UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

NOHA Masters in International Humanitarian Action

(Humanitarian Action MSc FT X438)

The European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps:

A Humanitarian Apprenticeship?

by

Evin Joyce

Student number: 08272131

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for their goodwill, advice, patience and help,

without which this thesis would not have achieved its objectives, or at best would have

done so in a much less coherent manner. Firstly Sulagna Maitra, Course Coordinator

and Thesis Supervisor, whose crystal clear instructions helped me set out a clear path

for my research. Secondly to Dr. Pat Gibbons, President of the Network On

Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA) and Head Lecturer at UCD, without the foundations

of humanitarian action that he and Sulagna taught and the learning that they facilitated

throughout the last year in UCD, I would never have been able to aim for the targets I

set myself in this study.

I would also like to thank all those who took the time to talk to me about my thesis but

who's advice broadened my horizons and opened up new avenues of research, these

people were Heike Speiker from the German Red Cross, Geoff Loane from the

International Committee of the Red Cross, Lena Zimmer from the Professionals in

Humanitarian Assistance and Protection, Helen Nic an Ri from Trocaire, and Celine

Bayer from ECHO.

I would like to thank all the NGO staff, young professionals, EVHAC volunteers and

NOHA classmates who kindly completed the long and detailed questionnaires that I sent

them.

Finally I would like to thank my father who proof-read my thesis in the week before its

submission, he diligently spent hours pointing out my mistakes and continuously

challenged me to better explain myself, which as usual, was to my great advantage in

the end.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction _________________________________________________ 6 Background ______________________________________________________________ 8 Problem statement _______________________________________________________ 12 Research question ________________________________________________________ 13 Overall objective _________________________________________________________ 13 Specific objectives ________________________________________________________ 13 Scope __________________________________________________________________ 14 Research Design _________________________________________________________ 15 Utility __________________________________________________________________ 16

Chapter 2 Literature Review ____________________________________________ 17 Introduction_____________________________________________________________ 17 Literature on EVHAC ____________________________________________________ 17 Evolution of 'professionalism' as a concept ___________________________________ 18 Structural attributes of professions__________________________________________ 19 Associations: Acquiring legitimacy through critical mass _______________________ 19 How does the humanitarian sector compare to others in terms of structural attributes?_______________________________________________________________________ 20

Attitudinal Attributes of Professionals _______________________________________ 21 The importance of experiential learning _____________________________________ 22 Types of professionals_____________________________________________________ 22 Methods and models of professional development _____________________________ 23 Relevance to EVHAC _____________________________________________________ 24 The Internship___________________________________________________________ 24 Building on foundations already laid: Picking up where ELRHA left off___________ 25 The 3 needs _____________________________________________________________ 27 1. 'Why is there a need?' __________________________________________________ 27 2. What is there a need for? ________________________________________________ 27 3. How can this need be satisfied? ___________________________________________ 28 An analytical framework __________________________________________________ 28

Chapter 3 Methodology ________________________________________________ 30 A Basic Assumption ______________________________________________________ 30 Generalisability__________________________________________________________ 30 Confidentiality___________________________________________________________ 31 Limitations _____________________________________________________________ 31 In depth, semi-structured, exploratory interviews _____________________________ 32 The remaining 3 Specific Objectives, followed by their detailed breakdown ________ 32

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Selection procedures for NGOs _____________________________________________ 35 Selection procedure for humanitarian job and internship descriptions ____________ 36 Selection procedure for 'Young Humanitarian Professionals' ____________________ 37 Selection procedures for 'Young Humanitarian Hopefuls' _______________________ 38 A further test to support the rationale behind the methodology and thus the validity of the findings _____________________________________________________________ 39 Summary _______________________________________________________________ 40

Chapter 4 Results _____________________________________________________ 41 Introduction_____________________________________________________________ 41 Young professionals ______________________________________________________ 41 EVHAC volunteers _______________________________________________________ 44 NOHAs_________________________________________________________________ 47 NGO's _________________________________________________________________ 49 What NGOs want ________________________________________________________ 56 Content analysis of Relief Web job descriptions _______________________________ 58 A need to improvise_______________________________________________________ 61 Part 2 - Obstacles to entering the sector for young humanitarian hopefuls _________ 67

Chapter 5 Recommendations and Conclusions _____________________________ 79 Introduction_____________________________________________________________ 79 EVHAC as a hub_________________________________________________________ 79 Linking NGOs to humanitarian hopefuls_____________________________________ 80 The internship ___________________________________________________________ 81 A common curriculum and standards of training ______________________________ 82 Certification_____________________________________________________________ 83 Poaching _______________________________________________________________ 83 Absorptive Capacity ______________________________________________________ 84 Equal Opportunities... ____________________________________________________ 85

...for those without silver spoons__________________________________________________ 85

...to Non-Europeans ___________________________________________________________ 85 … to those without French or English? ____________________________________________ 86

The Visibility Prerequisite _________________________________________________ 86 Ongoing research ________________________________________________________ 87 Future research __________________________________________________________ 87

Conclusion___________________________________________________________ 89

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List of Tables

Table 1: Most important elements of training _____________________________________________ 54 Table 2: What 'gaps' do internships fill? _________________________________________________ 63 Table 3: Reasons for the high staff-turnover rate __________________________________________ 66 Table 4: Internships _________________________________________________________________ 68 Table 5: Where does the money come from? ______________________________________________ 70 Table 6: Rate of retention following internships ___________________________________________ 71 Table 7: Parents' occupations _________________________________________________________ 73 Table 8: Perceptions of hiring practices _________________________________________________ 75

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Abstract

This study will look at the potential of the soon to be formed European Voluntary

Humanitarian Aid Corps (EVHAC) to contribute to the professionalization of the

humanitarian sector. Interviews and questionnaire surveys are used to collect data from

professionals within the humanitarian sector, humanitarian graduates trying to find work

in the sector and the first EVHAC pilot project volunteers. The data collected aims at

identifying the gap between what academia provides students and what humanitarian

NGOs want from new field workers. The findings identify the many aspects of this 'gap'

(training, knowledge, personality traits, and skills) as well as the instruments currently

used to fill it. A critical analysis of these aspects leads to a list of recommendations on

the role and functions EVHAC could perform so as to provide its volunteers with a

humanitarian apprenticeship that would benefit the professionalization of the

humanitarian sector as a whole.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

At what point can a person declare themselves to be a humanitarian? If one is to look at

the etymology of the word, to be a 'humanitarian' is to be a philanthropist “one who

advocates or practices human action to solve social problems” (Skeat, 2005).

The Oxford dictionary defines a humanitarian as a 'person who seeks to promote human

welfare' (Oxford Dictionary, 2000). It is a term of the eighteenth century Enlightenment,

and much of the world's population that espouse to ideals such as liberty, equality and

solidarity would probably declare themselves to be one.

Thus, one can consider oneself a humanitarian without having ever set foot next, nigh or

near a humanitarian crisis.

This is not the case in medicine. Not even a sixth year medical student can claim to be a

doctor before his degree is awarded, indeed to do so would be a violation of the codes

of conduct and standards of professional associations and in many jurisdictions would

mean criminal liability, as well as one's expulsion from the profession (Friedson in

Baker 1999).

Considering the life and death importance of the work done by people in both of these

jobs, it is surprising that doctors and humanitarians lie at opposite end of the spectrum

of formal professions. Reasons that help explain this are the volunteer ethos and value-

laden concepts that are inherent elements of what motivates people to help in

humanitarian crises. A volunteer ethos is one of the seven founding principles of the

Red Cross movement, and value-laden concepts are found at the starting point of all the

biggest of today's humanitarian actors. To give just some examples: the International

Committee of the Red Cross was born from the emotional impact the Battle of Solferino

had on Henry Dunant in 1859; Save the Children begun as a letter writing campaign of

Eglantyne Jebb, horrified by the plight of children starving in Austria in 1919; Oxfam

began when academics, Quakers, and other activists in England, were moved to help

those dying of famine in Greece in 1942; Medecins Sans Frontières came into existence

because a group of Doctors were repulsed by the failures of the system to more

effectively help those suffering in Biafra in 1971. Politics and personality aside, the

moment of conception of all of these major humanitarian players of today was when

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individuals, or small groups of people, were emotionally motivated to react to the

suffering of others in need. In all cases emotional reaction to an event, preceded the

cognitive analysis of how to engage in that event.

Herein lies a paradox. Professionalization in the humanitarian sector is deemed by many

to be a current, necessary priority. As we will see in its theoretical analysis later, this

implies a push for greater uniformity and rationality in the evaluation of work-related

situations. But the rationality of professionalization can conflict with the emotive forces

of empathy and solidarity which are at the foundation of the voluntarism that motivates

us to react and help others in calamitous situations. The push for professionalism in the

humanitarian sector should not ignore the voluntary ethos that is at the nucleus of

humanitarian action, be it at international or local level.

However, while not wanting to discourage the humanitarian impulse of those

who wish to help alleviate suffering, the humanitarian sector must nevertheless arrive at

a point where those delivering aid at the front-line (or as can often be the case, between

front-lines) are the best equipped and best placed people to ensure that aid is delivered

as efficiently as it can be, so that the least amount of people suffer or die?

This thesis will attempt to analyse the steps, stages and structures needed for the

humanitarian sector to systematically professionalise1 as other established professions

have done. However the focus on these steps, stages and structures will be through the

very narrow prism of what the soon to be formed European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid

Corps (EVHAC) can offer to this process of professionalization2.

In short the broad research objective is to identify what form and functions the new

European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (EVHAC) should take in order to assist in

satisfying the human resource needs of the humanitarian sector over the long-term.

1 The working definition of 'Professionalism' for the purposes of this study will be; “The ability of an individual to do something with a high level of competence, commitment, or expertise, where professionalism consists of appropriate behaviours, applying procedures and policies, effective management, delivering objectives, adding value, having a capacity and willingness to learn, flexibility, and hitting the ground running” (Potter, 2006, in VOICE, 2006, p.6: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2000: Walkers, 2010, p.6)) and a professional as 'a person who does something with a high level of competence, commitment or expertise' (Oxford Dictionary, 2000). 2 The working definition of 'Professionalization' for the purposes of this study will be; the trend towards increasing an individual's capacity to work with 'professionalism' (according to definition above), and to increase the humanitarian sector's capacity to offer the individual opportunities for long-term learning, self-development and a coherent career path.

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Background

Discussion on the formation of a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps

(EVHAC) began during the Greek Presidency of the European Union in 2003

(European Commission's Department of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection

(ECHO) 2010). Conjecture and debate on the subject of an EVHAC became concrete

discussion in November 2009 when the Lisbon Treaty was signed and ratified by all EU

member states and EVHAC's formation became an obligation for the European

Commission.

EVHAC is referred to in Article 214.5 of the Lisbon Treaty3. The implementation of this

Article has been charged to ECHO.

EVHAC has not been warmly welcomed by the majority of humanitarian agencies

(Voluntary Organisations In Cooperation in Emergencies (VOICE), 2005); originally it

was perceived as a political tool for greater EU visibility. Agencies have also expressed

concerns about how 'European volunteers'4 may duplicate and undermine local

volunteering initiatives and replace what could be long-term local volunteers, by short-

term European volunteers thereby reducing the sustainability of aid programmes

(German Red Cross, 2010). The security of inexperienced volunteers in emergency

contexts have also been raised, with many believing such volunteers would be liabilities

rather than assets, to effective aid delivery (Network On Humanitarian Assistance

(NOHA), 2010; Prolog Consult, 2006; German Red Cross, 2010 & Van Bruaene, 2010;

European Commission, 2010). Others have voiced concern that the formation of a

volunteer corps will detract from the sector's efforts to achieve greater professionalism

and higher standards of aid delivery (Zimmer, 2010).

3 “In order to establish a framework for joint contributions from young Europeans to the humanitarian aid operations of the Union, a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps shall be set up. The European Parliament and the Council, acting by means of regulations in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall determine the rules and procedures for the operation of the Corps”. 4 The working definition of 'European Volunteer' for the purposes of this study will be; “A European citizen not prompted in any manner by desire for gain, who works towards the alleviation of suffering or the improved living standards of others” (British Red Cross, 2011). Other working definitions and the “Clarification of key terms” can be found in Appendix 1.

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ECHO have commissioned research to analyse other existing volunteer models in the

humanitarian and development sectors (NOHA, 2006, p.15-25; Prolog Consult, 2006;

Van Brauneau, 2010). This analysis has provided a list of current initiatives that an

EVHAC must avoid duplicating or undermining, and a list of good and bad practices for

an EVHAC to learn from (European Commission, 2010).

Considering the context in which the EVHAC is emerging, there are three sets of

considerations that have been identified which an EVHAC must respect in order for it to

strengthen and not weaken the humanitarian sector.

Firstly, the guiding principles that an EVHAC must follow so as to be congruent with

the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid (European Parliament, Commission &

Council, 2006) are:

− solidarity

− professionalism and safety

− humanitarian principles

− added-value...

Secondly, the needs identified by ECHO (EU, 2010) are that an EVHAC must:

− identify suitable volunteers

− develop a structured training with common standards and good practices

− improve stand-by rosters of experienced volunteers for rapid deployment

− strengthen support to back-office functions in implementing an

organisation's deployment in crisis contexts

Thirdly, the conditions that an EVHAC must respect so as to minimise unintended

negative consequences (Prolog Consult, 2006; Van Bruaene, 2010; NOHA, 2010;

German Red Cross, 2010; VOICE, 2006) can be achieved by:

− being demand-driven

− ensuring volunteer security

− supporting local capacities

− not diverting funds from the core operational budget for responding to

people's needs in disasters.

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Fourthly, due to the political origins behind its inception, EVHAC is hoped to:

− provide an opportunity for the empowerment and involvement of young

Europeans from different social and ethnic backgrounds in humanitarian action

− give a human face to the EU action in humanitarian aid operations and increase

the EU's visibility in the world

Considering all of the above parameters and limitations for an EVHAC that ECHO has

recognised, and considering the acknowledged need that it should develop a structured

training programme with common standards and good practices, one of the areas where

an EVHAC can strengthen and not weaken the humanitarian sector is in satisfying part

of the human resource needs of the sector and in affecting the trend towards the

professionalization of the sector.

The strengthening of human resource capacities in the humanitarian sector has received

much attention in recent years (Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR),

2011; People In Aid (PIA), 2003; Emergency Personnel Seminar (EPS), 2004; Harvey,

2010; Swords, 2007; Dickmann, 2010; People In Aid (PIA), 2003; VOICE, 2006;

Sphere, 2011). The obstacles to greater efficiency have been identified as:

− the lack of NGO commitment to invest in training because of the drain it puts on

NGO resources (Walker, 2010: Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR),

2011; EPS, 2004)

− the non-standardised nature of training and the lack of a system of certification

of competencies in the sector, means that NGOs are reluctant to recruit many

academically qualified young humanitarians (Hilhorst, 2003; Walker, 2010) instead...

− NGOs prefer to recruit candidates who have previous field experience or

technical competencies regardless of their knowledge of the broader context and issues

of humanitarian work (Walker, 2010).

These obstacles have led to three increasingly prevalent 'symptoms' in the human

resources of the humanitarian sector:

1. young field workers do not necessarily have knowledge of the broader context

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and issues of humanitarian work leading to a lack of 'off-the-job' professionalism

(NOHA, 2010; VOICE, 2006)

2. after finishing their studies, qualified graduates join long queues before they can

find a job (Walker, 2010; VOICE, 2006).

3. the frustration of young hopeful humanitarians by the 'if you don't have

experience you can't get a job, but if you can't get a job where do you get the

experience' conundrum, leads them either to abandon their humanitarian ambitions and

leave the sector, or, in the search for work, to engage in 'humanitarian tourism' and risk

negatively affecting the local perception of reputable and effective NGOs, by

sometimes doing more harm than good in emergency settings (Harvey, 2010;

Swords, 2007).

