I started my career as a humanitarian worker with Oxfam. Down the road I've been through some very difficult times but I have learned a lot. The ECB National Staff Development Program is really very helpful for understanding the core competencies of an aid worker, like humanitarian principles, practices and standards, project cycle management and issues belonging to HR, finance, logistics management, as well as to learn self-accountability and building team work skills from experienced humanitarian professionals. I hope to learn more and do even better for the future emergency responses!

Abdul Rehman
Logistics Officer
Oxfam Pakistan

Resources

The full curriculum for the ECB NSD Program is available at the following link:

ECB National Staff Development Program Curriculum

ECB research which informed the design of the NSD curriculum includes the following studies:

ECB Humanitarian Competencies Study

ECB Learning Needs Analysis

Save the Children's Emergency Health and Nutrtion ToolKit can be downloaded from their website.

National Staff Development Program

© 2004 Josh Estey/CARE

The single most important resource for humanitarian agencies in an emergency environment is experienced and capable staff, to provide the expertise and leadership critical to effective response. Yet many agencies acknowledge that at present they are not taking full advantage of the talents and experience of staff who are nationals of the countries in which they operate.

What prevents national staff from taking a greater role? Research suggests that senior managers lack knowledge of and confidence in the skills of national staff, and that national staff lack opportunities to develop and demonstrate those skills within the culture of an international organisation. The ECB National Staff Development Program is a pilot project which aims to lower these barriers by designing and testing a sustainable, replicable program to increase the number of agency staff at the national level capable of leading and managing emergency programs.

The design of the National Staff Development Program draws on the ECB Humanitarian Competencies Study, published in April 2006, which highlighted sets of personal and technical competencies critical for career development. A more targeted analysis of the Learning Needs of National Staff, carried out in November 2006, confirmed the importance of the key elements which will form the core of the program: project planning and management; effective team building; knowledge of humanitarian systems and principles; and communications and security management.

The program uses a blend of face-to-face instruction and simulations of emergency scenarios with distance learning modules delivered on-line. Instructional material is drawn from the leading technical expertise existing within the IWG agencies, with experienced IWG staff acting as mentors. The Foundation Module is made up of three components:

• Generic Humanitarian: Humanitarian principles, systems and standards; functional skills (HR, Logistics, finance, etc.); team building and personal behaviour in emergencies; working with other actors.
• Agency specific: Understanding the philosophies, policies, strategies, practices and procedures of humanitarian agencies
• Leadership and Management: Building and managing multi-cultural teams; staff wellness and turnover; coaching and facilitating skills; project management.

The program design anticipates that an external, professional body will accredit the Foundation Module and subsequent modules. A key element of the Module will be continued on-the-job learning for staff, including deployments to emergencies, beyond the end of the training program.

The NSD pilot was launched in June 2007 with Stage I – an assessment phase and foundation program – taking place over 14 days in Mansehra, Pakistan. The 39 participants included national staff from IWG agencies as well as disaster management staff from the British Red Cross and the Government of Pakistan. This stage included a 7 day simulation of an emergency, during which participants were evaluated against a set of competencies and performance standards, as well as classroom learning which included a review of Humanitarian Principles and Practices, Safety and Security, and People Issues in Emergencies.

Stage II of the NSD program – on-line learning via a series of technical modules – was delivered between July and September 2007 using the Elluminate virtual classroom environment provided by LINGOS. Modules were designed and delivered by technical experts from within the participating agencies, and included Media in Emergencies run by CARE, and Health in Emergencies run by Save the Children.

A volatile security environment in Pakistan required a location change for Stage III of the NSD pilot, which was delivered over 14 days in Thailand in October 2007. This final face-to-face element included an intensive 8 days of classroom instruction on topics including: Logistics, Protection, Vulnerability and Targeting, Assessments, Education, Leadership and Teamwork, Building Trust in Teams, Program Management and Incident Control Systems. This was followed by an intensive and assessed simulation event in which participants were expected to apply their learning in a ‘live’ emergency context.

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