Paper details

Paper authors	Pat Foley
In panel on	Navigating Empathy in Humanitarian Education
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Humanitarian education is ongoing but often informal (and let’s be real – on the ground, anything overtly academic is vulnerable to scepticism). Professional development can be overlooked for the humanitarian imperative or the output orientation of our industry, while traditional training is scripted and passive (we know better but apologise for slides). This paper reflects on semistructured processes in Bangladesh and the Philippines with staff at the interface of international initiatives. Aleatory learning events can be designed around assessment, monitoring, and evaluation to traverse theory, practice, analysis, and reporting without an external getting in the way: Research questions are context specific and articulated by the team; tools are developed in groups; data come from internal systems and proximate secondary sources; analysis and reporting are facilitated in plenary. Content, products, and plans are owned and articulated by participants, by the same frontline individuals that track progress and see ideas to implementation. It is however difficult for institutions to release staff for 5-10 days and sometimes even more challenging to brave unfamiliar approaches. This paper argues that action learning can unleash field staff capacity and contribute to deeper empathy with stakeholders, more informed programming, and greater return on investment.

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