Now that an EVHAC is required by international treaty law, humanitarian actors must

seek the opportunities an EVHAC may present to the sector (ECHO, 2010). In response

to the three 'symptoms' in the human resources of the sector listed above, it is generally

agreed that it is time to establish a more formal recognition of an international

humanitarian profession (Harvey, 2010: Dickmann, 2010; Swords, 2007; PIA, 2003).

This implies that it is also time to put in place the coherent training and professional

development structures necessary, and normally expected, of an established profession

(Walker, 2010, p.3, Van Ruler, 2005).

A 2010 external consultancy study commissioned by ECHO found that the Corps could

add value to the sector by establishing common standards, or best practices, of volunteer

training modules. (Van Bruenae, 2010). EVHAC could contribute to this process

towards professionalization by creating, if not the structures then perhaps, the templates

for professional structures that have been necessary stepping stones in the formation of

other professions (Van Ruler, 2005).

However the exact purpose, structure and role EVHAC will fill within the humanitarian

sector is not yet determined, the first three pilot projects to be conducted between

September 2011 and December 2012 is on-going. Another two years of varied pilot

projects could continue until 2014. A legislative proposal on EVHAC will be submitted

in 2012 broadly defining EVHAC's place within ECHO's policies, as well as setting the

boundaries of the Corps and guiding its formation process. Despite the many

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uncertainties about its future form and function, a recent European Commission

communication on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework5 (2014 to 2020) proposes

that an average of €30 million per year be set aside for EVHAC, starting with €20

million in 2014, and scaling-up to €43 million in 2020. These figures suggest that

whatever its final form, EVHAC will be a significant new structure on the humanitarian

landscape.

Problem statement

Considering the above issues, a research gap emerged. Through reading the publications

listed in the bibliography and after conducting exploratory interviews with experts from

Trocaire, the German Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Irish

Aid and ECHO, who were identified based on accessibility, relevance and snowball

sampling, it was evident that;

i. there are limited human resource capacities in times of humanitarian

emergencies (Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR), 2011 :

People In Aid (PIA), 2003)

ii. NGOs cannot invest as much as they recognise is needed, in training, due

to its unproven cost-benefit analysis (Walker, 2010: HERR, 2011: PIA, 2003),

iii. training in the sector happens predominantly within organisations not

between them; resulting in a perceived hierarchy of jobs and agencies within the

sector, and is one reason for the high staff turn-over rates within certain

organisations (Hilhorst, 2003; PIA, 2006).

iv. during recruitment, many NGOs prioritise previous field experience and

technical competencies over candidate's academic qualifications, knowledge of

broader humanitarian issues and volunteer ethos, despite such attributes being

deemed essential for effective humanitarian leadership (PIA, 2006; Walker,

2010; Dickmann, 2010; EU Open Public Consultation, 2011).

For an EVHAC “to make a positive contribution to the overall response to

humanitarian disasters” (European Commission, 2010), it would seem necessary that it

5 Entitled “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the

European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, A Budget for Europe 2020” (June, 2011)

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should seek to address these four identified needs within the sector. More precisely, it

should assist the NGO community in developing a standardised and agreed procedure

for selection, course of training and a system of certification that will alleviate the

human resource needs of NGOs (Hilhorst, 2003), and over the long-term, improve the

overall level of professionalism in the humanitarian sector (Dickmann, 2010).

Research question

How, and through what structures must an EVHAC select, train and certify its

volunteers so as to bridge the gap between what universities teach about humanitarian

assistance and what employers seek from new candidates, and in doing so, assist the

professionalization of the humanitarian sector by creating a model for a humanitarian

apprenticeship?

Overall objective

Identify the selection, training and certification criteria that an EVHAC should establish

that would help professionalise the sector and offer a pathway to professionalism for

young humanitarian hopefuls, human resource experts from NGOs, young humanitarian

professionals and young humanitarian hopefuls, including NOHA students and current

EVHAC pilot project volunteers6, believe an so as.

Specific objectives

In order to accomplish the overall research objective above it would be necessary to

accomplish the following specific objectives:

Specific Objective 1 - “Analyse the literature about professionalization comparing the

trend towards professionalization in the humanitarian sector with the trend taken in

other professions and identify the areas an EVHAC should not ignore if it to

contribute to the sector's professionalization”

Specific Objective 2 - “Identify the essential ingredients of a training curriculum that

an EVHAC should include in order to professionalise the volunteers”

6 The "current EVHAC pilot project volunteers" are the 25 volunteers participating in the joint Save the

Children UK – NOHA – Bioforce pilot project, which was the only pilot project to have started while this study was being carried out.

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Specific Objective 3 - “Identify the 'Gap' between what academia provides and what

employers want”

Specific Objective 4 - “Identify the obstacles slowing down progress towards the

greater professionalization of the humanitarian sector”

Scope

This study will focus on pathways to professional positions for non-specialised general

positions such as project manager or coordinator for Europeans. The reason for this is

because many young candidates to the humanitarian sector do not have a specialised

profession. Some have known since they left school that they want to work in the

humanitarian or development sectors, but even a degree course in development studies

will not provide them with a specialised profession or set of technical skills for specific

positions within humanitarian agencies. An analysis of the obstacles and challenges

faced by trained professionals such as doctors, logisticians or engineers would be

beyond the scope of this study. However, this has been examined in the recent study

'Professionalising the humanitarian sector: A scoping study' by the 'Enhancing Learning

and Research for Humanitarian Assistance' network, (Walker & Russ, 2010).

Certain other interesting areas of research were identified as being beyond the scope of

this study. The analysis of the impact of young, relatively inexperienced, European

volunteers on the disaster-affected countries in which they are deployed would certainly

be an area worthy of research in the future. However, it was not in line with the overall

research objective of this study, and also impossible to evaluate until the current

EVHAC pilot projects end and the impact of their work abroad can be measured.

The European Commission's Communication regarding an EVHAC in November 2010

(European Commission, 2010) and the Open Public Consultation in early 2011 both

revealed that an EVHAC should consider different implementing options and should

enable different types of volunteers to get involved in humanitarian operations, from

young or less experienced volunteers (school graduates / students) up to highly

experienced, humanitarian professionals, where the former can participate in awareness

raising activities and the latter will form part of emergency, surge capacity rosters.

This study will focus only on a volunteer profile between the completely inexperienced

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school leaver and the already professional humanitarian. The volunteer in focus is

typically between 23 and 35 years old, has studied development or humanitarian issues

in an academic context (either at degree or masters level) has a proven interest

(expressed by voluntary work at home or abroad within or related to the humanitarian

sector) and has a desire to work professionally in the sector, but who has not yet found a

pathway to such work.

Research Design

The research design chosen for this study is most simply explained by taking the four

specific objectives mentioned above in the chronological order of their execution.

To compare the trend towards professionalization within the humanitarian sector to

similar trends in other professions (Specific Objective 1) a review of academic journals,

books and all other reputable publications would be conducted. This literature review

would use a list of key words (including 'professionalization', 'vocational training', and

'career development') snowball research techniques and information gained in

exploratory interviews with experienced humanitarian professionals and academics to

identify relevant literature on the topic.

The next stage in the research7 would be accomplished through conducting

questionnaire surveys of four groups of respondents to whom the trend towards

professionalization has direct implications. These four respondent groups were:

− Human resource experts from humanitarian agencies, whose agencies were

identified by predetermined selection criteria designed to reduce experimenter

bias.

− Young humanitarian professionals, with less than 5 years professional

experience, currently working in the field. Ten respondents were sought from

this group, and would be identified through a snowball sampling strategy where

the human resource experts were asked to forward the questionnaire to the

7 Identifying the essential ingredients for training of new entrants to the sector (Specific Objective

2), the 'Gap' between what academia provide young hopeful humanitarian and what NGOs want from

entry-level staff (Specific Objective 3), and the obstacles slowing down the trend towards

professionalization (Specific Objective 4).

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young professionals.

− All the graduating Network On Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA) masters

students who studied at one of the seven NOHA universities in the 2010-2011

academic year.

− All of the volunteers from the first EVHAC pilot project implemented by Save

the Children UK, NOHA and Bioforce.

Information garnished from the detailed questionnaires completed by people from each

of these respondent groups was hoped to provide an objective means of gaining a new

perspective on the key elements an EVHAC should contain to facilitate the

professionalization of the humanitarian sector using information from respondent

groups not yet focused on by previous studies.

Utility

This thesis will attempt to offer a clearer definition of the gap between what university

courses are providing young humanitarian hopefuls and what NGOs are looking for in

new employees. Ultimately, it is hoped that the findings of this thesis would be of use to

ECHO in deciding EVHAC's selection criteria, training curriculum, the structure of

volunteer deployments and the overall role and function EVHAC may seek to have in

relation to professionalising the sector.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

Introduction

Concerning the professionalization of the humanitarian sector, organisations and

movements such as Mango, RedR, People In Aid (PIA), the Active Learning Network

for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), and the

Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance network (ELRHA)

have, in the absence of any pan-sector structure that might support the growth in

humanitarian personnel numbers and needs, emerged organically from the Third Sector

over the last two decades to respond to the mushrooming need for professional

humanitarians.

ELRHA recently published (2010) a key paper entitled 'Professionalising the

Humanitarian Sector; a Scoping Study' which included a survey of approximately 2000

humanitarians. In October, 2011 Harvard University's Program on Humanitarian Policy

and Conflict Research conducted a Survey on the “Access to Professional Development

in the Humanitarian Sector”. These examples show that while there may not yet be a

large body of literature about the professionalization of the humanitarian sector in

academic journals, the topic is generating a lot of interest in policy departments,

universities and NGOs.

Literature on EVHAC

Concerning literature on the EVHAC; as the Corps is still in its gestation period there is

little to be fond about it in academic literature (NOHA, 2010). However in the two years

since the Lisbon Treaty was ratified and EVHAC became an obligation of the European

Commission, it has been increasingly referred to in specialised press (New Europe

Magazine, 2010, C'nect NOHA Student Newsletter, 2010, VOICE newsletter, 2011).

Concerning the gap between the end of studies for a young humanitarian hopeful, and

their professional recruitment into the sector, there is much less available literature. The

ELRHA study (Walker, 2010) addresses this issue but concentrates to a greater extent on

the professional development of those who are already working within the sector, rather

than those who are currently outside trying to get in. Furthermore, the ELRHA study

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does not make any reference to EVHAC, meaning that while this thesis may examine

similar issues, it will do so from a new perspective.

The relatively scant amount of literature on the professionalization of the humanitarian

sector, EVHAC and the challenges facing young hopeful humanitarians, and the

veritable dearth of information on the intersection of these three topics provides the

raison d'être of this study.

Evolution of 'professionalism' as a concept

As much as the definition of 'professionalism'8 helps us tie down the concept, the

concept is nevertheless socially constructed, contextually variable and constantly being

redefined, and as such requires a more complex analysis (Evans, 2008: Evetts, 2008:

Henkel, 1995).

Early social theories (Durkheim, 1957: Parsons, 1951) about professions were based on

the assumption that the division of labour in a normally evolving society creates needs

between different social groups: similar to those between family members. Some of

these needs are met by the profession whose characteristics include possessing a

specialised body of knowledge and ability; being value laden; maintaining a dominant

relationship with the client or having a superior sense of social status (Jones, 1983 in

Henkel 1995). In this reasoning, the profession, and the professional's relationship with

society, was a paternalistic one where professions perform, in a formalised manner, the

traditional functions of the mid twentieth century, 'western', father.

The core element of a profession is the possession of a specialised body of knowledge,

but how one uses that knowledge is just as important to complete the concept. Using a

trait approach Millerson (1964) reviewed 21 studies on professions and professional

theory in an attempt to find characteristics common to all professions. He did not

8 The working definition of 'Professionalism' for the purposes of this study will be; “The ability of an individual to do something with a high level of competence, commitment, or expertise, where professionalism consists of appropriate behaviours, applying procedures and policies, effective management, delivering objectives, adding value, having a capacity and willingness to learn, flexibility, and hitting the ground running” (Potter, 2006, in VOICE, 2006, p.6: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2000: Walkers, 2010, p.6)) and a professional as 'a person who does something with a high level of competence, commitment or expertise' (Oxford Dictionary, 2000).

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identify any, showing how difficult it is to apply a 'one size fits all' model. The literature

contains many other characteristics of professions that allow us to differentiate them

from 'jobs', these characteristics can be divided into two broad groups: 'attitudinal

attributes' and 'structural attributes' (Hall, 1968 in Russ 2010).Considering the latter...

Structural attributes of professions

Structural attributes of professions are derived from the socialisation of practitioners of

the same profession with a shared interest in managing this body of specialised

knowledge and its use (Miranti, 1998). For the oldest and best established professions

such as medicine or law, having a monopoly on this knowledge and managing access to

it, emerged through the formation of professional associations. Historical equivalents

include colleges and guilds, for more manual professions or trades (Creuss, 2000).

Increasing in complexity, informal associations' mandates were formalised by written

documents including laws on licensure and legal protection, and regulations on training

to be given in an agreed and systematic way (Greenwood, 1965). With ultimate

authority over its members, the professional association determines the qualifications

required of members; the curriculum and substance of training; the ethical and technical

criteria to evaluate members and also the number of people to be educated for practice

(Wilensky, 1964).

Associations: Acquiring legitimacy through critical mass

In order for an association to acquire these attributes, before there are any written

documents, it must have the support of a critical mass of practitioners so as to give it

legitimacy across all the practitioners of a profession in its jurisdiction. In the early 19th

century professions whose main entrance pathways were through apprenticeships, were

jointly controlled by groups of master practitioners, representative organisations and

state licensing agencies (Miranti, 1998). With politics at all stages, fomenting the

process (Haire, 2009).

In order to maintain this legitimacy the foremost obligation of the professional

association is the setting of rigorous standards (Merton, 1958), this has two functions: to

discipline unprofessional and incompetent behaviour and by so doing, maintain

20

standards within the profession. In summary, the association's role is to be a voice for

the profession “able to speak authoritatively and authentically on behalf of its

members” and ultimately for all the practitioners in its jurisdiction (Creuss, 2000). This

'gate-keeping' method of occupational control was based on a conflict action model of

society (Friedson, 1973) that allowed professionals autonomy from oversight and

independence of practice (Miranti, 1998) as long as their work remained within the

limits and rules laid down by their associations. (Creuss, 2000). With the authority, and

the useful tool of community sanction, cultures grew within professional associations

and created structural attributes which were as advantageous to society as much as to

the holders of esoteric knowledge. Ethical codes emerged as products in more socially

orientated professions; systematic theory in more scientific or technical professions

(Greenwood, 1965).

How does the humanitarian sector compare to others in terms of structural

attributes?

When we compare the process of structural evolution of professions with the current

state of affairs in the humanitarian sector, it seems the humanitarian sector is far behind

in some aspects, but very mature in others. Some of the products of professional

associations exist as sets of standards (Sphere, 2011) and there are also many accredited

courses of training (Russ, 2010). RedR, Mango and Bioforce are big providers of

professional training and key actors in the professionalization of the sector. Even steps

towards forming professional associations within the humanitarian sector have been

taken during the last decade. In 2002 an online group of aid workers sought agreement

on common standards of training (Walker, 2010). In 2007, People In Aid (PIA)

recognised the need for the sector to agree on a core set of competencies and in the

same year the Interagency Working Group on Emergency Capacity and the Emergency

Personnel Network (2007) commissioned studies on the feasibility of establishing a

common certification and accreditation system, and the creation of a humanitarian

academy, but found that no existing one had the necessary globally recognised currency

to do so. However the absence of an internationally recognised professional

humanitarian association with sufficient 'global currency', means that NGOs will

continue to make up their own sets of core competencies to meet internal needs

(something for example that Save the Children UK, Care International and Worldvision,

21

among others, have been doing for some years) (Walker, 2010: Dickmann, 2010: Van

Bruaene, 2010). NGOs' duplication of each others work will continue for as long as

there is a mutual advantage in sharing this work. This mutual advantage is expressed in

consortia of NGO (one of the biggest in Europe being the Consortium of British

Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA) which groups together 14 of the biggest NGOs in

Britain and Ireland, and given time it will surely evolve further where consortia like the

CBHA will accredit courses that recognise skills and qualifications, register training

providers and provide policy advice to other NGOs to help them become members. The

question of this study is what EVHAC can contribute to this process? Where, if at all,

can it act as a catalyst? (Prolog, 2006: Van Bruaene, 2010)

Attitudinal Attributes of Professionals

Going back to the broader theory, the structural attributes of professions are rooted in

two things. Firstly in the needs of society (expressed through governance) for more and

more specialised knowledge and labour. Secondly by the self-interest of the groups of

practitioners, which leads us to the attitudinal attributes of professionals rather than the

structural attributes of the professions they work in. Thankfully with more certainty in

the stability of their place within society, professionals became more benevolent, and

common characteristics such as a belief in service, a sense of calling and a dedication to

work, for more than financial reward, emerged (Hall, 1968).

