Sustainable Development in Humanitarian Action

Overview

Incorporating sustainability into humanitarian action is key to making humanitarian organisations more effective and accountable. This course will show you how.

You’ll look at sustainability in the supply chain and field operations of a humanitarian organisation, covering the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic efficiency, social equity and environmental preservation.

Ultimately, you’ll learn how to design and implement a sustainability strategy; at project, programme and organisational level.

By the end of the Sustainable Development in Humanitarian Action course from International Federation of Red Cross by FutureLearn , you'll be able to:

• Explain what sustainable development is and its relevance to humanitarian action

• Reflect on the importance of incorporating sustainability in a humanitarian organization

• Describe the stages of the life-cycle assessment and the role each stage has in reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian activities

• Identify potential environmental and social risks associated with the procurement and logistics activities of a humanitarian organization

• Identify challenges associated with implementing sustainability initiatives in a humanitarian context

• Identify good practices of sustainability initiatives carried out to improve water, waste and energy management in the field

• Explain how to develop a sustainability strategy and list its key elements

• Identify what factors lead to the successful incorporation of a sustainability strategy in a humanitarian organization

• Develop a sustainability development strategy to mitigate main environmental risks linked to the core activities of a company or organization

• Describe the impacts of climate change on humanitarian work and affected populations