Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster
Explore conflict and disaster response principles
How can efforts to alleviate human suffering evolve? Join the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to learn the principles guiding humanitarian response today.
3–4 hours per week
What You'll Learn
From the Syrian refugee crisis to the West Africa Ebola outbreak, humanitarian emergencies have reached unprecedented dimensions and proportions. As need for humanitarian aid grows, how can efforts to alleviate human suffering evolve with it?
This course from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and HarvardX seeks to prepare learners to recognize and analyze emerging challenges in the humanitarian field. The course explores the ethical and professional principles that guide humanitarian response to conflict and disaster. Participants will learn the legal and historical frameworks that shaped these principles, test their applicability to the challenges faced by humanitarian actors today.
Through four case studies covering the responses to crises in Goma (Zaire), Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Pakistan, participants will engage with Harvard faculty, current practitioners, and one another. These cases introduce major trends affecting the current landscape of humanitarian response – including rapid population displacement, violence against aid workers, and civil-military engagement. Thoughtfully engaging with this course will prepare participants to be informed and aware humanitarian practitioners, scholars, policy-makers, and global citizens.
The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world. By the end of the course, participants will understand:
- Legal and historical frameworks shaping the professionalization of the humanitarian field
- An applied understanding of the principles guiding humanitarian response and the tensions that arise when operationalizing these principles in modern crises
- How to recognize and adapt to major trends affecting the scope and implementation of humanitarian work
Your Instructors
Jennifer Leaning
Director, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center
for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
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Michael VanRooyen
Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
at Harvard University
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Ways to take this course
When you enroll for this course, you will have the option of pursuing a Verified Certificate or Auditing the Course.
A Verified Certificate costs $149 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.