support of key stakeholders around the globe to ensure the best of what exists is built upon rather than replaced, and that this is done in a coherent and planned way. The regional hubs will lead on collating and mapping training and professional recognition frameworks already being utilised in their regions and will ensure that the activities and core outputs of this programme are aligned with key regional initiatives.

To date, four regional hubs have so far been created; the European hub and the UK hub (a sub hub of the European group) were launched in March, the North America hub is launching at the World Conference on Humanitarian Studies this week, and the East Africa hub will launch on the 9th of June. ELRHA hopes to continue this work by launching further regional hubs in the future.

ELRHA also intends to launch an online platform which will enable the wider humanitarian community to engage in the conversations and stay informed of the progress. A consultative survey will be shared through the ELRHA website and stakeholder community this summer.

For more information please email info@elrha.org.