Latest news
New 'gold standard' for aid worker training
07 December 2011
Communities affected by major disasters will receive higher quality support from aid workers thanks to a groundbreaking new tool which aims to improve the standard of training humanitarian workers receive.
The new Trainer Competency Framework is being billed as a future ‘gold standard’ quality mark for capacity building in the aid and development sector. It will ensure that aid workers receive appropriate training content via proven teaching and learning methods from skilled, professional trainers. It has been developed by disaster relief charity RedR UK and French humanitarian agency Bioforce.
As the frequency and intensity of global disasters rises year on year, training national and international humanitarian workers has never been more urgent. Ensuring aid workers have essential skills in key aspects of humanitarian relief – from expertise in water and sanitation delivery to dealing with shelter needs to providing cash-for-work programmes– significantly improves response to major natural and man-made crises.
However, as yet, there is no sector-wide standard to ensure the quality of humanitarian training available to the world’s 210,000 aid workers – an increasing number of whom are nationals of disaster-affected countries.
Instead, skills are often passed between aid workers through a chain of training sessions with high risk that the quality of the facilitation and learning dilutes as the numbers broaden. As a result, trainees often do not receive the skills they require and disaster-hit communities fail to get the quality humanitarian support they need.
The new tool– available in English and French from RedR’s website – will help safeguard the standard of humanitarian knowledge passed between aid workers. It has already generated widespread interest amongst leading aid and development organisations with Bond, ELRHA, INTRAC, Mango and People in Aid all supporting the initiative.
RedR’s Director of Learning and Development, Charlie Dalrymple, said: “RedR has long recognised that effective delivery of humanitarian expertise to aid workers requires a defined range of skills alongside field experience, and that is what lies at the root of this initiative.
“Not only will the implementation of this tool represent a significant leap forward for disaster-hit communities – who have a right to receive the highest calibre assistance from aid workers in a major crisis – but it also represents a step forward in the professionalisation of the humanitarian sector as a whole. “
He adds: “By ensuring consistency and quality of training, we hope to dramatically enhance aid workers’ ability to respond to emergencies. In short, providing better aid and improved accountability to disaster-affected communities is a common goal for the humanitarian sector and one we hope this new tool will go some way to supporting.”
The Trainer Competency Framework is already being used by RedR UK to assess and recruit humanitarian trainers both in the UK and internationally, ensuring that the thousands of aid workers supported by RedR UK each year are afforded the highest possible standard of training.
