Learning and Development

September 10, 2019 Organisational development is a must, not a choice At times, language can feel unnecessarily complicated and difficult to measure in a practical sense. Terms like ‘capacity building’ oftentimes feel overwhelming – what does it mean to build capacity? How do we define and measure this process? We are working in an industry where the clarity of our language is incredibly important – we save lives with our work in the charity sector, without understanding and effectively navigating the terminology we hold ourselves accountable to, we not only risk communities and individuals falling through the cracks, but we also [...]

August 28, 2019 Safety & Security for Humanitarians The recently published figures from the Aid Worker Security Report revealed 2018 as the second worst year on record for safety and security for humanitarians, with 399 aid workers affected by major violence in 221 separate attacks. However, vehicle related incidents remain the most likely source of injury to humanitarian workers. This week six Islamic Relief staff from the communications team attended a new course here at HAD, ‘Safety and Security for Humanitarians’. This is a 4 day programme delivered in two linked phases. The first phase focusses on prevention and impact mitigation, [...]

May 1, 2019 Train the Trainer: It’s not the what, but the how Training is not simply about imparting information – facilitators need to make it interactive, it needs to ‘stick’. When I first joined Islamic Relief, back in 2015, I observed a number of courses being delivered domestically and overseas. The cost of travel, accommodation, expenses and time were considerable, and whilst it was evident to me that the facilitators were experts in their fields, participant retention was lacking. Due to a lecture-like delivery, participants were retaining less information which in turn meant training was not as effective as could [...]