Prepare for Humanitarian Action

The academy for humanitarian action (aha) provides advanced training courses for the humanitarian community. It combines unique insights from humanitarian practice and academic research. Join us on our mission to spread the skills we need when crises hit – start today.

Upcoming courses

Introduction to Humanitarian Needs Assessments and Analysis

English

April 2024

0 ECTS

© Aktion Deutschland Hilft/Thorsten Thor

The course aims to introduce you to the processes, skills and knowledge required to design and implement Assessment and Analysis (A&A) processes, with particular focus on making sense of available information and reports in humanitarian emergencies coming from field locations. Therefore, it relies on the broad experience of ACAPS (initially: "The Assessment Capacities Project”), using guidance from ACAPS Technical Briefs and the Humanitarian Needs Assessment – The Good Enough Guide (GEGA) – as backdrops. The pedagogical approach will follow a mixture of introductory presentations and group work, including the work on case studies.

The course is targeting headquarter based staff in humanitarian organisations. Consequently, the discussion will be centred around assessment methods and approaches using secondary data, open access data analysis.

The course is planned as face-to-face training on 22 and 23 April 2024.

Exchange Workshop on Inclusive Anticipatory Humanitarian Action: Vulnerable Groups and Social Protection

Fully booked

© Aktion Deutschland Hilft / Jakob Studnar

In humanitarian crisis contexts, groups that might already be marginalized in the respective community, such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, or women, are facing disproportionate risks. To address these risks anticipatory approaches need to be shaped in a participatory and inclusive way for them to be as effective as possible and to ‘leave no one behind’. In this workshop, you will discuss the particular challenges and dilemmas that anticipatory humanitarian action practitioners are facing with regard to the inclusion and protection of vulnerable groups. You will learn about promising pathways to address these challenges, such as community-based development of early action protocols or linking anticipatory humanitarian action to social protection schemes. Welthungerhilfe will provide practical insights on how to jointly collaborate on early action protocols with communities and stakeholders and give examples for best practices and challenges around inclusion and protection.

The online workshop will take place on 6 and 7 May 2024 and includes regular breaks.

Greening Humanitarian Shelter and Settlement Response

English

May 2024

1 ECTS

Certificate of Advanced Studies: Foundations of Humanitarian Action

© Aktion Deutschland Hilft /Zanettini

Humanitarian actors globally are seeking to improve the environmental outcomes of their operations. The shelter and settlement sector offers concrete opportunities for such environmental improvements.  In this course you will gain a knowledge of the key environmental impacts related to humanitarian shelter and settlements and learn how environmentally sensitive site planning and preparation can underpin a wider green humanitarian response. You will understand the multiplication of environmental impacts that comes from the scale of shelter responses, and how green shelter and settlement responses can contribute to sustainable energy and water access through a cross-cutting approach to green response. Further, you will gain skills in the design of green shelter and settlement responses in emergency contexts. After this training, you will be able to undertake environmental screening and environmental outcome monitoring to continually improve the environmental sustainability and climate compatibility of your work in this sector.

This workshop is designed for participants who want to take part in-person in Bochum (Germany) and for people who can only take part online (hybrid) . However, online participation is only possible during the morning sessions until lunch break. These sessions will be held by our trainers in Bochum, but will also be distributed via Zoom. In the afternoon, only participants who will be on site in Bochum can take part. Important: Only in-person participants can take the Certificate of Advanced Studies!

The training is part of aha's certification scheme and can be credited towards a Certificate of Advanced Studies in "Foundations of Humanitarian Action".

Who we are

The academy for humanitarian action (aha) is an institution for further education in the humanitarian sector. It is located at the intersection of humanitarian practice and research and pools the expertise from over 25 years of work in the humanitarian sector. The aha carries out high quality trainings and offers a platform for other training providers in the field of humanitarian action. Our trainings are based on internationally established initiatives to systematize and standardize education in humanitarian action. Visit the about us section to find out more!

What we aim for

Our work is inspired by the desire to create a positive impact and advance the professionalization of humanitarian action in Germany and beyond. Our aim is to support humanitarians in their continuous effort to further improve the quality of their work, address new challenges and meet important requests for reform, such as the commitments that were made in the course of the World Humanitarian Summit. A special emphasis of our work is on anticipatory humanitarian action and community-led response. Visit the about us section to find out more!

What we offer

The academy for humanitarian action offers a wide range of different training courses on topics related to humanitarian action and international collaboration. The trainings are carried out by aha members and by external providers who have proven expertise in selected areas. Our curriculum is based on the indicated needs of target communities and will be continuously updated and adapted in collaboration with experts from different practical and academic disciplines. Click here to get an overview of our current course offer or here to download a pdf version of our course curriculum for 2023 and 2024. Participating in several courses of the curriculum will allow you to gain a “Certificate of Advanced Studies” (CAS).

Aktion Deutschland HilftRUBInstitut für Friedenssicherungsrecht und Humanitäres VölkerrechtFH MünsterKompetenzzentrum Humanitäre HilfeAkademie der Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Your tailor-made certificate

The academy for humanitarian action offers flexible and tailor-made certificates that can be adapted to your purpose. You may opt for a simple certificate of attendance, a course certificate or a “Certificate of Advanced Studies” from one of the core tracks: Foundations of Humanitarian Action, Anticipatory Humanitarian Action or Locally-led Humanitarian Action. Each “Certificate of Advanced Studies” comprises five course certificates. To get a more detailed overview of our modular certification scheme, click here.