HUMANITARIAN CAPACITY BUILDING MARKET RESEARCH & INTERVIEW FINDINGS NOVEMBER 2015

Transcription

1 HUMANITARIAN CAPACITY BUILDING MARKET RESEARCH & INTERVIEW FINDINGS NOVEMBER 2015

2 Executive Summary Over the last 30 years, the number of people exposed to natural disasters has increased, and the corresponding capacity and speed of response by the humanitarian workforce has been stretched. The Humanitarian Leadership Academy asked Oliver Wyman, a global management consultancy, to conduct independent research into the humanitarian capacity building sector. The objectives of this research were to map the existing capabilities of organisations within the sector, identify areas in which provision is currently lacking and determine the needs of the sector. The Humanitarian Leadership Academy has produced this report to outline the findings arising from the research, and provide insight into the challenges facing the humanitarian capacity building sector. The overall findings revealed local responders cannot easily develop the necessary skills to lead crisis response. The findings are further supported by three primary sector needs: 1. There is no universally recognised responder pathway to guide and facilitate local capacity building The number of humanitarian field staff has increased rapidly in an attempt to respond to global crisis events (e.g. Sudan, Syria, Ebola) There is no sector agreement on the role of a humanitarian responder, and the required skills development No agreed level-based humanitarian responder pathway that is open to anyone regardless of prior experience Some competency frameworks exist. However these are high level, vaguely written, and difficult to action, partly due to an aspiration for sector acceptance To be effective, competencies require an understanding of local context and experience-based objectives this is currently not the case There is an opportunity to develop a responder pathway and competency framework, and embed this in the sector 2. Existing Learning and Development (L&D) provision is disjointed, with limited transparency over course availability and quality There is an abundance of L&D content, but it is fragmented and lacks structure Lack of visibility of local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) means International Non- Governmental Organisations (INGOs) control the majority of the funding, limiting opportunities for local development There is no recognised service for identifying, quality assuring, and signposting the pathway to existing L&D content and providers 3. Sector skill accreditation is inconsistent, impeding awareness and coordination of local humanitarians There are no widely accepted processes to accredit individuals against a humanitarian pathway, making non-university graduate hiring for NGOs difficult (including most locals) Structure and coordination of local responder communities is limited, restricting efficient use of available capacity Conclusion Overall this research reinforces the global necessity of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. The Academy is committed to responding to these identified needs of the humanitarian capacity building sector, and will use the recommendations of this report to inform its work. However, to achieve maximum impact it is imperative for the sector to collaborate and address these challenges together. Research approach There were three main components to this research. Firstly, conduct secondary market research and analysis of sector literature to identify trends and recent developments. Secondly, conduct a series of case studies of current L&D providers in the sector and map existing humanitarian capacity building activities. Lastly, conduct more than thirty interviews with principal sector stakeholders across the 2

3 capacity building and L&D development areas to discuss challenges faced, identify sector needs, and define potential solutions. The following sections will outline the three primary sector needs identified during the research, and the evidence supporting them. 3

4 1 There is no universally recognised responder pathway to guide and facilitate local capacity building The first main theme which emerged from the research is the lack of a universally recognised pathway for humanitarian responders, and supporting competency framework. Despite a large increase in the number of humanitarian workers in the field (see Figure 2), there is no sector agreement on the role of a humanitarian worker and the skills required. Existing frameworks have been designed to be high level to increase the likelihood of sector acceptance. However, this means that existing frameworks are difficult to action and do not sufficiently provide a level-based pathway structure which is open understood by all, regardless of former experience (in particular local responders). There is a need for clarity over the responder pathway, and corresponding local market skill requirements, to ensure the local humanitarian field workers can easily develop the skills they need to lead crisis response. The number of humanitarian field staff has increased to respond to recent global crisis events The number of people exposed to natural disasters has been increasing over the past few decades 1 (see Figure 1). The number of humanitarian workers in the field has also grown (see Figure 2), increasing by 75% to approximately 450,000 over the last 8 years. The majority of this rise occurred since 2010 in response to recent crises (e.g. Sudan, Syria, and Ebola). Ensuring field workers have useful and appropriate skills, and that they are used to their maximum potential is critical to successful disaster response around the globe. Figure 1: Average number of people exposed to natural disasters annually (MM) 2 Figure 2: Number of humanitarian workers 3 1 Recent figures from suggest that numbers may be lower this decade, but a direct comparison cannot be drawn at this stage 2 INFORM index for data, Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) for data 3 ALNAP SOHS Reports 2012, 2015 preview 4

