Humanitarian Learning in Latin America and Caribbean – HLA’s launch and a busy year.

November 2023 marked a significant month as the Humanitarian Leadership Academy launched in the Latin America and Caribbean region. With the strong support of Save the Children International and humanitarians across the region, locally led learning in humanitarian topics is set to drive forward – a strengthened civil society, technical expertise, and localised leadership at varying levels.

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy – La Academia de Liderazgo Humanitario – was presented to staff of Save the Children International as a partner and major provider of face-to-face and online humanitarian training offered in Spanish language, targeted to address real gaps in the region.

Mercedes Garcia, HLA Lead for Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) shares:

“In the last year we have been working to jump-start the work of HLA in the region. Latin America has seen a spike in number and complexity of its crisis; based on this also there is an increased need from humanitarian actors, especially local ones, for learning and capabilities solutions to help them adapt to this new context.

HLA provides us new alternatives on innovative vision and programs, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of global trends and learning.”

There is no doubt that HLA has been well received as a collaborative platform which will foster and strengthen knowledge of humanitarians across the region – focusing on three core pillars: civil society, the individual and organisations.

Localised learning for humanitarians – LAC’s first Humanitarian Operations Programme (HOP)

HLA’s energetic team in the region delivered the first-ever HOP in Spanish – as part of Peru’s response strategy to tackle the effects of El Niño with a localisation focus.

This training, HLA’s first in the region, was delivered to 19 people in Lima, Peru on the last week of November 2023. Participants were local partners, elected officials and Save the Children staff from 3 different offices across Peru, including staff from the Guatemala Office; where the second Spanish iteration (holding in February is being prepared.

Reflecting on this first training, Ana Lucia LAC HLA Learning Specialist and a trainer on the course noted:

“It has been wonderful to see the excitement from all participants, especially when they realise that HOP can strengthen their capabilities; even when the group itself is diverse, their background experience and the institutions they work for are different; they all end up finding commonalities and become aware of the relevance of their individual role once a crisis strikes.”

For the coming months, the HLA team in the region, expects to continue replicating HOP in project offices within the two pilot countries: Peru and Guatemala, to bring more capacity building opportunities to local communities.

HLA has been well received as a collaborative platform which will foster and strengthen knowledge of humanitarians across the region – focusing on three core pillars: civil society, the individual and organisations.”

Ernesto Murillo, Northeast Macro-Region Manager, Lima, Peru participated in the HOP training. He said:
“This program is an important way to learn and then apply all these processes in my territory in the event of an emergency. Although as a group we were responding to a simulated emergency, I have no doubt that with the tools we now know, we will be able to better develop our functions as leaders in the face of a real crisis.

The experience has undoubtedly been exciting because each of the steps we have taken throughout this workshop have been, first to refresh and understand some topics that perhaps we were not very clear about; and second, in the simulation section, we were faced with a great challenge to develop a proposal in the context of an emergency. It was also very valuable to meet people who work in the regions, especially in the northern region of Peru; and to have the opportunity to work together with our own colleagues from the different programmatic areas and thus learn together about Humanitarian Operations. I hope to have the opportunity to `replicate it with our colleagues to be better prepared in the event of an emergency, and thus ensure that we know everything from how to request funds to developing actions in the field.”

While 2023 marked the launch of HLA LAC Regional Center, this new year will see an expansion of our message and services to reach more partners and staff within Latin America.