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Humanitarian leadership stories

In challenging times and despite rising needs, the humanitarian system continues to save and transform lives. Strong leadership by the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators plays a crucial part in this.

Humanitarian leaders must act quickly and impartially while keeping a focus on the big picture, the external environment, the future and organizational change. In particular, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators must have leadership skills that enable them to build trust, support national needs and priorities, and bring the UN system and humanitarian partners together to deliver better results for the people we serve.

At the invitation of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, and as part of efforts to promote effective leadership, Humanitarian Coordinators have shared their humanitarian leadership stories and thoughts on what it takes to be a humanitarian leader.

In partnership with UNTV Geneva, the Humanitarian Leadership Strengthening Section with OCHA has developed this into a series of short videos.

The features will be used as training materials for future humanitarian leaders, and eventually outreach through the public domain and select channels to attract talent and generate thinking and awareness about the importance of good leadership.

To learn more about humanitarian leadership, please follow the Humanitarian Coordinators on Twitter here.

To read up on the roles and responsibilities of UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators in leading and coordinating inter-agency humanitarian action in support of the host Government and local actors, as well as on the skills, competencies and qualities of an effective humanitarian leader please see here.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in humanitarian leadership, please see this page dedicated to the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator Talent Pipeline.

For more on the Humanitarian Leadership Strengthening Section, please see here.

The author is Chief of Humanitarian Leadership Strengthening Section at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs