Humanitarian Advocacy: Communicating the need and motivating the response

Description:

Humanitarians work in hostile environments where people are struggling for survival in situations of armed conflict or natural disasters. In such environments, people may have been forced to flee their homes with few—if any—belongings and may have suffered or witnessed human rights violations. Their plight needs to be communicated to the world in a way that will motivate the deployment of the protection and aid they so desperately need. This course will prepare students for the task of advocacy in humanitarian environments. It will focus on the identification of the most vulnerable members of a large group of survivors and the communication of their needs. It will equip students with the skills required to effectively communicate with local authorities as well as the international donor community. Students will learn to write in a different way than the academic style expected in other courses, focusing on effective advocacy messaging. This course is recommended for students who may envision working directly in advocacy for responding to humanitarian needs. It is also recommended for humanitarian practitioners who wish to prepare for a role in advocacy or are already working in this area.

Example Units:

• How to advocate with instead of for
• The Science Behind an Advocacy Campaign
• The Art of an Advocacy Campaign
• Power and Exclusion in Humanitarian Settings

Humanitarian Advocacy will…

• prepare students for the task of advocacy in humanitarian environments
• focus on the identification of the most vulnerable members of a group and how to communicate their needs to those in power
• equip students with the skills required to effectively communicate through succinct advocacy messaging, how to interview and be interviewed

*Course dates may vary slightly according to each syllabus. Please check with your professor.