Education in Emergencies: Workforce Strengthening for Protracted Crises

Reflecting on its changing workforce requirements, the EiE community identified a need to look at the challenges the sector faces in continuing to provide qualified practitioners, first through the 2014/2015 INEE global consultations, and then through the 2017 INEE Global Capacity Development Mapping & Analysis. The issues surfaced during those consultations and the data sourced during the 2017 study framed this study. Education in Emergencies: Workforce Strengthening for Protracted Crises builds upon these early investigations, adding new informant and secondary data, and a fresh, market-driven perspective utilizing a career pathways framework of analysis. From that analysis, the study presents key findings and recommendations regarding the most appropriate workforce development practices to enable the EiE community to be effective, proactive, and more efficient in providing education services in protracted crises. The study is designed with sector policy makers in mind, focusing first on those in positions to influence professional development (PD) practices. As a natural progression of the findings, there are reflections more relevant for human resource (HR) professionals, as well as reflections on the Grand Bargain localization agenda, specifically how to increase engagement and capacity of local partners.

This study surfaces key areas of disconnect and synergy between the EiE sector’s demand for and supply of appropriate EiE practitioners in protracted crises. It also examines PD by identifying where it exists, and explores potential challenges regarding appropriate, accessible, and equitable PD services. The study finds that the career pathways model can help the EiE sector address many of the challenges identified and leverage current and future opportunities. The EiE sector is relatively young, and a career pathways model provides an ideal framework for assessing and addressing key aspects of the sector’s workforce development needs and performance