WHAT WE DO
OUR MISSION
The Humanitarian Collaborative fosters partnership among scholars, students, practitioners, and affected communities to explore, understand, and develop solutions to overcome critical challenges facing crisis-affected communities around the world. The Collaborative aims to bridge traditional gaps among theory, policy, and practice to advance the Batten School and University’s opportunities to work on real-time policy challenges and be a known actor and thought leader in the global humanitarian sphere.
OUR VALUES
PARTNERSHIP
We believe that collaborating with teams of scholars, practitioners and communities creates more ethical work, better solutions and more robust outcomes. We value reciprocal attitudes, approaches, and programming and reject exploitative or extractive research and practices.
INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY
We subscribe to a spirit of collaborative learning, of constantly seeking new knowledge, input, and criticism. We believe that the open exchange of ideas, evidence, and knowledge, with humility, is critical to our work and process.
RISK-TAKING
We view the Center as a laboratory to test ideas and a space where the humanitarian and development world can learn and engage free of the fear of failure.
EQUITY
We commit to continually evaluating and adapting our practices and perspectives to respond to the structural inequities we encounter in our work.
OUR WORKING METHOD
At its heart, the Collaborative aims to provide an environment where academics and students from across Grounds can collaborate with global practitioners, organizations, and community members on applied research to address problems faced by crisis-affected communities. This allows Batten and the University to engage in real-time problem-solving and brings practitioners into the university space in new ways.
DEVELOPING NEW KNOWLEDGE
We engage in applied, evidence-based policy analysis and research that propels the humanitarian and development fields forward. We believe in bridging the gap between practitioners and scholars by building interdisciplinary policy-oriented research with faculty, students, governments, organizations, and affected communities around the world. Our work ranges from urgent short term projects to multi-year initiatives that impact humanitarian response or development for crisis-affected communities.
DISSEMINATE EVIDENCE & LEARNING
We share our findings with governments, NGOs, academics and communities involved in the humanitarian and development sectors through dialogue, events, publications, and our research and internship opportunities. Our faculty’s experience in academia and involvement in the global humanitarian and development sectors gives our students opportunities to engage with real issues at every level.
INFLUENCE POLICY & PRACTICE
We support policy makers and leaders to have greater impact in humanitarian and development practice and theory. As the field develops, we encourage these leaders to adopt evidence-based policy.