These attributes were born of the social contract between the public and the practitioner

where there was the notion that the work done by the profession was something that

benefited society as well as the person performing it (Creuss, 2000: Hall, 1968: Schon,

1983). Such attitudinal attributes of professionals are reflected by the vast majority of

humanitarian workers according to the ELRHA study (2010) which found 84.7% of

respondents attesting that 'a sense of calling' was part of the reason why they chose to

do the work they did. The humanitarian sector is not at all unique in this attribute, in all

social professions there is the assumption of a shared set of core values between

professionals, these values are necessary to describe the relationship between the

privileged professional and the less privileged public they seek to serve (Walker, 2005).

However these attitudinal and structural attributes are worth nothing to the professional

22

if they do not know how to perform their job, there is still need for a repertoire of skill,

knowledge and understanding. How this body of specialised knowledge is organised,

managed, developed and applied to reality, is where models of professionalism find

most consensus (Evans, 2008: Henkel, 1995).

The importance of experiential learning

The common denominator across professions is that experiential learning is the means

by which professional competence is acquired and then nurtured (Henkel, 1995).

Professional competence can be differentiated from that required to do a 'job'.

Professional competence equips the person to deal with novel and unique situations. In

this way professional competence is more than prescribed performance in a range of

functions (Winter, 1991). It is also what Schon (1983) calls the 'artistry of professional

competence' where the professional is a reflective practitioner responding calmly and

intuitively in new and unexpected situations (Schon, 1983). Experiential learning

implies a versatile and re-definable body of knowledge and a gradual incremental

process in knowledge acquisition, for this the professional has a responsibility to

continuously strive to improve professional performance, something Walker (1992)

considers an essential characteristic of a true professional.

Types of professionals

Henkel (1995) proposes four main types of professionals: the practical professional, the

technical professional, the managerial professional and the reflective-practitioner. We

can differentiate these groups by testing them against seven variables: self image,

theoretical orientation, knowledge base, practice theory, value base, relations with client

and professional development. Humanitarians, depending on their area of specialisation,

can commonly be found in the 'technical' (nutritionist, accountants, enumerators, water

engineers) and 'managerial' professional types (security experts, public health workers,

project managers and logisticians) but regardless of a professional's knowledge or skill

base, he or she can also be a member of the 'reflective-practitioner' professional type

and this type is the ideal professional.

23

Methods and models of professional development

The variable in this framework that is of greatest interest to this study is professional

development. Henkel (1995) identifies three methods for the process of professional

development in the reflective-practitioner: 'learning by', 'learning from' and 'learning in

formal settings'. 'Learning by' means learning from direct, on the job, experience.

'Learning from' is the type of observational learning that occurs during internships,

through mentoring or through working with peers and is always accompanied with

opportunities for reflection and discussion (People In Aid, 2003). All three types are

necessary for continuous professional development to greater or lesser extents

depending on the stage of professional development one is at.

Hoyle's (1975) model of professionalism highlights the importance of having the

opportunity to both 'learn by' and 'learn from'. He proposes a professionality continuum

where a professional who only 'learns by' will remain at a restricted level of

professionality, while the professional who also 'learns from' will have a more extended

professionality. The former's skills are derived only from his direct experience, whereas

the 'learn from' professional combines skills with theory, the former is introspective and

autonomous in his work. The 'learn from' professional by contrast, is more out-ward

looking and seeks professional collaboration so as to apply theory to succeed in a

variety of professional situations.

This brings us back to the key attribute of the professional: to be able to react to new

situations and challenges in their work. This trait is found in other models of

professionalism such as Evan's (2008) where it is the product of the complementarity

between three components: the intellectual, attitudinal and functional components. From

each of these three respectively, come the ability to rationalise (through merging

experience and theory), to evaluate and to apply procedural knowledge, which together

equip the professional to deal with previously unseen challenges better than the non

professional. All of these models underline the necessity for continuous learning in the

true 'reflective-practitioner' professional.

24

Relevance to EVHAC

In the career-long journey that is professional development, EVHAC can have an

impact on the pathways taken by its volunteers towards becoming a professional in the

humanitarian sector (as the majority of the first group of pilot project volunteers

surveyed intend to do). Also, if the young average age of the volunteers on the current

round of pilot projects (26 years of age) is to remain a characteristic of EVHAC

volunteers when the Corps is formalised, then more specifically, EVHAC will have an

impact on the beginnings of the professionalization paths of its volunteers. To better

understand the role EVHAC could potentially play at improving the professionalization

of the sector at its entry-point, it is useful to compare what has happened in other

professions at this stage of professional maturation.

The Internship

Today one of the most common processes of entry into professions, new and well-

established, is the internship. A useful definition comes from Collins Dictionary (2009).

The internship is “any official or formal program to provide practical experience in an

occupation or profession”. This definition holds as true today as it did in the 11th

century trade guilds of England. Although in that era the worker would actually pay for

the opportunity to learn alongside a 'master', apprentices would start as early as 16 and

would remain at this level for several years. The internship has evolved in many ways

but still remains an experience of professionalization through initiation with the practice

of work. It has followed an erratic path, with professions such as law and medicine,

being the earliest to formalise the internship. In many professions, well-established and

new, the internship's characteristics were and still are, regularly determined as much by

socioeconomic-political issues as by consideration for educational objectives (Wentz,

1984).

In other sectors internships have increasingly become a necessity for young hopeful

graduates. In a 2001 survey by the American National Association of Colleges and

Employers, employers reported 57% of their new staff came through internship

programmes (Haire, 2009). By 2008 that number had reached 70%. The relevance of the

internship to this study and to EVHAC, (if it is to contribute to the professionalization

25

of the humanitarian sector, and understand its relevance specifically to the humanitarian

sector) is the reason the internship is analysed through questionnaires and a content

analysis of job descriptions in Specific Objective No. 3 (“Identifying the 'gap' between

what academia provides and what employers want”).

Building on foundations already laid: Picking up where ELRHA left off

In conjunction with the theory on professionalization above, the piece of literature that

reaffirms the research gap and utility of this study most of all, is the Enhancing

Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) network's 2010 study

“Professionalising the humanitarian sector, a scoping study” (Walker, 2010, p.57). It

made no reference to EVHAC, but among its thirteen recommendations for further

research and actions to be taken if the sector is to continue to professionalise, four of the

recommendations were related to the specific objectives of this study.

Recommendation 9 of the ELRHA study was that “A dedicated, independent,

International Humanitarian Professional Association be formed. This is critical to the

creation of a profession in humanitarian action and to the creation and acceptance of a

widely recognised certification system for humanitarians“. Through an examination of

the theory of professionalization in the literature above, this study (Specific Objective 1)

reaffirms the ELRHA recommendation. However, due to the limited scope of this study

in terms of time and resources, further investigation into the area of an international

humanitarian professional association, its relevance to EVHAC and how EVHAC may

contribute to its formation, was not feasible in this study, but would be a primary

recommendation for future research.

Recommendation 3 of the ELRHA study was “That research be undertaken to better

understand the motivations of humanitarian workers entering into and working in, the

humanitarian sector, thus allowing for a better understanding of professional

development requirements”.

This study integrates this recommendation by asking graduating NOHA students,

current EVHAC pilot project volunteers and young professionals in the sector, what

motivates them to work in the sector and their intentions for how long they wish to

work in the sector. By comparing their responses concerning the paths they have taken

26

in terms of training and education to get to where they are now, it was hoped to better

understand their professional development requirements, and thus provide

recommendations for how an EVHAC could respond to these requirements.

Recommendation 10 of the ELRHA study was that “Humanitarian agencies should

actively promote systems of apprenticeship and 'on the job' learning within a structured

environment, understanding that during such a learning period young professionals

need close mentoring and limits set on the responsibilities they are asked to undertake

whilst undergoing this vital experiential learning”.

This study integrates and builds upon this recommendation by asking NGOs, graduating

NOHA students, current EVHAC pilot project volunteers and young professionals in the

sector, their experiences of experiential learning in the sector in the form of internships,

voluntary programmes and professional work. An analysis of the positive and negative

experiences of the respondents in relation to this experiential learning is the focus of

Specific Objectives 2, 3 and 4. This study aimed to build on the ELRHA study by

providing a recommendation (in Chapter 5) about how EVHAC can provide a structure

for such a 'professionalising' period of experiential learning.

Recommendation 5 of the ELRHA study was that “learning and development providers

and human resource specialists in the sector be engaged to harness the best of what has

been developed, for the benefit of the sector as a whole”.

This recommendation was built upon in this study by surveying human resource

specialists from NGOs and asking them how they thought EVHAC could contribute to

the sector in this domain; how these NGOs developed their staff professionally and then

comparing these answers to the responses of graduating NOHA students, current

EVHAC pilot project volunteers and young professionals to similar questions.

Through relating these ELRHA recommendations to the specific goals of this study it

was hoped to identify how EVHAC can contribute to the professionalization of the

sector, and specifically what it can do for young humanitarian hopefuls by identifying

the gaps to be filled between university qualifications and what NGOs want from new

employees.

27

The 3 needs

Considering the theoretical models of professionalization and the current state of the

humanitarian sector (ALNAP, 2010) any new initiative seeking to professionalise the

sector can be broken into three broad areas:

− Why is there a need?

− What is there a need for?

− How can this need be satisfied?

1. 'Why is there a need?'

The need for a greater professionalization has been established most comprehensively

and recently by the ELRHA 'Professionalising the Humanitarian Sector' study (2010)

and also both directly and indirectly by the literature referred to in this chapter and in

Chapter 1.

There are reasons for the need to professionalise the sector:

− to bring quality and consistency to the work of humanitarians

− to equip humanitarians with the ability to deal with a variety of challenges

during their work

− to enable the best potential new entrants to grow within and enrich the sector

− to improve the understanding of cultural issues

2. What is there a need for?

In order to begin to satisfy the human resource needs for greater professionalism, a

starting point is the creation of a framework for the professionalization of the

humanitarian sector.

From comparisons of the historical formation of other professions (Wilensky, 1964:

Millerson, 1964) and the adaptation of these comparisons to the humanitarian sector,

three principle components of this framework for professionalization can be identified

as, the provision of, widespread adherence to, and acceptance of:

− a set of global standards that provides the foundations for a unified system of

28

professional development

− a code of professional conduct

− representative bodies for humanitarian sector professionals, comparable to

professional associations in other professions

Together, these three components will provide a supportive academic and training

infrastructure for life-long learning and attractive career paths, so that humanitarian

workers will be retained by the sector.

These elements will directly increase the quality, consistency and accountability of

humanitarian assistance (the first two reasons for the need to professionalise) and

indirectly, they will improve the understanding of cultural issues (the fourth reason).

3. How can this need be satisfied?

Specifically there is a need for a scale of qualifications rather than ad-hoc training, and

a system of certification both at an international level based on this scale of

qualifications.

Training can be standardised through agreeing core curricula based on the active contact

between many professions (medical, logistics, engineering, security).

For these concrete steps to be achievable the establishment of an international

professional association for humanitarian workers would appear to be a prerequisite.

An analytical framework

Considering the analysis of the theory on professional models and the necessary steps

for the professionalization of an occupation, the humanitarian sector as it is today and

the context from which EVHAC is emerging, a number of gaps can be identified and

structured as an analytical framework that will inform the methodology of this study.

The general gap between what academia provides young people aiming to become

professionals in the humanitarian sector, and the minimum competencies NGOs look for

in new employees, can be broken into smaller more specific gaps by considering the

theory of professionalization in conjunction with the current state of the humanitarian

sector in terms of professionalization that has been identified in the literature review

above.

29

These smaller specific gaps are:

1. in selection processes (that lack of uniformity, consistency and impartiality

in their methodology)

2. in training (that appears to be ad-hoc and unstandardised across the sector

and is mostly 'on-the-job' as opposed to 'before-the-job')

3. in structures (such as systems of accreditation of acquired competencies, and

professional associations that would help regulate and standardise both

selection and training processes)

4. in experience9 (of new candidates wishing to find their first job in the

humanitarian sector)

5. in knowledge about the humanitarian sector (where knowledge and

awareness of the humanitarian principles and cultural issues can be less of a

priority for humanitarian agencies than specialised technical knowledge)

Considering these five specific, yet interlinked gaps, provides a better focus on the

target of this study, which is generally speaking to identify how the EVHAC can

contribute positively, and not negatively, to the trend towards the professionalization of

the humanitarian sector.

The next chapter, 'Methodology' will explain the break-down of the remaining three

specific objectives (mentioned in 'Research Design' in Chapter 1) into specific tasks and

how these tasks were executed so as to increase, as much as possible, the reliability and

validity of the study.

9 'Experience' in this context refers to the quandary of needing experience to find work, but not

being able to get experience without being given a chance

30

Chapter 3 Methodology

A Basic Assumption

It should be noted that the following methodology is based on the assumption that the

goal of EVHAC volunteers is to one day become successful, full-time humanitarian

professionals and that this is one of their motivations for volunteering with EVHAC.

It was recognised at the moment of designing this research that this assumption may not

necessarily be true for all of the EVHAC volunteers, however, it was a necessary

assumption to make, considering the focus on professionalization in the rest of the

study.

The validity of this assumption was tested in the questionnaires given to EVHAC

volunteers by asking them how long they planned to work in the humanitarian sector.

Seven of the eleven pilot project volunteers who completed the questionnaire declared it

was their intention to work professionally in the humanitarian sector for all of their

career, while 2 said they intended to stay for over 10 years10, showing that the

assumption is valid and can presumably be generalised to the rest of the 25 pilot project,

This generalisation could be tentatively extended to many other EVHAC candidates in

the future.

Generalisability

Concerning generalisability, the sample size of the young professional group is too

small to make broad generalisations with any certainty. Of all four groups of

respondents, finding respondents for this group was the most difficult. There were two

main difficulties: firstly because of access. By definition as humanitarian field workers,

10 The same question was asked to the graduating NOHA students. Of the 13 who responded, 8 planned

to spend their career in the sector, 3 said 'Don't know', and 2 said 'Five years', showing that for many; 'young volunteer' is synonomous with 'young aspiring professional'. Interestingly the answers of young professionals differed greatly from the other two groups; only 1 of the 5 respondents planned to remain for their career, 1 said 'Don't know' and the other 3 said 'between 3 to 10 years'. The difference between 'young humanitarian hopefuls' and young professionals with experience in the field, about their optimism to remain working happily in the sector, may suggest a lack of realism among the 'young humanitarian hopefuls' based on a lack of knowledge about the challenges of working life.

31

the large majority of the target group were in another hemisphere, some in rural

situations with limited access to emails and perhaps without much enthusiasm to

complete detailed questionnaires. This criterion was necessary because for the purpose

of this study, it was to be assumed that the EVHAC volunteers would be deployed to

work in the field.

The second difficulty was finding young professionals that fulfilled the criteria of the

research definition for 'young humanitarian professionals':

− they had to be identified through random snowball sampling via the NGOs who

completed the questionnaire for this study (i.e. at the end of the questionnaire, that

NGO human resource staff completed, they were asked to provide contact details of

young professionals in their organisation or people they knew personally). This was

the only sampling strategy for this group of respondents that could exclude

researcher bias from their selection.

− they had to have less than five years professional experience, so as to have faced

similar contemporary obstacles to entering the sector as young humanitarian

hopefuls in 2011.

Confidentiality

To ensure to the greatest extent possible, that respondents replied with honesty and

frankness, all groups were assured that their answers would be treated with the utmost

confidentiality and that at no point would their name, or the name of their organisation,

appear beside or be directly linked to, any of the information they provided.

Limitations

Considering that the EVHAC programme and all its volunteers will be European, this

study will look at the challenges for young Europeans in establishing a path into the

humanitarian profession. Although worthy areas for future research, to analyse young

humanitarians from other culture (in particular those from countries that have been

affected by a humanitarian disaster or that need disaster preparedness programmes)

would be beyond the scope of this study.

Another issue relating to problems in the professionalization of the humanitarian sector

32

is the high rate of staff turnover and the low number of candidates who want to work in

'undesirable countries' (e.g. Chad, Sudan, and Democratic Republic of Congo). Despite

such issues meriting academic research, to address the human resource capacity

problems relating to these areas would be beyond the scope of this project.

In depth, semi-structured, exploratory interviews

Seven in depth, semi-structured, exploratory interviews were conducted in the first 8

months of 2011 with humanitarian professionals from the International Committee of

the Red Cross, Irish Aid, the German Red Cross, Trocaire, ECHO headquarter staff, a

field expert, and a consultant who had conducted research on EVHAC for ECHO.

There was no selection process for the interviewees, they were simply people who

either had a professional interest in the future EVHAC or to whom the author had

access.

The majority of these interviews were conducted before the specific objectives were

finalised, and as such, helped to inform the direction of the study rather than provide

data for research objectives,.

However, a review of the interview transcripts after the collection of primary data from

questionnaires, did provide some useful insights that are referred in Chapters 4 and 5

and coloured the analysis of results and recommendations.

The remaining 3 Specific Objectives, followed by their detailed breakdown

The breakdown of the remaining three Specific Objectives 2, 3 and 411 (the first

Specific Objective was realised in Chapter 2, 'Literature Review') in the order of their

realisation is listed below:

The bulk of the primary data required to achieve these objectives was acquired through

the questionnaires (see Appendices _ _ to - - ) sent to the following four target groups:

i - young humanitarian professionals,

ii - graduating NOHA students / 'young humanitarian hopefuls' 11 Specific Objective 2 “Identify the essential ingredients of a training curriculum that EVHAC should include in order to professionalise the volunteers”. Specific Objective 3 - “Identify the 'Gap' between what academia provides and what employers want”. Specific Objective 4 - “Identify the obstacles slowing down the trend towards the greater professionalization of the humanitarian sector”

33

iii - NGO human resources departments

iv - the current EVHAC pilot project volunteers / 'young humanitarian hopefuls'

While the questionnaires were similar in terms of the questions they asked, the selection

criteria and procedure for each target group was unique.

Specific Objective 2 “Identify the essential ingredients of a training curriculum that

EVHAC should include in order to professionalise the volunteers”

This was done through a comparison of the perspectives on training of the following

four groups, acquired through questionnaires and structured and semi-structured

interviews.

The rationale behind this comparison was that it would show what training and

experiential learning young humanitarian hopefuls had to acquire before being able to

find professional work.

The assumption was that a young humanitarian professional, to have arrived at their

current position, must have acquired certain key experiences and training as well as

having negotiated certain steps and obstacles, while the EVHAC volunteer had not yet

had the opportunity to have these experiences or training, nor encountered these steps or

obstacles.

Thus if the EVHAC pilot programmes included these elements, the volunteer would be

helped to progress straight into the professional sector upon finishing the EVHAC

project.

To gain another perspective the human resource staff of certain NGOs were also

questioned on the topic. And so that findings might later be generalised further than the

current EVHAC pilot project volunteers, graduating NOHA students who also match

the profile of the 'young humanitarian hopeful'12 were given the same questions as the

EVHAC volunteers. Given identical questions, similar answers from NOHAs and

EVHAC volunteers would suggest the two group's homogeneity.

12 “A person from the age of 23 upwards, who has a documented personal interest in humanitarian issues, who is willing to work in humanitarian sector without immediate “monetary” compensation, but who has the goal of acquiring expertise to be more marketable in the labour market and to secure a position in the sector” (Appendix 1).

34

Members of all four groups were given questionnaires which asked about the titles of

their previous training, their opinion of the most essential element of the training and

their opinion on the most important type of training necessary to find a job.

The questions on the questionnaire related to this specific objective asked about the

respondent's education, qualifications, training (academic or practical) they took so as to

better qualify themselves to work in the development or humanitarian sectors. So as to

gain information for specific objectives 3 and 413, they were also asked about the cost

and duration of their training courses. The questionnaire given to NGOs also asked what

an EVHAC should include if it is to help the trend towards the professionalization of the

humanitarian sector.

Through finding comparisons in the answers of these four very varied groups, it was

hoped that with a credible degree of validity, this would identify a list of key elements

that could aid the professionalization of the humanitarian sector.

Specific Objective 3 “Identifying the 'gap' between what academia provides and what

employers want”

This Specific Objective was realised through identifying the 'gaps' between the general

profiles of young humanitarian hopefuls (EVHAC pilot project volunteers and

graduating NOHA students) and the minimum competencies and requirements sought

from new entrants by the human resources departments of humanitarian NGOs.

Referring back to the analytical framework at the end of Chapter 2, the types of 'gaps'

that the research was aiming to identify for this specific objective were in terms of

training, previous voluntary and professional experience, knowledge of the

humanitarian sector, and other skills and abilities.

A summary of the steps taken to achieve this specific objective through the use of

questionnaires, is as follows:

1. Identify the general profiles and minimum competencies desired by the human

resources departments of humanitarian NGOs

- ...By asking all of these human resource experts for their opinion on how EVHAC

13 Specific Objective 3 - “Identify the 'Gap' between what academia provides and what employers want”. Specific Objective 4 - “Identify the obstacles slowing down the trend towards the greater professionalization of the humanitarian sector”

35

could learn from their programmes, and what components of training would they

deem essential for an EVHAC in order to produce employable graduates.

2. Identify the most common minimum requirements for entry level positions found

in Relief Web job descriptions.

3. Identify the general profiles and competencies of successful young humanitarian

professionals.

- ...By identifying ten mid-level staff, ideally with less than 5 years professional

experience in the sector, working in humanitarian agencies in the field14

- ...And by developing maps of their career progression from point of entry into the

sector to their current position.

4. Identify the general profiles and competencies of young hopeful humanitarians

(such as the current EVHAC volunteers and NOHA graduates) upon completion

of their studies but before they have found professional work.

Selection procedures for NGOs

Only humanitarian agencies that were either among the 25 biggest or 10 smallest

recipients of ECHO funding in 2010 as identified by the ECHO Annual Report 2010

were sent questionnaires to complete. (see Appendix 2.A and 2.B.)

The justification for using level of funding as the key criteria in identifying which

humanitarian agencies to contact, was because the use of the ECHO annual report

allowed identification in a consistent and impartial manner free from the interference of

any biases.

The reason for choosing 35 (the 25 biggest and 10 smallest) as the number of

humanitarian agencies to contact, was because of the expectation that not all of the

organisations contacted would respond to the questionnaire.

The rationale behind contacting NGOs among the biggest and smallest recipients of

ECHO funding, was so as to get perspectives from actors at opposite ends of the

humanitarian agency spectrum, at least in terms of funding.

The choice of contacting the top 25, but only the bottom 10, was because the bottom 10

were all NGOs with very specific specialisations e.g. cartography (Map Action UK),

telecoms (Telecom Sans Frontiers), psychosocial support (SKUPAJ) and so their 14 Justification: less than 5 years involvement means they came in post-Tsunami and could be

considered the current era of humanitarian aid.

36

response to what was necessary for new young humanitarians would have been more

focused on technical rather than general skills.

Also it was felt that information given by the big humanitarian agencies would be more

representative of the humanitarian sector as a whole, as together these top 25

humanitarian agencies accounted for 73.3% of total ECHO funding in 2010 (€758.6

million). Another reason for selecting the top 25 was because these agencies are likely

to share ECHO's policies and principles to a greater extent than large agencies ECHO

does not fund, and in turn it will be these agencies (tried, trusted and known to ECHO)

that are most likely to be its partners in the implementation of EVHAC.

'Thirty-five' was also considered a sufficient number to give a clear idea of the general

selection and training processes of these humanitarian agencies. To analyse more would

have been beyond the scope of this research.

UN agencies make up 6 of the top 10 recipients of ECHO funding, however only two of

these were contacted, as it was felt there would be too much similarity in the responses,

considering their shared status as UN agencies.

Selection procedure for humanitarian job and internship descriptions

In addition to the questionnaire responses from the NGOs, similar information from a

different source was gained in order to increase the reliability of data on this subject.

This was done through a content-analysis of 10 randomly selected job descriptions on

ReliefWeb15. Following unexpected findings in the analysis of these job descriptions

that would not have allowed the specific objective to be accomplished, it became

necessary to also conduct a content analysis of 10 randomly selected internship

descriptions from Relief Web. The reason for this modification of the research design

will be explained, in context, in Chapter 4.

The criteria used to identify which job and internship descriptions to examine, was done

by filtering those advertised towards people with '0 to 3 years experience' (a filter

necessary in order to get the relevant job descriptions for young humanitarians) leaving

216 jobs, and 31 internships.

Only job and internship descriptions that did not relate to specialised professional 15 The reason Relief Web ( http://reliefweb.int/ ) was used a source for these job descriptions is because

it is one of the most-widely used websites in the humanitarian community, receiving approximately 1 million hits per day (Russ, 2010) and also because its search facility for job descriptions enabled a well-targeted and completely impartial selection.

37

positions, such as those of doctors, nutritionists or engineers were selected. This was

because this study is focusing on access into the humanitarian sector for candidates

without a specialised profession (as mentioned under the 'Scope' heading in Chapter 1).

These selections were filtered by most recent date and then the first 10 in each column

were taken (this 'recency filter' was simply to ensure that the selection was random and

impartial).

Selection procedure for 'Young Humanitarian Professionals'

While humanitarian agencies and the job descriptions they publish, provide a list of

minimum requirements and core competencies, from the point of view of those

recruiting, in order to gain another perspective and a more complete understanding of

the finer points of the minimum competencies necessary to find work in the

humanitarian sector, young humanitarian professionals answered questions on the skills

and experiences they had acquired to get to their current positions. They were also

asked questions about the challenges they faced and negotiated along the way (relevant

to Specific Objective 4).

Selection of the young professionals was done by snowball sampling through two

avenues:

4. Interviewees in four of the exploratory, in-depth interviews were asked to send

the 'young professional' questionnaire (see Appendix 3.C.) to any people they

knew professionally or personally, who matched the selection criteria (working

in the field, and with less than 5 years professional experience in the sector).

5. All questionnaires that were sent to the NGOs and to the first young

professionals who were identified, included a request for the respondent to

forward the researcher's email address to any young professionals they knew, so

that they could also receive a questionnaire. Thus the identification of these

young professionals was random in so far as the researcher had no influence

over which young professionals contacted him.

The drawback however is that all those identified were linked to the NGOs who

received the questionnaire, and so they did not come from all corners of the

humanitarian field.

This imperfection in terms of the representation in the sampling was decided necessary

38

because of the otherwise total lack of access to such young professionals who, due to

the nature of their work, were mostly in the southern hemisphere.

Selection procedures for 'Young Humanitarian Hopefuls'

While the humanitarian agencies' human resource experts, the job descriptions and the

young professional humanitarians provided a list of reliable minimum competencies

that a young hopeful humanitarian ought to have if she or he is to realistically hope to

find professional work in the sector, this information does not establish the size of the

gap between what academia equips young hopeful humanitarians with, and what they

need before they are employable and deployable.

In order to establish the extent of this gap it was necessary to identify groups who had

not yet had any professional experience in the humanitarian sector.

Two such groups were identified that represented candidates at the end of their

academic education and had not yet found paid work but who were in the process of

attempting to find such work. The first group consisted of the 34 NOHA masters

students who had just finished a master's in humanitarian action at University College

Dublin in the 2010-2011 academic year. The second group consisted of the first 25

EVHAC pilot project volunteers. All members of both target groups were sent

questionnaires (see Appendix 3.D. and 3.E).

It was recognised that some members of both of these groups may already have limited

professional experience in the sector. However, their results were still included as it was

felt that as they had chosen to complete the NOHA masters or EVHAC programme,

their responses would nevertheless offer an insight into the challenges faced in securing

a professional position in the sector (Specific Objective 4).

A comparative analysis between these two 'young humanitarian hopeful' groups was

also conducted to help better analyse 'the gap'. A difference in the responses of NOHA

graduates and EVHAC volunteers relating to their competences and experiences would

indicate whether the EVHAC volunteer was on average, more or less equipped to enter

the profession than the NOHA graduate, who for the purposes of this analysis was

considered to have received as much training to become a generalist humanitarian

professional, as is available through academia16.

16 However it should be reiterated that the selection criteria for the EVHAC pilot project volunteers may

be entirely different in future pilot projects and for the EVHAC once it is finally formed. For example

39

A further test to support the rationale behind the methodology and thus the

validity of the findings

Included in the questionnaires sent to young humanitarian hopefuls and young

humanitarian professionals were questions on their age, nationality, internships

completed before finding professional work, and accumulated years of professional

experience. The rationale here was that if the young professionals were older, have more

professional experience, come from similar European countries and have done the

similar number of internships and volunteer programmes, then it would support the

assumption that the methodology permits the identification of the stage in the average

young humanitarian professional's career, and thus suggest what gap or career stage the

EVHAC programme should seek to fill.

Specific Objective 4 “Identify the obstacles slowing down the trend towards the

greater professionalization of the humanitarian sector”

This Specific Objective looked firstly at the common challenges, obstacles and

difficulties hopeful young humanitarians and young humanitarian professionals faced

(and face) in making themselves ready to become professionals in the sector. Secondly,

it looked at the common challenges and difficulties NGOs face in both finding and

retaining staff, so that their efficiency in the delivery of aid is improved by having a

more professional team of employees. It was hoped that the identification of these

obstacles would provide a list of problems that the EVHAC should aim to recognise,

and if possible to address. Data for this specific objective were also collected through

the questionnaires, where respondents were asked questions relating to the cost of

training courses and internships, the levels of remuneration for internships, their socio-

economic background, and the hiring policies and hiring practices of humanitarian

agencies.

the selection process for the second EVHAC pilot project conducted by Red Cross national societies, was only open to members of Red Cross societies. As the selection process for this second pilot project took place in the final weeks of this study these Red Cross volunteers could not be included in this study.

40

Summary

Along with providing data for each of the individual specific objectives, the

comparison, synthesis and analysis of all the data from the four specific objectives,

taken from six different sources (the four respondent groups, the literature and the

Relief Web job and internship descriptions) would help determine the key elements an

EVHAC should contain if it is to best fill the 'Gaps' in experience, knowledge (both

technical and of the humanitarian sector in general) training needs, selection processes

and structures (similar to those of professional associations and systems of

accreditation) between what university gives students and what humanitarian agencies

want from new employees. By doing so, this methodology would provide an answer to

the research question17.

17 “How, and through what structures must EVHAC select, train and certify its volunteers so as to bridge the gap between what universities teach about humanitarian assistance and what employers seek from new candidates, and in doing so, assist the professionalization of the humanitarian sector by creating a model for a humanitarian apprenticeship?”