5 There is no sector agreement on the role of a humanitarian responder and the skills that are required A strong message which emerged from the interviews was that a greater level of structured professionalisation of the humanitarian sector would improve local disaster response capabilities, as it would enable evaluation and deployment of local responders according to their skills. Currently there is no sector agreement or clarity on the role of a humanitarian responder and what their development pathway should be. Some high level humanitarian competency frameworks exist; however no-one has yet developed these into an actionable skill development framework which is contextualised to regional requirements. This is an opportunity for the Academy to take the lead in this area. There is no agreed level-based humanitarian responder pathway, open to anyone regardless of prior experience Enabling local humanitarians with appropriate skills to own the responses to crises that affect them is an agreed sector priority. A critical driver for this is ensuring pathways start at entry level so any local person can approach progress along it as a realistic goal, regardless of their prior experience. A second critical element is building universal recognition for sector pathways, so they are attractive to local responders as means to further their own careers, and allow individuals to transfer between locations and organisations without losing visibility over their abilities. Despite the rapid growth in people impacted globally by the humanitarian sector, there is currently no internationally-agreed framework defining what a humanitarian worker is, what standards should guide one's activities, or what the training and skills needed are A Study on the Role of Professional Networks in the Humanitarian Sector, HHI There isn t a good professional path or technical path to get people to move through organisations Founder, NGO consultancy There is no structured approach to training Director, Intra-governmental organisation The levels are important as a means for people to be able to move around the world and have their skills recognised i.e. recognised lifelong learning Manager, Competency framework Some competency frameworks exist. However these are high level, vaguely written, and difficult to action, partly due to aspiration for sector acceptance In recent years, a number of parallel initiatives aimed at building a comprehensive and widely adopted competency framework for humanitarian responders have taken place. These efforts have resulted in the development of a number of frameworks, some of which are designed for internal organisational use (for example by Human Resource departments), while others are designed for sector-wide application. The main observation reached through the research is that existing frameworks describe competencies at a high level, partly due to the aspiration for sector acceptance. A good first step has been taken to align parts of the sector to an overall set of skills required for humanitarian response (e.g. Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA) and Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA)); there is now a need to convert this into actionable training frameworks, which are contextualised to local requirements. The organisations (e.g. CBHA, NOHA) involved in the development of the existing frameworks support the view that going forward, specification is required, and that they were deliberately built open to facilitate this. 5

6 A final observation is that links between existing frameworks and level-based professional development are not clear or explicit. Individual responders need to be able to see tangible results as to how they can develop new skills to progress along the responder pathway. Competency frameworks should be based on principles of action they must be relevant and tangible to the people Head of training, L&D organisation To be effective, competencies require local contextualisation and experience-based objectives A critical part of enabling effective local response is ensuring pathways are applicable at the local level through contextualising skills, and specification experience-based objectives. We found these elements to be missing from existing frameworks. Local contextualisation is required if local governments and people are to get behind the competency frameworks Head of training, International NGO There is value to a central standardised knowledge/skills framework, but the competencies following from it then need to be contextualised to specific local situations every time it is used Head of training, International NGO There is an opportunity to develop a responder pathway and competency framework, and embed it in the sector The sector requires further elaboration and definition of a responder pathway, incorporating all of: The core set of universal humanitarian skills (applicable in all contexts) Technical skills specialisms Region specific contextualisation of competencies Experience requirements Defining and achieving sector acceptance for such a pathway will be challenging. This will require strong content expertise, project management and stakeholder convergence capabilities. However, the message from the interviews conducted was that there is a gap in the sector. We believe the Academy is well placed to push this work forward. The Academy is able to develop a framework to organise the sector, gain a supporter base, implement a partnership strategy, and generally push vision forward clearest and loudest Manager, Competency framework It is not going to happen that someone is dictated by the whole sector to do this [develop a pathway] in our lifetime. The Academy is as qualified as anyone to define a pathway Director, L&D organisation Summary of sector action required Collaboratively define a universal, level-based humanitarian responder pathway Define an actionable competency framework to support the pathway, and embed it in the sector 6

7 2 Existing L&D provision is disjointed, with limited transparency over course availability and quality This research demonstrated there is already a large of amount of L&D content available, but that existing content is highly fragmented and difficult to navigate. The result is a lack of awareness of local training organisations, services offered, and quality of these services. This has led to a replication of content being developed, and limits to funding and opportunities for local NGO involvement in L&D efforts. These ideas are explored further in the following section. There is an abundance of L&D content but it is fragmented and lacks structure A large amount of training material is currently delivered by INGOs, NGOs, universities, and by local training organisations, both online and in-person. During the past 20 years, humanitarian, academic and private sector actors have designed and launched hundreds of learning and capacity building initiatives Education in emergencies and protracted crises, Linksbridge report, July 2015 In our interviews, sector specialists stressed the urgent need for signposting and structuring of existing content, rather than new content for the sector. This will assist overall assimilation of expertise by the sector, and provide the structure required for the sector to increase transparency over what exists and provide quality assurance around this. Increased transparency is needed to reduce the current duplication of effort spent producing new content among local NGOs. There is a tremendous expansion of content on offer; the challenge is how humanitarians can navigate this expanding volume of courses Director, L&D organisation The good thing is that there is a wealth of information. The bad thing is there is so much information; no one knows what course to take Director, L&D content and research provider Incredible duplication of training content takes place, especially among small NGOs COO, NGO L&D consultancy Lack of visibility of local NGOs mean INGOs control the majority of the funding At present, the fragmentation of local NGOs, the lack of transparency into their operations and the lack of quality assurance around these mean the majority of funding and resources are controlled by INGOs (see Figure 3). Figure 3: Recipients of total humanitarian funding, 2014 (USD BN) 4 4 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2015 (p. 74) based on total funding reported to the UN OCHA FTS 7

8 This means the power and funding dynamics are currently heavily skewed towards INGOs over local NGOs, restricting local collaboration and limiting the potential for local NGO involvement in L&D interventions. The result is poor development and coordination of humanitarian resources at the local level, and inadequate contextualisation of skills taught. There is wide consensus regarding the need for localism and reliable mechanisms to transfer resources to the local level, where there is highest need for capacity building. Local NGOs can often respond more quickly and stay longer than international actors and can also draw on local knowledge, and access populations which are out of reach [to INGOs] GHA report 2015 There is no well recognised service identifying, quality assuring, and pathwaysignposting existing L&D content and providers The first step towards empowering local NGOs is to increase their visibility by organising and signposting available content and training providers. The second important element currently lacking is the quality assurance of available provision, and organisational diligence of the local NGOs themselves. This is needed to guarantee training quality, and ensure resources received by local organisations will be used effectively and in good faith. Our discussions with capacity building organisations and individuals involved in the development of existing humanitarian competency frameworks stressed the importance of this quality assurance. Finding out what s out there, doing quality assurance on it, and mapping existing provision to competency frameworks would be fantastic! Manager, Competency framework Standards bring accountability to the system Programme Coordinator, NGO QA is very important for us. When we work with our partners to develop content, the level of QA applied is a contractual agreement Region Head, Science L&D organisation However, interviewees also recognised the difficulties in establishing recognised and consistent quality assurance and diligence standards for training providers. These concerns stem from the high volume of content already in the sector, along with the need for quality assurance to occur at a regional level against local needs and context. Therefore, quality assurance providers need to both understand the regional context, and have the practical skills required to assess locally developed content (e.g. language). Summary of sector action required Conduct field-based research to identify local training operations Map existing training services to a defined humanitarian responder pathway Implement quality assurance process for training courses and diligence on providers Enhance / develop content to fill gaps in existing training provision, and support roll-out 8

