Paper details

Paper authors	Jeremy Shusterman
In panel on	When Humanitarian Knowledge Hits the Road; Matching Learning Needs with Context
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This article reviews why tapping into tacit knowledge of relief workers to inform humanitarian responses is seen as a valuable exercise that paradoxically often fails to live up to expectations. This paradox is explored through the example of efforts undertaken by the United Nations Children’s Fund over the years to learn from the tacit knowledge of its staff. The article briefly reviews the challenges to learning within humanitarian organizations, and why humanitarian organizations may see tacit knowledge as an attractive alternative source of evidence. The article then seeks to diagnose why UNICEF’s attempts did not take shape as envisaged, finding that system-wide challenges in ‘learning to learn’ (Minear, 1998) identified long ago have largely remained the same. It finds that a counter-productive ‘thirst for immediacy’, and the nature of emergency relief staff’s relationship to knowledge continue to make the commitment to learning a difficult one to sustain. The article however argues that should such learning exercises be reframed more firmly as a research endeavor, some of these obstacles might be overcome. It provides leads on a possible way forward in the context of a pilot initiative for humanitarian learning at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti

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