41

Chapter 4 Results

Introduction

Specific Objective 118 dealt with in the literature review in Chapter 2, will provide the

theoretical foundation with which the primary data gathered for specific objectives 2, 3

and 4 will be discussed and analysed in this chapter. Specific Objectives 2, 3 and 4 will

be taken individually and the presentation of findings will be accompanied by their

critical analysis.

Specific Objective 2, 'Training' : “Identifying the essential ingredients for training of

new entrants to the humanitarian sector that will promote their professional

development”

As was explained in Chapter 3, the research design for this specific objective required a

survey using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews of four groups of

respondents: young professionals, graduating NOHA students, current EVHAC pilot

project volunteers and the human resource staff of humanitarian agencies. Beginning

with the young professionals;

Young professionals

Profiles

Five young professionals, aged between 25 and 32, were surveyed. Three were

European, one Asian and one North American. They had spent between 1.5 and 7.5

years working professionally in the humanitarian sector. The average length of

professional experience was 4.5 years. One had worked in 5 different jobs, another in 4,

two had worked in 2 and the other in 1.

All worked for NGOs funded by ECHO. Their current positions were as project

18 Specific Objective 1:“Analyse the literature about professionalization comparing the trend towards professionalization in the Humanitarian Sector with the trend taken in other professions and identify the areas an EVHAC should not ignore if it is to contribute to the professionalization of the humanitarian sector"

42

managers or administrators.

Commitment to the humanitarian sector ...and only the humanitarian sector

Interestingly, only one of the five had had a long term, specific desire to work in the

humanitarian sector, the other four through circumstance had found themselves working

in the humanitarian sector after having intended to work in the development sector. This

point may raise doubts about the ability to generalise the young professionals' answers.

However, their lack of intention to work specifically in the humanitarian sector was

mirrored very closely by the paths taken by NOHA graduates and EVHAC volunteers to

get to where they are now. When NOHAs and EVHAC volunteers were asked the

questions “When and for what reason did you decide you wanted to work in the

humanitarian or development sector?” and “When (…) did you decide you wanted to

work specifically in the humanitarian sector?”, only one respondent from the EVHAC

group said he had only ever wanted to work in the humanitarian sector, while nearly all

from both groups had wanted to work in the development sector. The average length of

time the respondents had wanted to work in the development sector was 8 years

(median: 2 years) while for the humanitarian sector the average was 4 years (median: 1

year). These findings not only quell doubts that the sample of young professionals is not

representative of the target group, the consistency of their responses reflects a

homogeneity across all three sample groups that would support, rather than detract

from, claims of generalisability.

Education

In terms of their formal education, all 5 young professionals had completed degree

courses in the humanities subjects (psychology, geography, international relations and

sociology), two had masters' degrees in International Relations, but none had specialised

professional qualifications. The absence of any specialised professional qualifications

was a key criterion for the inclusion of their responses as this study aimed to identify

the training needs of non-specialised entrants to the humanitarian sector, rather than

previously qualified and specialised professionals.

Previous Training

43

Before they found professional work in the Humanitarian Sector, two of the five young

professionals had done a training course related to humanitarian work. These were

online courses in Project Management. All four received training from at least one of

the 12 NGOs for which they had collectively worked. The main areas of training were:

− the NGO's internal rules and regulations on accounting and administrative tasks

− development politics

− development management

− human rights

− field security

− donor agency's funding regulations

Most courses of training had a duration of three days.

In summary, of the 11 training courses they collectively took, 7 were general to

humanitarian work (e.g. basic security or human rights courses) and 4 were technical

(e.g. accounting or administrative procedures).

In terms of less formal training, such as internships: Four had done 2 internships, one

had done 3, one had done none. Their internships had ranged in length from 3 to 7

months.

Most important element of training they had received:

When asked “What in your opinion, was the most important element of the training you

have received?” the young professionals listed….

− development politics

− rules of donor agencies

− impact orientated management

− understanding log frames

All agreed that training that is most relevant to ‘on-the-ground’ reality and has a

practical, hands-on focus, is the most useful training.

44

Most important element of training they had not received:

When asked “What training is most important to young hopeful humanitarians?” they

listed:

− general logistics

− basic security and behaviour in the field

− accounting and administrative tasks

− project cycle and programme management

− in-depth training for specific donors’ rules and regulations

− language and history courses specific to the country one would be working in.

EVHAC volunteers

Profile and education

Eleven of the twenty-five current EVHAC pilot project volunteers replied to

questionnaires received by email two weeks before the beginning of their training.

These eleven ranged in age from 23 to 31, with an average age of 26 and a mean age of

24. They represented 7 of the 10 nationalities that made up the group of 25 volunteers.

In terms of their formal education, two had degrees and nine had a master's degree. Four

of the eleven had completed NOHA masters and five others had university degrees or

masters with relevance to the development sector.

Previous training

Surprisingly, in contrast to the small number of young professionals who had done

training before or during their professional work in the humanitarian sector (only 2 of

5), 5 of the 11 EVHAC volunteers had taken training courses ranging in length from 3

days to 1 month.

The scope of the topics covered by the EVHAC volunteers was much more extensive

than that covered by the young professionals.

Half the training the volunteers had done happened in the context of internships and

‘volunteer programmes’: 8 of the 11 had done at least one internship, 4 had done 2, and

1 had done 4.

Six of the eleven volunteers had done at least 1 ‘volunteer programme’, four had done

45

2, and one person had done 5 voluntary jobs or programmes.

The number of internships and volunteer programmes completed by EVHAC volunteers

was much greater than the young professionals.

The EVHAC volunteers’ previous training experiences included courses on:

• first aid

• crisis intervention

• report writing

• security in the field

• organisational background

• funding proposal requirements (given by NGOs)

• logistics and security training

• protection training

• gender-based violence and anti-corruption

• the cluster system and mindset training (given by UN agencies)

Additional training courses taken and financed independently by EVHAC volunteers

included:

• field logistics

• needs assessment

• humanitarian practice in emergencies

• deployment

• first aid (given by RedR)

• kidnap training (Punto Sud)

• an expert course on rapid assistance and co-operation for conflict prevention

operations.

An assumption proved false….

On average the EVHAC volunteers who replied to the questionnaire had taken 1.5

training courses, compared to the young professionals who had taken on average 1.25

training courses. Similarly, the average number of internships EVHAC volunteers had

completed was 1.4, while the young professionals had done 1.25.

46

This finding shows that the assumption made at the outset of the study: that young

professionals would have more training than EVHAC volunteers, to be false. This is of

great importance to the validity of this specific objective as the assumption was the

basis of the hypothesis that 'a comparison between the training experiences received by

the young professionals with those of young humanitarian hopefuls could inform the

content of the training curriculum of the new EVHAC training'.

Possible explanations for the findings that EVHAC volunteers have more pre-

professional experience, may be that entry requirements have changed even in the years

since the young professionals entered the sector, or because training programmes have

become more accessible. Another explanation is that the calibre of EVHAC volunteers

selected for the first training programme was very high, this explanation is supported by

the fact that there were over 300 applicants from across Europe for the 25 places on this

pilot project, and the 11 who completed the questionnaire spoke an average of 4

languages (two respondents claimed to speak 6 languages while the lowest linguistic

ability in the EVHAC group was one person who spoke only 2 languages!).

Most important element of the training that they had received:

Asked “What in their opinion was the most important element of the training they

received?” the EVHAC volunteers listed:

• protection training

• the opportunity to hear from people with professional experience

• simulation exercises that replicated situations in the field

Most important element of training that they had not received:

When asked “What, according to your previous experiences in the humanitarian sector,

are the essential elements of a pre-deployment humanitarian training course?', the

following types of courses were mentioned:

− Language and anthropology

− Microsoft excel

− financial management

47

− logistics

− project management

− report writing

− information management

− security (including evacuation procedures and how to behave when kidnapped)

− stress management

− psychological courses giving training in how to deal with working and living in

difficult and cross-cultural environments

− environmental sustainability

EVHAC volunteers also said that ‘role play’ was a useful teaching tool in making

training more practical.

Considering their lack of experience in the sector, one might question the usefulness of

these responses from professionally inexperienced volunteers about what should be

included in a training curriculum before deployment. However, the wording of the

question put to the EVHAC volunteer should be noted; 'What, according to your

previous experiences in the humanitarian sector, are the essential elements of a pre-

deployment humanitarian training course?'. Thus the responses are influenced by the

volunteers' personal experiences of the useful elements of the internships and training

courses they have completed, and while these respondents may not be experts on

working in humanitarian disasters, the long list of training courses they have taken have

presumably given them an informed (albeit limited) opinion of what is effective and not

effective in terms of training. For these reasons it was decided that their perspectives

were worthy of inclusion in this analysis.

NOHAs

Profiles

Fourteen of the thirty-four NOHA students who attended University College Dublin

(UCD) in the 2010-2011 academic year, replied to a questionnaire they received by

email at the beginning of October 2011 (see Appendix 3.E.). The age of these students

48

ranged from 23 to 35, with an average age of 26 years, and a median age of 25. They

represented 11 of the 20 nationalities of the NOHA students in UCD that year.

When analysing the findings relating to NOHA students' success at finding professional

work in the humanitarian sector an important factor must be considered. A reason why

they had not yet found work may be that these students were writing their masters thesis

from June until November of 2011 (the period during which they responded to the

questionnaire). In terms of their formal education, all would soon graduate with an

NOHA masters degree, for two respondents it would be their second masters, and for

four it would be their second university qualification with relevance to the humanitarian

or development sectors (e.g. previous qualifications in Human Rights Law, International

Humanitarian Law).

Previous humanitarian training

In terms of less formal training, 9 of the 14 had done, or were doing, internships. For 3

it was their second internship and 6 of the 14 had previously participated in volunteer

programmes in the development sector. Only 3 of the 14 had taken training courses

relating to humanitarian work, either during their internships or independently.

Most important elements of the training they had received:

Asked “What in their opinion was the most important element of the training they

received?” the NOHAs listed:

• refugee camp management

• refugee law

• protection training

• kidnapping and security training

• HIV training

Most important elements of the training they had not received:

When asked “What, according to your previous experiences, are the essential elements

49

of a pre-deployment humanitarian training course”' they responded:

− knowledge of the locality helping to better understand the culture of the people

− Understanding the structure of the organization and the reporting lines

− Learning how to report

− Learning what other sections of the organization do, and their connection to your

role.

− Understanding where funding comes from and how projects and programmes are

funded

− An awareness of the various agencies present in the area of work

− Understanding the expectations of the individual and the boundaries of the work

− Good security training specific to the country

− Training that gives an insight into how monitoring and evaluations are

conducted

− A mentor to learn from or supervisor to give feed-back on your progress over the

first 3 month period.

− Work-Shadowing program with an employee who is doing similar work, or with

predecessor.

− Access to one's predecessor

− Specific technical training or learning for one’s role

− Stress management training

As with the EVHAC volunteers, considering their limited experience, concerns over the

legitimacy of the NOHA students to comment on the most effective elements of training

can be addressed by the fact that all of the comments to the question above came from

NOHA students who had already worked professionally in the field.

NGO's

Eight NGOs responded to the French and English questionnaires found in Appendix

3.A. and 3.B. Six were among the 20 biggest recipients of ECHO funding in 2010, the

remaining 2 were among the 10 recipients of least funding in 2010.

When asked if the NGO had a training programme, the 6 large NGOs did have, the 2

small ones did not. Of these six training programmes, all were designed for both new

and existing staff. The durations of the training programmes varied from 3 days to 3

50

weeks, with the average being 2 weeks. The training was conducted or available on an

annual basis.

The following is the complete list of the elements of the training programmes of the 6

large NGOs:

• stress management

• security

• intercultural training

• administrative tasks and software

• ECHO procedures

• logistics and buying procedures

• human resource procedures

• project writing

• training on the role, mandate, activities and mission statement of the NGO

• preparation for life in a country at war

• project cycle

• project management

• human rights issues

With the exception of ‘security management’ and ‘project management’ there was no

repetition of these main elements of training in the responses from the 6 NGOs. This

demonstrates the non-standard nature of training by NGOs in the humanitarian sector,

even among leaders in the field. This was also found in Harvey's 'State of the

Humanitarian Sector' (2010) and in Walker and Russ' 'Professionalising the

Humanitarian Sector, a scoping study' (2010).

Most important element of the NGOs' training: 'Becoming part of the NGO'

When asked what was the single most, important element of their training programmes,

the NGOs' responses were very similar. All but one spoke of the importance during

training, of building a solid relationship between the new employee and the

Headquarters/Desk Officer. This was achieved by making the new employee familiar

with how the NGO works and what it stands for (e.g. the NGO's role, mandate, mission

and vision, rules and regulations).

51

It was a top priority among NGOs for “all (new) candidates (to have) the same

understanding of which organization they are working for and “how we do it in our

organization”. This finding suggests that the role of training EVHAC volunteers should

be done by NGOs and not by ECHO itself. This suggestion is identical to one found

among the recommendations of a previous evaluation commissioned by ECHO on the

form the Corps should take (Van Bruaene, 2010), but interestingly for an entirely

different reason, the evaluation by the consultancy recommended that NGOs train

EVHAC volunteers because of ECHO's insufficient human resources to manage the

training. The results from the questionnaires reiterate the recommendation but only

because NGOs feel for volunteers to work successfully, they need to train them

themselves before deployment.

Secrets of success

The NGOs were also asked if any element of their training course was unique to them.

This question was included because of the recommendation in the ELRHA (Walker,

2010) study that “learning & development providers and human resource specialists in

the sector be engaged to harness the best of what has been developed, for the benefit of

the sector as a whole”. Three of the six NGOs replied affirmatively to this question.

Two of these elements of training may be of relevance to the new EVHAC training

curriculum. They are a 'People Leadership and Management’ course of 6 month

duration and 'Mission Training Plans' (MTPs), based on training needs assessments of

the individual employee, and which are designed, budgeted and evaluated on an annual

basis.

Re-inventing the wheel

When asked if they did training in tandem with other NGOs, only one (the one with the

tailor-made training programme and Maps) replied that they did. Four of the eight

NGOs availed of training given by other organisations and training institutes, the

remainder did not. One of the top 20 ECHO funded recipients when asked if they

availed of training with other NGOs or training institutions, stated that "There are

none". This response highlights a lack of awareness as well as a lack of access to

training institutes. This near total lack of inter-NGO training among the 8 respondents is

52

surprising, as it would cut costs for individual NGOs.

This phenomenon is highlighted in other studies (Harvey, 2010: Walker, 2010), and has

been tackled by some NGOs, such as those in the recently formed British Consortium of

Humanitarian Aid Agencies (none of whom replied to the questionnaire). However,

these initiatives have been slow to take off despite their potential to be mutually

advantageous to all involved. Referring back to Chapter 2; one of the theoretical reasons

offered to explain this wastage of resources is, that in the absence of a professional

association competitive rather than cooperative relations will dominate NGO's

relationships (Dickmann, 2010). Furthermore, the lack of any association means that

there are no regulations preventing work contracts being cut short by employees, or

NGOs from poaching staff from others. Lack of regulation in this area creates a

disincentive among NGOs to invest heavily in staff training if it will possibly serve

competitors more than one's own agency. This may be an area where an EVHAC could

act as a promoter of inter-NGO training programmes by making the cost of training

cheaper for NGOs.

Summary of results for Specific Objective 2

Using elements of Evans' (2008) and Henkel's (1995) models of professional

development referred to in the literature review, the elements of training cited by the

four respondent groups in their questionnaire responses (NGOs human resource staff,

young professionals, graduating NOHAs and current EVHAC pilot project volunteers)

can be put in three general groups of training types:

− Practical training that involves 'learning by' and 'learning from' experience and

that is relevant to multiple practical tasks in several humanitarian jobs (Henkel,

1995).

