HNPW 2025

Webinar “Mutual Aid in times of crises”

📅 18 March 2025, 10:30-12:00 (UTC+1), in French & English.

Groupe URD is implementing a research project about mutual aid in times of crises, with the objective to strengthen mutual aid and self-organisation among disaster victims before help arrives and to improve links with the first line of assistance.
Six cases studies have been conducted in order to analyse and document the mechanisms of mutual aid according to the type of crisis, the socio-political contexts in which they take place and, also, according to the temporality of the crisis or disaster (before, after, during). Finally, these studies aim to understand how ‘external’ aid (international and institutional) adapts to the informal logic of mutual aid.
The objective of this webinar is to present and discuss the main outputs of this research project for humanitarian workers and relief organisations.

Webinar “Understanding and prioritising needs: do communities have a say?”

📅 18 March 2025, 14:00-15:30 (UTC+1), in English, in partnership with members of “The Accountability Group“

The initial assessment of needs is an essential stage in humanitarian aid. Carried out by a single organisation or as part of a multi-agency assessment, it helps the organisations to understand a crisis, its context and the needs, capacities and expectations of the population. We currently find ourselves in a global context of multiple, complex, acute and protracted crises, where needs are immense and funding is constantly decreasing. The question of prioritising needs therefore naturally arises for organisations that are faced on the ground with situations of extreme vulnerability and limited capacity to respond.

How can needs be effectively identified and prioritised in this situation? Most importantly, how can communities be given a legitimate voice in deciding what their priority needs are and how to respond appropriately?

In an attempt to provide some answers to these questions, we propose to give the floor to various practitioners in the sector, MEAL, Technical Experts and AAP specialists in charge of framing the methodology for initial needs assessments and supervising these surveys in the field, so that they can share their experiences and good practice with us. We will also hear from researchers working on the issue of community participation in crisis contexts, who will shed a different light on these issues.

Webinar “Artificial Intelligence: Potential Futures for Humanitarian Learning and Development”

📅 20 March 2025, 13:00-14:30 (UTC+1), in English, in partnership with members of « Training Providers Forum ».

Artificial intelligence has been an increasingly important topic over the past several years. With the ability to improve efficiency, enhance analytics, and support decision-making, AI has wide-reaching potential in the humanitarian sector. AI can also be a powerful learning tool. For the learner, artificial intelligence can mean a more personalised learning experience that can provide real-time feedback. For learning providers, AI can help gather resources, synthesise text, design scenarios, translate materials, the possibilities seem endless. But does that mean that AI is a fundamentally good thing for learning in the humanitarian sector?

This panel seeks to unpack these issues by bringing together experts from the humanitarian learning space to share examples from recent experience of how learners and learning providers alike are making use of this new tool. The panel will also engage with the obvious drawbacks, unpacking ethical and environmental concerns, and possible ways that humanitarian capacity building needs to adapt to take advantage of this new technology.

Round table “Humanitarian and stabilization actions in sahel: challenges, difficulties and prospects”

📅 26 mars 2025, 16:00-17:30 (UTC+1), face to face interactive session in Geneva, in English.

From June 2023 to December 2024, Groupe URD carried out the study “Strengthening coordination and safe spaces for humanitarian and stabilisation action in the Central Sahel” which aims to analyze how to mitigate and resolve tensions between humanitarian and stabilization approaches in the central Sahel, and to provide recommendations. The work was commissioned by FCDO, the (British) Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. The geographical coverage of the study includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal and the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.
Indeed, « Stabilization » raises many questions, as well as concerns about the unintended consequences of the various approaches implemented. These questions also concern the impact of these approaches on humanitarian action and the perception of aid actors by armed groups. This work has enabled us to analyze these difficulties in detail, and to identify ways of improving the coexistence of stabilization and humanitarian interventions.

Groupe URD will also be co-organising a number of sessions with members of the Humanitarian Environment Network (REH). More information will be available shortly…