Round Table: Core standards for humanitarian leadership training

Training and standards for various technical aspects of humanitarian response have become a widely accepted area of the field – part of the ongoing ‘professionalisation’ project that sees humanitarian response becoming a distinct area of professional practice. Alongside more technical-focused efforts, organisations have also considered how staff can be supported to develop a wider range of skills. This roundtable presents a proposed framework for core competencies in humanitarian leadership. Organised and presented by the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership (Deakin University, Australia) and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (Harvard University, United States), the roundtable brings together the two institutions collective experience in designing, delivering, and critically debating humanitarian leadership. In this session, discussants will consider the role and meanings of humanitarian leadership, as well as outline a set of core competencies for feedback and discussion. These competencies include adaptive leadership, the ability to work in complex systems, the ability to self-regulate in high stakes contexts, the centrality of mental health care, and the capacity to analyse problems.

Organisers

Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings

Speakers