− General training that provides knowledge of the broad issues related to working

in the humanitarian sector, usually acquired through 'learning in formal settings'

and which represents an element of Evans (2008) ‘intellectual component’ of her

model of professionalism

− Procedural training relevant to specific tasks a humanitarian worker will have to

undertake but which is not necessarily applicable to other jobs. This grouping

represents an element of Evans (2008) ‘functional component’ of her model of

professionalism.

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In Table 1 below, Column 1 represents the elements of previous training previously

taken by young professionals, EVHAC pilot project volunteers and NOHA students.

Column 2 represents the elements of training these three groups considered important

but had not received.

Column 3 represents the elements of training these three groups considered most

important based on their professional or intern experience in the sector to date.

Column 4 represents the elements of training that NGOs most commonly included in

their internal training programmes.

Column 5 represents the elements commonly found in all, or nearly all, groups.

The rows represent the type of training element.

The frequency of similar responses is denoted by the number that precedes the entry.

54

1 (training taken by young humanitarians...)

2 (training they had not received)

3 (training considered most important based on experience)

4 (training given by NGOs)

5 Common elements

General training

- development issues - protection skills - Gender based violence issues - Corruption issues

- development issues - protection skills - hearing from other professionals

- cultural awareness issues - environmental sustainability issues - awareness of roles of all actors in the field

- cultural awareness - human rights issues

2 - development issues 2 – cultural awareness

Practical training

4* – Crisis intervention (including elements such as needs assessments, camp management and conflict prevention operations) - project or programme management - cluster system

2 – Project management (including the use of log frames) - Simulation exercises

4 – stress management 3 – training that involves mentoring, work-shadowing, working contact with a predecessor and feedback 3 - organisational structure, including information management. 2 – Project management (including the use of log frames) - language and local cultural issues

4 – training about the NGO itself 2 – Project management - stress management

7 – Project/ programme management 5 – Stress management

Procedural training

5 – security procedures (including procedures for kidnapping and evacuations) 4 – Funding regulations, proposals and report writing 2 - internal NGO rules and regulations - logistics procedures

- regulations of donor agencies

6 – Accounting and administration tasks such as report writing, funding regulations and proposals 3 – security procedures (including procedures for kidnapping and evacuations)2 – logistics procedures - Monitoring and evaluation procedures - Job specific technical training

2 – security procedures 2 – Accounting and administration tasks such as report writing, funding regulations and proposals) - regulations of donor agencies - logistics and buying procedures

10 – security procedures 10 – Accounting and administration tasks such as report writing, funding regulations and proposals) 4 - logistics and buying procedures

Table 1: Most important elements of training

The attribution of elements of training to one of the three groupings (general, practical

or procedural) is admittedly very qualitative in nature, especially between the

procedural and practical groupings. Some entries such as 'logistics' could have qualified

for either group. Nevertheless the table helps us see that the most common types of

training are 'procedural' and 'practical' which are valued more than general training

related to the humanitarian and/or development sector.

* The numbers in the boxes represent the number of times a result appeared.

55

The large variety of responses and the inconsistency of their distribution across columns

for all but a few, are a reflection of the non-standardised manner of training in the

sector. Nevertheless, the fifth column of the table does show that some elements of

training are both widely available and valued by the different groups of respondents

and could be useful in informing the content of a training curriculum for the EVHAC.

These elements are:

10 – accounting and administration tasks (such as report writing, funding regulations

and proposals)

10 – security procedures

7 – project/programme management

5 – stress management

4 – logistics and buying procedures

Specific Objective 3 - “Identify the 'Gap' between what academia provides and what

employers want”

The previous specific objective looked at the training needs of young humanitarian

hopefuls in order for them to find a job in a 'field19 position', and at the training

requirements of NGOs before deploying such new staff on field missions. This specific

objective looks at everything besides training that is important.

Referring back to the 'Gaps' analytical framework at the end of Chapter 2 (Literature

Review), this specific objective will focus on identifying the gaps between young

humanitarian hopefuls and successful young humanitarian professionals in terms of the

two group's general knowledge about the sector; technical knowledge about certain

jobs; previous professional and voluntary experience as well as other skills and abilities,

all of which the new EVHAC may be able to contribute to filling.

In the questionnaires given to the 8 NGOs referred to in the section above, the first 19 The reason 'field position' appears here as opposed to a Headquarters position in Europe, is because of

the prerequisite for the European Commission that the EVHAC will 'raise the profile of European solidarity through being visible'. Considering this obligatory visibility element of the Corps, for the purpose of this study it is assumed that the volunteers will be deployed overseas. However this may not necessarily be the case in the final EVHAC where using young volunteers to do back-office work in times of emergencies when more experienced professionals will be deployed to the field or to crisis situations is a need of the sector highlighted by several studies (Germax, 2010: ELRHA, 2010: ALNAP, 2010)

56

question asked was “What are the usual minimum requirements demanded of

candidates for your most general/entry level positions in the field?”.

The following is a synthesis of the responses to this question:

What NGOs want

Previous experience

For all but one of the 'top 20' NGOs, a minimum of 2 years previous professional

experience was required, either in the type of job one was applying for, or in another

area of the humanitarian sector.

Where candidates did not have previous professional experience in the humanitarian

sector, it was generally required that they had an average of 20 months experience living

overseas. The one exception was an NGO that stated 'we don't have entry level

positions'. The smaller NGOs either did not respond or said that new candidates were

recruited in the field by implementing partners.

Standard profiles

The questionnaires also contained questions concerning standard profiles, minimum

requirements and basic competencies.

In relation to standard profiles, the responses to the question: “What is the standard

profile of your new staff for missions in the field at entry level?” were most telling.

Of the 8 NGOs who filled out the questionnaire, 7 left this answer empty, the one that

did reply stated “There is no standard profile”.

While this answer only appeared once, it may provide an insight into the challenge the

EVHAC, and indeed the humanitarian sector in general, will face in trying to

professionalise.

Further on in the questionnaire the NGOs were pushed for specifics on their typical new

entrants through closed-ended questions relating to age, nationality, level of education,

years of experience, time spent overseas and the names of other NGOs for which the

candidate has previously worked.

Regarding age, half of the NGOs said there was no typical age, the rest varied between

25 and 45.

57

Educational requirements

Regarding education, the consensus was that there are 'too many different kinds of

positions (...). A mechanic doesn’t need a university degree, others do'. However, for

those positions that did require a university education, a master's level degree, in the

discipline relevant to the position, was sought by most NGOs.

When asked if they required certain certificates from candidates, none of the NGOs

replied affirmatively. The responses to this question highlight the lack of standardised

certification structures and systems of accreditation in the humanitarian sector, which is

a pillar of all well established professions as was outlined in the Literature Review

(Chapter 2). This 'gap' is one which the new EVHAC could contribute to filling.

Core competencies

A synthesis of the core competencies that the NGO's human resource departments look

for during their selection process, includes the following attributes (all of which were

mentioned by at least 3 of the 8 NGOs):

− stress management, including the ability to work under pressure and in difficult

environments

− management skills including the ability to work towards objectives, be results-

orientated, to organise work and plan ahead effectively

− team-work

− flexibility (mentioned by 4 NGOs) including the 'capacity to deal with complex

and unexpected problems'

− a strong motivation and commitment to the humanitarian sector (mentioned by 4

NGOs)

− communications (mentioned by 5 NGOs) including a 'capacity to listen,

understand and interact with one's organisation’s culture' and to communicate

well as a leader and manager.

That 'communication skills' appears with the greatest frequency in these answers, shows

how much a young humanitarian hopeful's success at entering the humanitarian sector

will be dependent as much on personality as learned skills. This finding is supported by

58

the fact that one of the top inter-NGO training programmes to have recently emerged

from the European NGO sector, is the Humanitarian Leadership Development

Programme (Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies, 2011) where leadership and

the ability to communicate is central to the training.

NGOs' suggestions for what the EVHAC should aim to do

As well as providing hierarchical lists of the standard profiles and competencies of

desired new candidates, the NGOs were also asked the following open-ended question:

“How do you think the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps can best

contribute to the professionalization of the humanitarian sector?”

A list of the responses follows (as they are short responses to a direct question with

significant importance to the study, the results were not edited or synthesised):

− give volunteers direct field experience

− develop a strategy to keep these individuals in the sector as the high turn-over

prevents the professionalization of the sector in the long run

− provide excellent training programmes for the volunteers including

administrative tasks, management and donor procedures

− create 'green house' projects that provide support during volunteers' mission

through a mentoring system

− offer an entry point to young graduates with little or no experience

− provide training in languages and multi-cultural sensitivity

− provide training in how the humanitarian sector works

− disseminate the professional approach of agencies

− acquire in-depth debriefing of volunteers on completion of their deployment

− provide volunteers with well-defined lists of responsibilities and tasks to be

carried out

Content analysis of Relief Web job descriptions

The next step in the realisation of this specific objective was to cross-check the

59

responses of the human resource departments of the NGOs concerning standard profiles

and desirable competences, with those found in a sample of job descriptions found on

Relief Web.

A high number of similar responses was expected but this step was considered

necessary for two reasons. Firstly, the NGOs who received the questionnaire were either

among the biggest or smallest in the Humanitarian Sector. There were no responses

from those 'in the middle' of the sector. As such the sample of job descriptions was not

completely random, the only criteria for exclusion of a job description was if it was

from one of the 'big 20' or 'small 10' NGOs which had already submitted a

questionnaire.

Secondly, the cross-checking of answers with those given in the questionnaires was

considered necessary because of the risk that a social desirability bias may have

coloured the responses given by the NGOs in the questionnaires (Rosenberg, 1965 in

Stevenson, 2007). The basis for fears of such a bias was because at the time of the

research the author was interning for ECHO, a large funder of their programmes. This

fact was not hidden from the NGOs both for ethical reasons and as it was hoped that

mentioning it would improve the response rate from the NGOs' human resource

departments to what was a long and detailed questionnaire.

The search criteria used to obtain this random sample were guided by the Relief Web

job description search engine.

'Job' was the first criteria (as opposed to 'consultancy', 'volunteer opportunity' and

'internship') and '0 – 3 years experience' was the second. Besides this, NGOs that did not

appear amongst the 'big 20' or 'small 10' who had responded to the questionnaire, were

excluded. Also as this study focuses on hopeful young humanitarians who seek work in

the field, only jobs that involved deployment to countries affected by humanitarian

crises were included.

Content analysis results

The search produced 216 results on September 14th, 2011. The first ten job descriptions

that met the search criteria had been put online by Mercy Corps, Aga Khan Foundation,

Saint Andrew's Refugee Services, MADERA, Gruppo di Volontariato Civile, Handicap

International, Goal, All Hands Volunteers, the National Democratic Institute (Kenya).

60

Of these, 7 of the 10 were for project or programme management or coordination

positions, 1 was for the position of Country Director. All required relevant professional

experience from 1 to 3 years, with the median being 2 years. All but one required

candidates to be bilingual, 4 in French and English, 5 in English and a local language

such as Haitian créole, Pashtun or Arabic. The other most sought after competencies

were:

− administrative skills (featuring 3 times on the job descriptions)

− security management (3)

− financial/budget management (4)

− previous knowledge of the country (4)

− stress management (4)

− report writing (7)

− ability to adapt to changing demands (7)

− communication skills (including with partner organisations and local

institutions) (8)

− Leadership and/or project management skills (9)

These results were puzzling, and posed questions about the adequacy of the research

design. The fact that 8 of the 10 job descriptions were for management positions,

requiring an average of two years relevant professional experience, with a strong

emphasis on having proven management and leadership capacities, suggested that this

sample was not at all adapted to young humanitarian hopefuls searching for their first

job in the humanitarian sector.

Despite the search criteria being for the most junior positions in the humanitarian sector

and that the job descriptions came from the most widely-used, job-searching website in

the sector, the question of how the young hopefuls were to fill the gap between

university and their first job in the humanitarian sector remained unanswered. The

content analysis of these job descriptions had nevertheless revealed the professional

experience 'gap' to be an average of 2 years of experience in the humanitarian sector and

a proven set of communication and management skills. This reaffirmed the findings

from the questionnaires completed by the human resource departments of both the big

and small NGOs which also underlined the importance of being adaptable, having good

management skills and being good communicators.

61

False assumption

When designing this research it was assumed that once a young humanitarian hopeful

had finished their studies in a discipline having some relevance to the humanitarian or

development sectors, and had demonstrated a long-standing commitment to work in

these sectors (through relevant extra-curricular activities, such as volunteering in the

third sector) they would find paid work in the sector afterwards. In the light of results

from the content analysis of job descriptions this assumption now seemed to be

unfounded.

A need to improvise

In order to gain more specific information about the nature of the 'gap', and ultimately

how EVHAC might contribute to filling it, this unexpected result demanded that an

additional task be added to the research design. On the same website a content analysis

of the first ten randomly selected internships was conducted.

This search conducted on November 5th produced 25 results. The NGOs offering the

first 10 internships were ACTED, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM),

Mentor Initiative, the French Red Cross, NORLHA, the United Nations' Children's

Fund (UNICEF), Muslim Charities Forum and Save the Children UK. As ACTED had

put up 11 of these 25 internships, only 3 of its internships were analysed as it was felt

that the 6 ACTED internships that appeared in the first 10 to be analysed would not

give an accurate impression of the diversity in the types of internships available in the

humanitarian sector.

The internship titles ranged from reporting, to program, human resource, emergency

unit, and finance interns. Their average duration was 5 months. Only five of the 25 were

in the field, so internships at agency headquarters in the USA, UK, Switzerland and

France were also analysed.

The minimum requirements demanded were as follows:

4 required post-graduate qualifications

4 required at least bachelor degrees in relevant disciplines

1 required a degree and two years professional experience

1 did not specify any educational requirements

62

Besides educational requirements there were very few other requirements apart from

proficiency with computers, and in French, English or both.

Concerning the activities and responsibilities of the young humanitarian hopeful during

these internships, the most common tasks are as follows:

− working in a team (mentioned in 3 of the internship descriptions)

− conducting results-orientated analysis (3)

− developing the NGO's operational strategy (4)

− communicating with financial/logistical/administrative branches of the

organisation (7)

− report writing (7)

− directly supporting the country director/ line manager/ programme coordinator

(7)

These results from the internship descriptions provided the hoped for specifics of the

gap between formal university education and successfully being hired. It would appear

that the competencies required to satisfy the common minimum requirements of 'entry-

level' staff in NGOs, such as 'proven management, communication, reporting skills' are

to be acquired during internships.

Table 2 below is a synthesis of the findings above. There is great disparity between

some of the core competences that NGO human resource experts stated were necessary

from new staff, and what Relief Web job descriptions stated as minimum requirements

for humanitarian job seekers.

There were no common elements between entries in the first two columns and the

minimum requirements for internships.

63

Category Core competences for NGOs

Relief Web minimum requirements

Internship minimum requirements

Internship activities

Communication (with other branches of the agencies and other stakeholders)

5 8 7 (i.e. communicating with financial/logistical/administrative branches of the organisation)

Report writing 7 7

Management and/or leadership skills

3 9 7 (by directly supporting the country director/ line manager/ programme coordinator)

Team-work 3 3

Flexibility 4

strong motivation and commitment to the humanitarian sector

4

stress management 3 4

Administrative skills 3

Security management 3

Financial/budget management

4

Previous knowledge of the country

4

Flexibility to adapt to changing demands

7

Conducting results-orientated analysis

3

Developing the NGO's operational strategy

4

Table 2: What 'gaps' do internships fill?

The only major consistency between columns was between Relief Web job descriptions'

minimum requirements and internship activities. In this case, for three criteria there was

a very strong correlation.

• The ability to communicate effectively with members of one's own

organisation, members of other organisations and other stakeholders was one of

the most sought after qualities in job descriptions, appearing in 8 of the 10

analysed. While communication related activities such as communicating with

financial, logistical and/or administrative branches of the NGO were found in 7

of the 10 internship descriptions.

• Management or leadership skills were sought in 9 of 10 job descriptions and

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listed as a core competency by 3 of the NGOs surveyed. Directly supporting the

country director, line manager, or programme coordinator were activities found

in 7 of 10 internship descriptions.

