F1HH 5135 - Management of Humanitarian Operations

The operational management of humanitarian interventions has evolved profoundly since the creation of the Red Cross in 1864. International organizations, governmental or non-governmental have now adopted codes of conduct, management principles, operational rules and methodologies of action which leave nothing to amateurism but which, on the contrary, require professionals, both at headquarters and in the field, great versatility and a solid background of project management skills, monitoring and control as well as accountability. To feel at ease in this course, the student must ideally have a basis in international cooperation, project management and/or administration to be able to follow and benefit from the course in an optimal manner, particularly when tackling certain parts of the course of a more quantitative nature. The course aims to prepare future managers of humanitarian operations to operate in a complex humanitarian field environment. The course is aligned with various national guidelines (France, Canada) that support the design, the implementation and the evaluation of humanitarian operations.

Learning Outcomes :

• Students will learn the roles and functions of the various stakeholders participating to a humanitarian operation.
• Students will understand how to design and implement a humanitarian project throughout its various phases from the Inception to the End of the project.
• Students will assess how to plan a project under a rights based and principled approach.
• Students will learn the basics of humanitarian project budgeting and financing.
• Students will understand and know how to implement monitoring and evaluation processes throughout a humanitarian project.

Professional Skills:

At the end of this course, students should be in a position to

• Design, plan and implement a given humanitarian project for a national/international organization/institution.
• Understand, discuss and elaborate various humanitarian project management tools in support of a given operation.
• Reflect on the relevance and operational design of any given humanitarian project presented to their attention.
• Master the key concepts and tools of projects monitoring and evaluation .

There is no particular prerequisite to this course. The students will ideally have an initial understanding of the humanitarian ecosystem and its various stakeholders through volunteering, readings or national/field experience. They should also have an understanding of the basics of project management (project management life cycle, project management tools and operational guidelines).

• Immediate feedback will be given to students in class after oral presentations, and/or at the beginning of each session (for the works who could not have been presented in class)
• Formal feedback will be given to each paper (Summaries/PPT of Oral presentations/Zoom capsules; Final Work) submitted by students

• Oral presentations (3*20%): specific project proposals presented by the teacher. Subjects will be presented in class and/or shared through small Zoom sessions.
• Group work: 30% - students will organize themselves in groups of 4/5 persons and will develop a complete humanitarian project proposal. Subjects in the realm of humanitarian operations will be proposed by the teacher at the beginning of the course. All project proposals will be subject to a short presentation in class and a written report submitted.
• Participation 10%
• TOTAL 100%

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 02 hours a week / 48 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 1,5 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Small Groups/Individual Assessments: 1,5 hours a week / 36 hours a semester