9 3 Sector skill accreditation is inconsistent, impeding awareness and coordination of local humanitarians Our research identified the accreditation of skills within the humanitarian capacity building sector as an area that is currently underserved. The lack of an accepted accreditation system has widereaching consequences. It restricts the ability of professionals to track and take ownership of their career development, and it restricts the ease with which humanitarian organisations can recruit people at appropriate skill levels. A well-recognised skill accreditation system could also form the basis for a network of humanitarian responders, able to be mobilised at the local level in the event of a crisis. Initial efforts to professionalise the humanitarian sector have recognised this gap, and some topicspecific accreditation systems have been developed. The focus now should be on the consolidation of the work completed to date and the development of a system that will benefit the whole sector. There are no widely accepted processes to accredit individuals against a humanitarian pathway, making non-university graduate hiring for NGOs difficult Fragmentation of L&D provision in terms of content and geography has made it difficult to develop a single and widely accepted accreditation system for the whole humanitarian sector. As a result, a number of course or topic specific systems have emerged, but it is difficult to distinguish between these due to content inconsistencies and duplication between courses. Prominent training organisations currently use a range of metrics to measure impact and development, and an increasing number of organisations want to establish their own accreditation offering. There is an opportunity for an initiative to lead the sector in this area. Currently there are no internationally recognised standards of who was qualified to train and how training should be delivered, which would provide a key component to ensure quality Due to the lack of quality-assured training, many individuals feel that the only viable qualification route is through university programmes in order to receive proof of further education Humanitarian education and training conference, ELRHA, 2011 A dedicated, independent, international humanitarian professional association should be formed. This is critical to creation and acceptance of a widely recognised certification system Professionalising the Humanitarian Sector, a scoping study, ELRHA, 2010 There is a clear need for globally recognised standards for workplace learning and development in the sector. The push for change in humanitarian learning and development, HPN We thought about accreditation and felt it was a good idea, however budget and timeframe were an issue; this can be picked up by someone else in the future Manager, Competency framework The research has established some of the key success factors for L&D products. We found that a course s ability to gain critical mass in terms of sector adoption is related to its openness, popularity, and level of recognition by hiring managers. A strong brand and respected accreditation system is needed to achieve a strong adoption level. 9

10 The key success of the Project Management for Development (PMD) Pro material is that (i) it was openly available to others, (ii) built critical mass and (iii) became a recognised certification by hiring managers COO, NGO L&D consultancy Accreditation requirements for PM for NGOs will need to be formalised in the future COO, NGO Consultancy Existing structure and coordination of local responder communities is limited, restricting efficient use of available capacity Humanitarian funding is not increasing fast enough to meet the needs at the local level (see Figure 4). This is a problem which is exacerbated by the fact that INGOs control the majority of the funding (see section 2). The result is unmet local humanitarian needs, which could be alleviated with better awareness and coordination of existing resources on the ground. Figure 4: Funding & unmet requirements, UN coordinated appeals, One way to achieve this is to create and coordinate regional responder communities of qualified individuals that can be called upon to meet surge capacity needs. Effective organisation of local communities in this way is something which has so far proved difficult in the sector. An additional but significant benefit of an accepted accreditation system for skills is its potential to form the basis for such a community, providing a route in for new members and guaranteeing quality of existing responders. There is a lot of value in the development of a skilled humanitarian roster, especially for developing capacity of local partners Manager, Competency framework Setting up local NGO networks is a systemic challenge of the Humanitarian sector Director, L&D organisation Building local networks with community leaders and ensuring that trust is built at a local level should be the focus of the Academy Head, Global charity organisation An effective network of local people that can be mobilised as first responders in the event of a humanitarian crisis could hugely benefit local communities and drive the humanitarian sector s aim to shift the response ownership to the local level. 5 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report

11 Summary of resulting sector action required Provide examination / accreditation for individuals to complement pathways Develop community of local humanitarians and their skill levels, and ensure they are primed to respond Conclusion Overall this research reinforces the global necessity of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. The Academy is committed to responding to these three identified needs of the humanitarian capacity building sector. However, to achieve maximum impact it is imperative for the sector to collaborate and address these challenges together. 11