• Report writing appeared 7 times as a minimum requirement on job-

descriptions, and 7 times as an internship activity.

Whatever about the other skills spread disparately across this table, the mirroring of

minimum requirements and internship activities in these three areas underlines their

relevance to EVHAC if it intends to fill the training gap that changes young

humanitarian hopefuls into young humanitarian professionals.

New questions raised about the 'Gap'

Table 2 raises some questions. Firstly, the minimum entry requirements for interns are

much lower than those for young professionals, this implies that all the management,

communication, reporting skills of young professionals are acquired during the

internship. If this is the case, through what structures does this acquisition of skills take

place? Does it just happen in an ad-hoc non-standardised manner or in a structured

way?

Secondly, if the average duration of an internship is 5 months (median duration is 6),

and the average and median requirement of work experience before one can expect to be

hired by an NGO in a professional position is 2 years, does this mean that young

humanitarian hopefuls are supposed to do 4 internships?

If this is the case how is one supposed to finance oneself during this series of

internships when the average remuneration from the 10 internships in the Relief Web

search was €195 per month, with a median remuneration of zero?

Anecdotal evidence suggests the situation for interns is not quite so dire. A successfully

completed internship, where the candidate proves their worth to the agency, often leads

to being hired by the same agency. Indeed the use of the internship as a 'testing out tool'

for employers is one of its oldest functions, as described in the analysis of historical

professional structures in the Literature Review (Chapter 2). Specific Objective 4

sought to find out more about this disparity between the traditional and historical

function of internships and apprenticeships within professions and the use they currently

serve in the humanitarian sector by “Identifying the obstacles to entry into the

65

humanitarian profession”.

Specific Objective 4 - Identifying the obstacles slowing down progress towards the

greater professionalization of the Humanitarian Sector

This specific objective can be divided into two parts. The first part will seek to analyse

the obstacles NGOs face in developing the professionalism of their staff. In particular it

will seek to address the problem of high staff turnover rates within the sector, which

was identified in the literature as being a major factor in preventing the accumulation of

human capital necessary for professionalization among agencies. The second part will

analyse the obstacles to entry into the professional realm of the humanitarian sector for

young humanitarian hopefuls. By doing this it is hoped that this Objective will help

identify where the new EVHAC may be able to assist the humanitarian sector in aiding

progress towards its professionalization.

66

Part 1 - Obstacles for NGOs

What obstacles do NGOs face in developing the professionalism of their staff and

operations, so as to make their aid delivery more efficient?

The eight agencies who completed questionnaires were asked to answer the question

“To what do you attribute the high staff turnover rate in the humanitarian sector?” by

scoring the five options below with one to five points:

• staff burn-out

• the perceived hierarchy among humanitarian agencies

• poor staff development opportunities within agencies

• the wide variation in salaries between agencies

• the lack of work available for Westerners because of increased recruitment of

national staff in countries affected by crises

So as not to taint their true responses they were asked not to grade any option they did

not agree with. Also because of the closed-ended nature of this question, respondents

were invited to describe 'other' factors they felt contributed to the high turnover rate.

Converting the scores NGOs gave to points, the rankings for the five answers are shown

on Table 7 below:

Reason Staff

burn out

Perceived

hierarchy

among

humanitarian

agencies

Poor staff

development

opportunities

within

agencies

The wide

variation in

salaries

between

agencies

The lack of work

available to

Westerners because

of the increased

recruitment of

national staff

Number

of

points

28 14 8 14 2

Table 3: Reasons for the high staff-turnover rate

67

The results show staff burn-out to be by far the biggest reason why NGOs lose their staff.

However, 'Staff burn-out' is a very vague term. It could mean that humanitarian workers

leave the sector because of the difficulties they face at work or at home (living abroad,

difficult living or working environments, the emotional demands of work, being far

from friends and family, often uprooted, or the inability to start a family).

Many of these factors are part and parcel of humanitarian field work and cannot be

changed.

Other factors, especially poor staff development opportunities within agencies and

perceived hierarchies among agencies, although they did not receive as many points as

'burn-out', nevertheless highlight areas where EVHAC can have an impact.

Part 2 - Obstacles to entering the sector for young humanitarian hopefuls

Money problems

The 14 NOHA students, 11 EVHAC volunteers and 5 young humanitarian professionals

gave answers about their path to where they are now.

In the completed questionnaires, the first and most frequently cited obstacle slowing

down their entry into the humanitarian profession was of a financial nature.

Table 3 below illustrates the number of internships each did, where they did them, if

they were remunerated and the duration of the internship.

68

NOHA's EVHAC

volunteers

Young

Professionals

Total

Number who have

done internships

9 of 14 8 of 11 (not

including the

current EVHAC

pilot)

4 of 5 21 of

30

How many have

done 2?

3 of 14 4 of 11 3 of 5

How many have

done 3 or 4?

0 1 of 11 1 of 5

How many were

paid?

6 of 10* 4 of 16* 3 of 7* 13 of

33

Average pay (per

month)

375€/month 220€/month 250€/month 280€/

month

Duration

- Average

5 months

5 months

5 months

5

month

s

- Median 6 months 3 months 6 months

Where in the

world?

- EU

7

11

4

22

- Rest of world 5 5 3 13

Table 4: Internships

* Discrepancies between the total numbers of internships done by a certain group with

the total number in the 'paid?' row are explained by the fact that spaces were left blank

on the questionnaire.

69

The internship is a 'Gap'

From this table, one of the gaps between academia and entry into the humanitarian

sector as a professional, that the new EVHAC may fill, is that of the internship. Over

two thirds of respondents have completed at least one internship. Of the young

professionals, 80% have done an internship.

In table 3, particular weight should be given to the data on the young professionals, as it

is they who have successfully negotiated the path from academia to professional

employment in the humanitarian sector. Despite the sample being small, of note is that

60% of the young professionals did two internships on the path to their current

positions.

When asked if they felt they should have been paid for their internships, 7 of the 10

NOHA students who replied said 'yes'. As for how much; they felt they should have

been paid amounts varying from 'living costs, VISA and travel costs', to €1000 per

month, with most saying that they should receive basic expenses and the cost of living.

70

Where does the money come from?

Considering these results in the context of elements that an EVHAC may contribute to

filling the 'gaps', one of the next questions might logically be: “How do these young

humanitarian hopefuls finance their path from the end of their studies to multiple

internships at home and abroad, before finding a job that will help them to live

sustainably?”

Table 4 below shows how the young professionals, NOHA's and EVHAC volunteers

responded when asked how they financed their internships.

It should be noted that not all the respondents from any of the three groups answered

these questions. Only 2 of the young professionals, 7 of the NOHA's and 9 of the

EVHAC volunteers did.

Source of

financing >

Bank loan Parents Savings from a

previous job

Part-time work

Young

professionals (of

the 2 who

answered)

2 1

NOHA students

(of the 7 who

answered)

2 4 6 1

EVHAC

volunteers (of the

9 who answered)

2 5 6 5

Table 5: Where does the money come from?

The historical ‘raison d'être’ of internships, as explained in the Literature review

(Chapter 2) was to give young graduates access to on-the-job training and experiential

learning needed to get their professional qualification. This function of internships has

71

emerged over centuries in well-established professions such as law and medicine. In

these professions internships fit into a framework of professional associations and

systems of accreditation. However the humanitarian sector does not yet have

professional associations and systems of accreditation that are recognised across the

sector. The absence of such structures leads to the question of whether internships have

the same function in the humanitarian sector as they do in other sectors. And if they do

not, is it the intern or the agency that benefits most from this absence of structure?

Rate of retention following internships

To answer these questions the three groups of respondents were asked if they were hired

or offered work by the agencies with which they interned, and, if they were not hired by

the agency, did they find their first job based on contacts made within the interning

agency.

Table 5 below illustrates their responses. A 'No' response to this question was more

common among NOHA's as some had not yet finished their internships.

NOHAs EVHAC

volunteers

Young

Professionals

Total

Yes 1 4 3 8 Q. Were you

offered work

by the agency

in which you

interned?

No 6 8 3 17

Yes 1 2 1 4 Q. If not, did

you find work

through

contact with

the agency you

interned with?

No 1 5 2 8

Table 6: Rate of retention following internships

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Are interns systematically bad, or is the system bad to interns?

These results show that an internship gives young hopefuls experience in their future

professions. However its historical function to provide young hopefuls with a route into

that profession is decreasing. The function of internship as a testing ground for young

hopefuls and agencies to find out if they like each other and want to continue working

together, should not be forgotten as an extraneous variable that would explain why

interns were not offered work. However it is surprising that such a variable should

account for all 17 cases where interns were not offered work.

In this respect particular attention should again be given to the results of the young

professionals who, since the end of their internships, have shown their ability and desire

to work in the humanitarian sector.

These results suggest a systematic approach, among at least some agencies, not to hire

interns. Indeed this is explicitly stated by many agencies, such as the UN agencies

working in the humanitarian sector, in their call for applicants for internships.

Considering this point in conjunction with the findings relating to the financial needs of

young humanitarian hopefuls, the new EVHAC could provide a means of filling the gap

especially for those who do not come from wealthy backgrounds.

You need money to reach 'the poorest of the poor'

To test the validity of the hypothesis that: the humanitarian sector is accessible only to

the well-off of society, a question was included on the questionnaires, asking the

occupations of the respondents’ parents.

26 of the respondents replied to this question. The following table illustrates the

frequency of the responses given.

73

Occupation given Frequency

Doctors 6

Teachers 6

Nurses 5

'Business people' or 'Self-employed' 5

Engineers 4

Accountants 3

Housewives 3

Civil servants 3

Managers 2

Professionals 2

IT analysts 2

Secretaries 2

'Construction work' and

perfusionist' technicians

2

Shopkeeper 1

Bank official 1

Geologist 1

Manager in stock exchange 1

Bank clerk 1

Lawyer 1

Military Officer 1

Table 7: Parents' occupations

Five of the six most frequently given occupations listed are established professions.

74

There is much disparity in these results, and a larger sample would be preferable before

weighty conclusions can be made. Nevertheless of the 20 types of occupation

mentioned in the answers, 11 require professional or university qualifications and

suggest the hopeful young humanitarians surveyed come from middle to upper class

social backgrounds.

The data above shows that the obligation on young humanitarian hopefuls to do lengthy,

sometimes multiple, and more often than not, unpaid internships before finding

professional work, is for many, an obstacle to entering the humanitarian sector.

The data on 'parents' occupations' shows that these obstacles seem to have already

impacted on the diversity in social backgrounds of the humanitarian sector's human

capital.

A lack of diversity of this nature is ironic considering that in efforts to uphold the

principle of impartiality, humanitarian workers continually seek out the 'poorest of the

poor'.

While this obstacle has been identified above, the recommendation for how EVHAC

may contribute to overcoming it, will be explained in Chapter 5 below.

Hiring procedures and practices

Considering the hiring procedures and practices of NGOs as a possible obstacle for

young hopefuls, the three groups (NOHA's, EVHAC volunteers and young

professionals) and the Human Resource staff of NGOs were asked to react to the

following statement: “It is commonly said that the humanitarian sector in made up of

small circles, and to get a job it is often necessary to know someone already in the

sector". The respondents were asked the extent to which they agreed with this statement

on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was 'strongly agree', 3 was 'no opinion' and 5 was 'strongly

disagree'.

They were then asked, if they agreed with this statement, “to what extent (they) believed

it to be true in the humanitarian sector more than other professional sectors”.

The responses are illustrated on the Table 6 below.

75

“It is commonly said that the humanitarian sector in made up of small circles, and to get a job it is

often needed to know someone already in the sector"

Young

professionals

EVHAC

volunteers

NOHAs NGOs Total Total who agreed

with statement

Strongly agree 2 3 4 9

Agree 1 5 4 10

19

No opinion 3 3 6 Total who

disagreed with

statement

Disagree 1 2 3

Strongly

disagree

4 4

7

If you agreed, do you believe this to be truer for the HS than for other sectors?

Young

professionals

EVHAC

volunteers

NOHAs NGOs Total

Yes 2 6 6 N/A 14

No 2 2 5 9

Table 8: Perceptions of hiring practices

These responses are all highly qualitative and as such should be interpreted with a

degree of caution. Especially for the results of EVHAC volunteers and NOHA students

who may have had little experience of the humanitarian sector or of other professional

sectors. For this reason their answers may lack reliability, as is the case for their answers

to the second question 'Is this more true for the Humanitarian Sector than for other

sectors?' where there is a significant disparity between their answers.

Concerning NGOs, there is the risk that their answers are biased for other reasons, such

as the fact that those in the human resource departments of NGOs are so invested in the

selection processes, that they so regularly use, they cannot see its flaws.

Despite these issues there are some striking points to note:

76

− 73% of NOHAs or EVHAC volunteers believed it was often necessary to have

personal connections in the humanitarian sector in order to get a job. None

disagreed with this statement.

− The young professionals were not as equivocal, although two of the four who

replied did 'strongly agree'. Particular attention should be given to their

responses as they are better informed than the NOHAs and EVHAC volunteers

and more impartial than the NGOs. The sample size of young professionals is

again a factor effecting the reliability of their responses.

− While all but one of the NOHAs, EVHAC volunteers and young professionals

agreed, or had no opinion about the statement, all but one of the NGOs

disagreed with the statement.

This disparity in the results of NGOs with those of the other three groups is noteworthy

in terms of perceptions of the selection processes between those inside and outside the

humanitarian sector.

This disparity is also noteworthy in being the only question where the opinions of

NGOs and young professionals differed from those of the NOHAs and EVHAC

volunteers. On all other questions there was significant consensus relating to the 'gaps'

in training and profile.

Another interesting result to emerge from these two questions was the amount of

unsolicited remarks that respondents (from all four groups) felt compelled to add so as

to better explain the reason for their choice in level of agreement.

One young professional who strongly agreed with the 'small circles' statement added

this comment:

“In the humanitarian sector, especially working in emergencies, people want to know

they can rely on their colleague and so often link in with colleagues from previous jobs.

The problem with this is that it turns into a intensely inbred circle with no fresh thinking

but lots of all old-hand capacity, and little opportunity for ‘freshers’ to break into.”

One EVHAC volunteer added this:

“It doesn’t apply 100%, but I think it really helps. With the huge competition for jobs

and especially internships in the sector, and with so many excellent applicants that look

77

so similar on paper, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. (…) I expect that I’d have

been overlooked for EVHAC had I not been an internal applicant.20

Another EVHAC volunteer added this:

“It’s very much based upon who you know and what nationality you are and whether

you are fluent in a multitude of languages, rather than if you have the needed skills and

motivation to develop yourself professionally. Elbow long lists of requirements, and

when you finally meet up with them, it turns out they hired internally”

One NGO added this:

“(This) statement sounds as if vacancies could be filled just by contacting a private

network. That certainly isn’t the case – quite the opposite. It’s something that we fall

back on only after we haven’t received qualified applications.”

A comparison between the three quotations immediately above demonstrates the

frustrations of both the human resource departments and young humanitarian hopefuls

in terms of selection processes. Both groups are looking for the right

organisation/person to meet their needs. One is trying to find a job, the other to fill a

job. Helping each find and recognise the other is another area where an EVHAC could

contribute to the human resource deficit that is holding back the greater

professionalization of the Humanitarian Sector.

How could such a gap be filled?

A comparison with the structures found in well established professions, identified in the

literature review, would point towards a system of accreditation and certification. While

such systems may already exist at national levels they are largely geared towards

accrediting knowledge of those who are already professional members of the

humanitarian sector. There is no pan-European set of standards, or even guidelines, on

best practice that has the 'global currency' to be recognised by all the big actors in the

sector in Europe (People In Aid, 2003). EVHAC could provide a template of a system

20 Concerns that the promise of confidentiality given to respondents who answered the questionnaire was

compromised can be quelled by the fact that more than two of the EVHAC pilot project volunteers had already interned or worked within the agency which selected the volunteers.

