United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mar 2020
InterWorks facilitated the Workshop on Emergency Management (WEM) for the Emergency Response Team (ERT) roster in Thiès, Senegal from 3-13 March 2020. Overall coordination, planning and administration of the workshop were handled by the UNHCR Global Learning & Development Centre (GLDC) which administers the WEM on behalf of the Division of Emergency, Security and Supply (DESS) Emergency Services (ES) section. Other UNHCR content experts from GLDC, DESS and the UNHCR Dakar regional bureau led or presented sessions on material relating to their areas of expertise, and also acted roles during the field simulation. Overall event facilitation and preparation of workshop materials was done in concert between UNHCR GLDC, InterWorks LLC. and resource persons. A high level of collaboration and teamwork was demonstrated by all involved in the planning, organization, presentation and delivery of the workshop sessions and field simulation exercise.
The intensive and demanding course prepared participants for emergency deployment focusing on three areas of emergency management: managing yourself, managing relationships, and managing your operational role through all phases of the deployment. The course was interactive and work-oriented, and employed a variety of methodologies, including a 3-day field simulation exercise, presentations and case study, as well as group and plenary discussions. The agenda included sessions on team-building, operations planning, financial and administrative systems, operational partnerships, communication and negotiation skills, security, coordination and information-sharing, telecommunications, and humanitarian protection. This was also the second time to conduct the SELP training in parallel with the WEM. Thus, the trainings included periodic planned interactions between the SELP participants as Emergency Team Leaders, and the WEM participants as ERT multi-functional teams.
The workshop was simply great and it really boost you to give you best during the hardest times. This experience is really unique as unique are its facilitators who have been always steady to support all of us…The WEM is just as all workshops should be: challenging but extremely satisfying.
– Workshop participant