Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online
Number of paper presentations	4

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is continuously exposed to overwhelming challenges, with multiple and complex emergency situations on an unprecedented scale. What is aggravating the situation is the proliferation and complexity of political contexts, and the fragility of states to respond to these emerging disasters and the recurrent aftermaths of these disasters. The changing landscapes of protracted conflicts as well as complex stresses and shocks enforce the necessity of having these responses originating from within the context itself. Thus, we should build the capacity of people from within these exposed areas since most of the humanitarian/ global health knowledge were created in different contexts, and languages. Here emerges the need for developing a framework to format or reformat this humanitarian knowledge into knowledge that is compatible with the context. The Global Health Institute (GHI) at the American University of Beirut serves as the regional hub for the development and contextualization of essential humanitarian capacity-building tools and programs through providing and disseminating evidence informed guides, policies and evaluations that will better shape decision practices for humanitarian action in the region. The significance of GHI’s scope of work is following evidence informed ways and systematic approaches in developing and contextualizing tools and programs. One of the major deliverables is the development of a Contextualization Framework that enables organizations and institutions to adapt and tailor e-learning courses to the need of a specific population. This is accompanied by the contextualization and translation of several humanitarian e-learning courses to provide access to information to practitioners from the region. On this panel, the GHI and the Humanitarian Learning Academy will be presenting the achievements in the field of humanitarian learning and key role that academic and learning institutions can play in in the humanitarian field in terms of knowledge transcription and dissemination.

Shadi Saleh, Founding Director (GHI)
Hussein Ismail, Humanitarian Learning Coordinator (GHI)
Farah Sbeity, Contextualization Specialist (GHI)
Alex Farrington, Head of Partnerships (Humanitarian Learning Academy)

Paper presentations