78

of accreditation and certification that agencies could adopt or scale-up. ECHO's stature

in the humanitarian sector could provide the system the legitimacy it needs to have

'global currency'.

79

Chapter 5 Recommendations and Conclusions

Introduction

The previous four chapters have focused on EVHAC and what it can do for the

professionalization of the humanitarian sector from a ‘Eurocentric perspective’, taking

into account the challenges and obstacles facing European NGOs and young European

humanitarians to professionalise their organisations and themselves respectively.

While this chapter will present recommendations on how EVHAC may help fill the gap

between the end of education and the beginning of professional work for young

Europeans, it will also focus on the positive and negative impacts that efforts to

professionalise European young humanitarian hopefuls may have on the humanitarian

sector as a whole, and then specifically on the trend towards the professionalization of

the sector as a whole.

EVHAC as a hub

ECHO's position as the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid and its partnership

agreements with over 200 humanitarian agencies, gives EVHAC an incalculable

potential in terms of what it could do to aid the professionalization of the sector. This is

not to say that ECHO should use its political weight to push EVHAC on to the sector.

What ECHO can do however, is create an EVHAC that would act as a hub for the

agencies of the sector to network and share their ideas for training, accreditation and

certification, all of which would be in the interests of professionalising the sector to

make humanitarian aid delivery more effective.

In terms of training, the expert staff from one organisation with one specialisation may

be able to train new entrants or staff of another agency. If EVHAC can act as a training

and networking hub for such a large group of humanitarian agencies, combined with the

political capital of ECHO, it could provide the sector with the forum necessary for a

sector-wide professional association to emerge.

There are already training institutes and NGOs in various consortia agreeing on training

curricula; there are already humanitarian professional associations which individually

lack the platform and forum to give their associations or their projects sector-wide

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legitimacy. EVHAC with ECHO legitimacy could provide this platform and change a

competitive atmosphere between the players of the sector, into a cooperative one.

To begin this process EVHAC should seek to coordinate with existing associations

(examples include People In Aid, ELRHA, the International Humanitarian Studies

Association, the Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection in America,

now also in Brussels) and other reputable training institutes who aim to professionalise

the sector.

Linking NGOs to humanitarian hopefuls

In terms of assisting professionalization of the sector, one of the main recommendations

for EVHAC, based on the findings of this study, is to help NGOs searching for new staff

and young hopeful humanitarians searching for NGOs.

The findings show that there is no shortage of young hopeful European humanitarians

looking for work, but they are not successful in finding it.

On the other hand, the sector's workforce is growing at a rate of 6% per year (Walker,

2010), yet NGOs often feel the need to recruit internally because they are uncertain of

the capacities of applicants to successfully perform important jobs in the field.

In one exploratory interview an ECHO expert working in Sub-Saharan Africa said that

EVHAC could solve a recruiting problem in the sector: “There is a tendency to recruit

Westerners who are already in-country to do menial office tasks”. EVHAC should aim

to fill this gap by linking up the human resource needs of agencies in the field with the

professional ambitions of hopeful humanitarians in Europe, if it does not, regardless of

the issues around effective aid delivery, security and the 'do no harm' principle, getting a

plane ticket to the biggest humanitarian disaster will remain one of the most effective

way for the hopeful Westerner humanitarian to find work in the sector.

EVHAC must also help fill the gap by providing volunteers with a specific, commonly

agreed programme of training that contains all the necessary elements humanitarian

NGOs require from new staff before deployment into the field.

The findings of Specific Objectives 2 and 3 have identified some of these elements of

training. However, a more thorough study that surveys the training requirements of

more NGOs and more young humanitarian professionals would be a recommendation

for future research in this area.

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The internship

One of the more striking findings from the primary data was the form and function the

internship has taken in the humanitarian sector. In the current system once the intern is

finished their internship they may be left in a financially precarious situation; they may

have to do a second internship and still not be assured of paid work afterwards and they

may have to leave the sector to earn money elsewhere, before retrying to enter the sector

with another internship. According to the findings, the financial strains of having to

complete multiple internships may be leading to an increasingly upper-class

homogeneity within the sector's workforce.

In the questionnaires completed by NOHA graduates, EVHAC volunteers and young

professionals, members from all groups voiced opinions on the exploitative nature of

the internship in how it is used by agencies in the sector today. Currently the internship

is of greater benefit to the organisation than to the intern. While it may provide the

intern with valuable experiential learning, this is merely consequential and does not

necessarily get the young hopeful any closer to finding paid work in the sector. The

internship has existed for so long because of the synergy between employer and intern,

however if the internship is to help professionalise the sector it must be as advantageous

to the intern as it is for the organisation.

EVHAC can influence, how internships are used in the sector by providing the best

humanitarian internship/apprenticeship that the sector has to offer.

EVHAC will not change the present situation for interns in the humanitarian sector. The

nature of EVHAC's impact on the internship will be indirect but it can nonetheless set

standards and create best practices, which can act as a template for other initiatives as

they emerge in the future. To promote the scaling-up of such a programme, and at the

same time help the humanitarian sector take the next step towards professionalization,

ECHO within the EVHAC could develop a system of accreditation and certification.

Due to the limited scope and time resources of this study, a comparative analysis of how

internships are used in other professional sectors was not feasible. A recommendation

for future research would be to conduct such a comparative analysis, focusing, among

other things, on the average number of internships it takes before finding paid work

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after graduation; the number of people hired by the interning organisation after

completing their internship and the average payment to interns compared to the

expenses they incur doing the internship.

A common curriculum and standards of training

Based on the findings in Chapter 4, if EVHAC is to help professionalise the young

humanitarian hopefuls who volunteer, its training programme should include elements

that focus on developing volunteers abilities in;

− Report writing

− Management or leadership skills

− The ability to communicate effectively

At the end of the current round of pilot projects a recommendation would be to give all

the volunteers who completed the course the same written test to see if their pilot

projects, and more specifically, their placements, covered these core training elements in

a systematic way. Admittedly achieving a similar level of training when it is provided

on different continents by different teachers working for different organisations will be a

challenge but it is a necessary goal, to move from non-standard, ad-hoc training to one

that will help professionalise the sector's force work.

Considering the large prioritisation of practical and procedural skills by NGOs in what

they seek from new staff, this test should also test the extent to which volunteers learn

about the bigger and more fundamental issues in the sector (the humanitarian principles,

accountability, linking relief-rehabilitation and development, etc.). While this may not

have been a priority for NGOs when asked what they look for in new staff, a key

characteristic of the 'reflective-practitioner' professional (as mentioned in Chapter 2 by

Evans (2008)) is that she or he can apply broad theory to new challenges in order to

react intuitively and professionally. A broader awareness of issues in the humanitarian

sector is another necessary component of an EVHAC training programme that seeks to

professionalise the sector.

The first opportunity for a post-EVHAC programme survey of the skills acquire by

volunteers will be at the end of the current Save the Children UK, NOHA, Bioforce

pilot in the middle of 2012.

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Certification

Once a common curriculum for the training of EVHAC volunteers is agreed between

ECHO, humanitarian training institutes and a broad group of humanitarian NGOs,

EVHAC should certify all the volunteers who pass through it with one of a selection of

certificates depending on the type of work they successfully completed during their

EVHAC training (for example disaster risk reduction activities, project management,

logistics, administrative functions, etc.).

As explained in Chapter 2, a system of certification is a typical function of a

professional association. Neither ECHO nor EVHAC will ever be such an association,

but they can act as a catalyst and perform the formative functions of such an association

by standardising training, engaging and finding agreement on the training curriculum

among other organisations in the sector, after which the training institutes and NGOs

can continue moving towards an international professional association.

Poaching

This study's focus has been on the entry point of the humanitarian sector, and by

implication the beginning of the EVHAC programme more than the end of it. It should

be considered that in the absence of the standards, regulations and community sanction

that a professional association usually provides, the poaching of EVHAC volunteers by

other agencies in the field before the volunteers' programme of training has finished

may occur, especially considering the disparity in income yet the similarity of work

there will be between EVHAC volunteers and young humanitarian professionals

working in field positions. This practice may risk reinforcing the perception that the

easiest way to get a job in the humanitarian sector is by getting a plane to a

humanitarian disaster, and negatively impact on the opinion of EVHAC within the

humanitarian community. As a short term solution to counter this potential problem

EVHAC could ask volunteers to sign contracts that they will finish the programme. The

only long term solution is the formation of a professional association with the ability to

sanction members for disrupting the training of EVHAC volunteers.

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Absorptive Capacity

The following may be reasons why young hopefuls must complete multiple internships

before finding paid work...

− money-saving human resource departments of humanitarian agencies

− the lack of a professional association to determine the core content of internships

− the lack of a professional association to certify the agencies who furnish

internships

− the absorptive capacity of the humanitarian sector for newly qualified entrants

The policy priorities of streamlining humanitarian aid to make limited resources go

further, may also mean that there will be less demand for Western humanitarian

managers in the future. Although the sector's work-force is estimated to be expanding at

6% per year (Walker, 2010), this 6% is likely to consist of specialised professionals such

as logisticians, nutritionists, accountants, doctors, security experts, and local non-

specialised staff for jobs that do not require qualifications.

The extent to which the sector can absorb young Europeans with general qualifications

for work as programme or project managers is questionable.

Answering this question should be a priority for ECHO before the EVHAC scales-up to

its average €30 million per year budget (requested in the current proposed Multi-Annual

Framework Agreement 2014-2020).

If the question is not addressed EVHAC risks raising the expectations of the volunteers

it trains, by preparing them to work in jobs that do not exist.

A labour market study of the humanitarian sector, to see how many EVHAC volunteers

the sector can absorb, as well as the type of volunteers that are needed (specialised

professionals, non-skilled labours, generalists etc.), is a recommendation of this study.

The 25 volunteers on the first pilot project were selected from a group of over 300

applicants. They are of a very high calibre and some of the 25 already had professional

experience in the sector, their success in finding work would not be an accurate

indication of whether a larger number of volunteers who are selected using less

stringent criteria would find work on completion of the training.

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While the labour market study will give an idea of the current human resource needs

within the sector, there is equally a need for studies on the humanitarian hopefuls that

drop out of the sector.

Humanitarian training institutions, universities giving degrees in areas relating to

humanitarianism and programmes such as NOHA, need to better track the number of

their graduates who continue in the sector and the number who do not, and where

possible find out the reasons why they have abandoned their ambitions to work in the

sector.

Fears of creating bad publicity and losing enrolments make universities and institutions

shy away from collecting such data. However, there is a need not only to collect it, but

to share this information with other actors seeking to professionalise the sector.

This could be done with discretion and results published anonymously, but it is

necessary for both the training institutions and hopeful humanitarians respectively, to

get an accurate idea of what curricula equip graduates for jobs, and what jobs they can

expect to find.

Equal Opportunities...

...for those without silver spoons

EVHAC could help provide equal opportunities to hopefuls trying to enter the sector in

three ways. Firstly by providing access to those who come from non-affluent

backgrounds.

This could be done by providing a monthly wage to volunteers to cover their expenses

and cost of living during their training and deployment and a retainer they would

receive for a period after the programme so that they would be financially secure and

able to search, find and travel to a job in the sector without having to revert to working

outside the sector.

...to Non-Europeans

Secondly, if EVHAC is to contribute to the professionalization of the sector as a whole,

it should aim to help non-Europeans access the sector, especially those from disaster-

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prone countries.

EVHAC could extend its training to non-Europeans currently working or volunteering

with local NGOs in disaster-affected countries. While this may not correspond exactly

with the wording of Article 214.5 of the Lisbon Treaty that brought EVHAC into being,

it nevertheless would correspond with the guiding principles of solidarity and added-

value, put forward in the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid (European

Parliament, Commission & Council, 2006).

Not to allow an EVHAC to naturally evolve towards such activities would be to

squander a wealth of accessible knowledge and training potential, most valuable to the

group of people who need it most.

… to those without French or English?

Thirdly, in the area of language, there have been suggestions that EVHAC's training

should be accessible to those who are not proficient in French or English. While this

may be a politically popular choice from a Eurocentric perspective, it would not be in

the interests of the sector as a whole. Proficiency in English or French was a minimum

requirement cited by all NGOs who completed surveys and in all job and internship

descriptions that were analysed.

To work in an international context and in a sector where one of the foremost current

priorities is the greater coordination and cooperation between humanitarians in the field,

knowledge of the sectors most common 'lingua francas' is necessary.

The Visibility Prerequisite

The recommendations above are based on the assumption stated at the start of Chapter

1: “for the purpose of this study it is assumed that EVHAC volunteers will be deployed

to work in disaster-affected countries”.

While this assumption was necessary to focus the research in this study, it need not be

necessary for the future EVHAC. Depending on their skill-sets, EVHAC volunteers

may serve a greater function for the organisation with which they volunteer, by doing at

least part of their training in the NGO's European headquarters.

Furthermore, considering the importance NGOs place on making sure new staff fully

understand the values and vision of the NGO and integrate and articulate the mission,

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before being deployed into the field, a suggestion for the future EVHAC is that it

incorporates training in NGO's European headquarters into the EVHAC training

programme. This may also make the EVHAC more warmly welcomed by the NGO

community.

The constraining factor in this case however is that the EVHAC must also increase the

visibility of European humanitarian aid. Effective aid delivery and media publicity will

not always be complementary. The extent to which the latter can be sacrificed for the

former is a decision for the Commission to make. The extent to which the former can be

sacrificed for the latter has already been made by the humanitarian community and

voiced by its representatives, the answer being 'Not at all' (VOICE, 2006).

Ongoing research

Concurrent to this study, the 'COWI Brussels' consultancy conducted an extensive

impact assessment on EVHAC and the first pilot projects. This assessment was not

available at the time of writing this study; it is due to be published by the start of 2012.

It may offer more recommendations on what EVHAC can offer for the

professionalization of the sector and provide an interesting source of further reading.

Future research

Civil protection element

In 2010, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department was amalgamated

with the European Civil Protection Mechanism. How the EVHAC could impact on the

Civil Protection Mechanism or vice-versa, will undoubtedly be an interesting area of

research in the coming years.

Sample sizes

The sample sizes of NOHA graduates and EVHAC volunteers in this study were

sufficient to give a well-rounded reflection of these groups' responses to the

questionnaires.

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The relatively small sample size of NGOs should not generate too much criticism, as the

6 NGOs from the biggest 20 recipients of ECHO aid, accounted for over 15 % of the

total amount of ECHO funding in 2010, and have their headquarters in 6 different

European countries. Nevertheless a replication of this study should aim to have a bigger

sample size. It should also be noted for future research that in spite of multiple phone

calls and emails to each, the majority of NGOs did not return the questionnaire.

The small sample size of young professionals, despite the random sampling strategies

used to select them, is insufficient to make generalisations about the findings. Because

of their geographical locations, getting access to young professionals, other than by

email, was very difficult. Future research should seek to identify and contact more

respondents earlier in the research process and investigate other means of selecting a

sample other than through contacting European NGO headquarters.

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Conclusion

The European Commission has made the money available so that ECHO can fund an

EVHAC with over €30 million per year. This money will be in addition to the core

humanitarian aid budget and as such it is money for the good of the humanitarian sector

waiting to be used. ECHO will not implement EVHAC, they can only fund it. This is

where NGOs need to step up and lend their collective creativity to find the best ways of

identifying the spaces where young volunteers are needed in the field and at

headquarters. Once done, the work of these volunteers can improve aid effectiveness

and contribute to the satisfying the human resource needs of the sector in a way that

ultimately strengthens the humanitarian sector over the short and long-term.

For the greatest potential to be gained from EVHAC, it will be necessary that NGOs,

not only individually, accept EVHAC's presence on the humanitarian landscape as a

positive opportunity, they must also collectively decide to be more cooperative than

competitive in bringing it into reality.

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