HUMANITARIAN CAPACITY BUILDING
MARKET RESEARCH & INTERVIEW
FINDINGS
NOVEMBER 2015
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 NonGovernmental 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
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
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 decades1
(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
workers3
1
Recent figures from 2010-2014 suggest that numbers may be lower this decade, but a direct comparison
cannot be drawn at this stage
2
INFORM index for 1980-2010 data, Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) for 2010-2014 data
3
ALNAP SOHS Reports 2012, 2015 preview
4
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
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
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
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
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
“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, 200520145
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 2015
10
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