PHAP: Learning sessions and webinars

For a long time, humanitarian organizations have faced situations reminding us that how we carry out our work is as important as what we do – including how agencies approach the mental and physical well-being of staff members to avoid long-term exhaustion, burnout, injury, or illness. Apart from the direct impact to individual staff members when the duty of care is compromised, organizations also...

In the margins of the public health and economic crises with which the world has contended through 2020, COVID-19 ultimately looms as a long-term, far-reaching global protection emergency. Where some of the world’s best-resourced countries have tracked a staggering increase in demand for protection services, people in nations with pre-existing humanitarian crises are grappling with unprecedented c...

The UN Secretary General’s Policy Brief on COVID-19 in an Urban World reckons that urban areas are at the epicentre of the pandemic, accounting for an estimated 90 per cent of cases. Overcrowding and urban areas with poor infrastructure and housing or weak local governance leads to higher virus transmission. Solutions start at the local level which is why cities and local communities are uniquely...

The capacities of those delivering response to humanitarian crises determine the quality of aid, its relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability, and is key to the effective application of humanitarian principles. But in a rapidly changing aid ecosystem, how can humanitarian organisations better recruit, retain, and develop competent staff? How can individual practitioners have greater clarity on...

Over the last few years the issue of “bank de-risking” has increasingly impacted the ability of humanitarian NGOs to safely and effectively transfer funds to programmes where people are most in need. While bank de-risking can affect the operations of any type of organization, humanitarian organizations are particularly affected due to the nature of their work and the contexts in which they operate...

While the COVID-19 pandemic is seriously affecting the health, livelihoods, and overall wellbeing of people all over the world, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted. The risk factors and consequences of COVID-19 on people with disabilities are even further exacerbated in humanitarian contexts. Persons with disabilities may be at heightened risk of contracting or developing a m...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for humanitarian work across the globe, including for how emergency response is being funded, providing a real-time “stress test” on financing systems. At the same time, stakeholders have been taking stock of the progress made under the Grand Bargain humanitarian financing reforms and considering priorities for future reform agendas. To examine what...

Read more and access resources at https://phap.org/8sep2020 Understanding and appropriately applying the concepts of risk tolerance and risk appetite is crucial for humanitarian organizations to ensure that they are operating within their ability to manage risk. Humanitarian action is taking place in inherently high-risk environments and humanitarian organizations are often under pressure to take...

Read more and access resources at https://phap.org/9sep2020 Many humanitarian emergencies result in large-scale displacement, whether short-term or over many years. Although they should be seen as a last resort, camps and other communal settlements are often at the center of humanitarian response, as that is where those with the greatest needs are concentrated. Given this central focus for humanit...

In most crisis response contexts, multiple protection actors are seeking to access affected populations. As humanitarian actors are interdependent, with the actions of one affecting all other actors in a response context, they often face situations where there are coordination challenges related to access and protection. On 25 June, PHAP, NRC, and the GPC organized the fourth session of the webina...

More than 61 per cent of the world’s refugees and 80 per cent of internally displaced people live in urban areas. The role of towns, cities, counties and provinces in creating inclusive communities and promoting hope has never been as important. They offer safety and shelter and can enable access to local services, education and job opportunities. The Global Compact on Refugees aims to implement a...

Read more about this event on https://phap.org/11jun2020 In order to carry out their work for the protection of affected people, humanitarian actors need access to reach those people with needs assessments and services. But that access can bring with it negative consequences – for those receiving assistance or protection services, for focal points and contact persons, or for society as a whole. Kn...

Read more at https://phap.org/5jun2020 The four principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence are the foundations of humanitarian action. Guided by these principles, humanitarian organizations work to ensure that assistance and protection go to those most in need. As well as forming the basis of their work, the principles enable humanitarian organizations to gain and maintain...

Read more at https://phap.org/3jun2020 Humanitarian work is in most cases carried out in insecure environments and situations, making it critical for organizations to be able to identify and manage security risks affecting their operations. Although Security Risk Management (SRM) in the humanitarian sector has increasingly gained the attention of policy makers and practitioners, the current COVID-...

Humanitarian actors often need to negotiate to gain access to populations affected by conflicts and other crises. While negotiating for access for humanitarian assistance is often challenging in and of itself, practitioners and organizations face a distinct set of issues in access negotiations that relate to protection. On 28 May, the second session of the webinar series on access and protection f...

Humanitarian protection is often the most needed in the very conflict zones where access is also the most restricted. Whether in areas controlled by armed groups or government forces, in situations when civilians have their basic rights and physical safety threatened, humanitarians carrying out protection work and advocacy are likely to face actors trying to restrict their access and ability to op...

As the novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, continues to spread globally, the risk it presents to populations living in camps and camp-like settings is growing. Camp managers are working quickly to adjust their programs to accommodate social distancing while continuing to communicate with communities and working with partners to improve communal sanitation. Sphere recently released guidance for...

Through the Grand Bargain, humanitarian organizations and donors have committed to change the way humanitarian action is carried out and create a “Participation Revolution.” But how does including the people and communities affected by humanitarian crises look in practice? How are organizations ensuring that the voices of the most vulnerable groups considering gender, age, ethnicity, language, and...

In the first sessions of the conference, we had heard from NGOs and other humanitarian actors on the challenges and risks related to principled humanitarian action faced in their work. In the third and final session, we looked at relevant initiatives for mobilizing collaborative and collective action among NGOs, UN agencies and Member States, donors, and affected people. Read more about the sessio...

With challenges to principled humanitarian action, NGOs are facing increased risks in their work. While NGOs accept risk as part of their work, many organizations are taking on more risk than they may be aware of and have the capacity to manage. In the second session of the Annual Conference, we explored the types of risks faced by NGOs linked to the humanitarian principles, how they can be manage...

Principled humanitarian action may be more important than ever for humanitarian actors managing risk in highly political and volatile operational contexts. However, humanitarian principles are being challenged on multiple fronts. This first session helped frame the discussions of the Annual Conference and explored the importance of protecting and promoting principled humanitarian action. Read more...

The IASC recently endorsed guidelines for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. How can these guidelines help make humanitarian action more inclusive? On 26 February 2020, ICVA and PHAP organized a webinar together with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) secretariat and the Reference Group on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, which...

Coordination and collaboration are critical for humanitarian protection – just as it is for an effective overall humanitarian response. Recent crises have highlighted that there remains a need to reinforce protection programming with clear leadership and further articulation of roles and responsibilities. Research has shown that effective coordination during disaster response has been lacking to t...

The discipline of risk management is not new, and there has already been a significant amount of work to translate risk management practice and tools for use in humanitarian operations. Despite this, humanitarian organizations continue to struggle with applying risk management in their decision-making process. On 21 November, ICVA and PHAP organized the first webinar in a series aimed at exploring...

The effects of a warming climate will likely be far-reaching and profound. In addition to warming and changed weather patterns, climate change will increasingly spark extremes in weather – a greater frequency and intensity of storms, heat, and cold. Critically, the effects of climate change exacerbate the scarcity of key resources, and hence contribute to armed conflict and impoverishment. To resp...