Diaspora Toolkit: Guidance on Training and Learning Resources
29 January 2024
This guide collates available training resources relevant for diaspora humanitarian actors into one simple guideline document.
Why this DEMAC Toolkit?
The DEMAC toolkit, with 5 pocket guides, intends to offer practical guidance to support diaspora organizations in their humanitarian response and enhance coordination with diaspora and the humanitarian institutional system.
The toolkit is informed by DEMAC lessons learnt, consultations and good practices on diaspora humanitarianism. It provides guidance for diaspora responders and sets the framework for increasing understanding, knowledge and capacity in humanitarian response.
The toolkit does not intend to provide a binding, predetermined list of interventions or types of activities that may or may not be implemented, as this is dependent on the specific context and would appear overly prescriptive. We encourage adaptation of this resource to your local context.
With this toolkit we intend to offer practical guidance to support diaspora organizations in their humanitarian response.
Key Websites
Websites that cover a wide range of courses and learning opportunities, where one can filter for specific locations, languages, topics:
ReliefWeb https://reliefweb.int/training
Disaster Ready https://www.disasterready.org/
A compilation of various websites, courses, and learning opportunities can be found on this Blog.
Introductory courses
Diaspora Humanitarian Training [English, Arabic]
This course, designed by DEMAC, has been created to provide diaspora responders with information, tools and guidance for enhancing a humanitarian response. Topics covered include Humanitarian Principles, Needs Assessments, Safety & Security, Accountability & Transparency, Organizational Development, Advocacy and Policy, Project Development, Bid Writing, Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Risk Management.
Building a Better Response [English, Ukrainian, Arabic, French]
This course, designed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, aims to strengthen the capacity of NGO staff, as well as other humanitarian actors, to engage in humanitarian coordination and improve response to the needs of crisis affected populations.
Further courses by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative can be found here.
Humanitarian Capacity Building [Youtube, various languages]
These very short videos are a great introduction on various topic such as Project Management in Humanitarian Response, Minimum Standards and Do No Harm, Field Safety & Security, etc.
All In Diary [English]
One-page information sheets on key topics; clear, concise and up-to-date guidance on topics across the entire humanitarian field to view online or download. Topics cover project management, humanitarian principles & frameworks, thematic sectors, cross-cutting topics such as environment, gender, age, and many more.
Specialized thematic courses
These trainings often target humanitarian professionals specializing in a particular area, e.g. Monitoring & Evaluation, Protection, or Water Sanitation and Hygiene. On the previously mentioned websites, many thematic resources are available in various languages.
That could also interest you
Diaspora Toolkit: 5 Pocket Guides for Diaspora Organizations
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Diaspora Toolkit: 5 Pocket Guides for Institutional Humanitarian Actors
Learn how to better understand diasporas and their way of working and collaborating.