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Humanitarian Policy & Practice Fostering a new generation of leaders in global humanitarian response

Conflicts and disasters are accelerating worldwide, and the aid sector is at a crossroads. Now more than ever we need people prepared and committed to providing innovative and life-saving assistance to people most in need. This graduate certificate will prepare you for work in the aid sector and in the midst of conflicts and disasters. The certificate is a 12-credit degree program and will appear on your transcript in addition to your Masters degree. It is designed to build a community of practice at American University committed to ethical and effective humanitarian policies and relief operations.

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This graduate program requires 12 credits of coursework. This certificate brings students from across SIS together to study humanitarian policy and practice, from SIS graduate degree programs in international development, peace and conflict resolution, human rights, environmental policy, foreign policy, diplomacy, global governance, and global security.

Certificate students all take a required foundational course on the organizational landscape, history, ethical foundations, reforms, and current challenges of humanitarian response, and then counts additional related courses already offered at SIS and in their various degree programs. In addition, regular co-curricular activities and events throughout the year are designed to build a supportive community of practice in humanitarian response, as well as provide professional networking opportunities right here in Washington, DC.

Students in the Humanitarian Policy & Practice program learn from a multidisciplinary faculty with backgrounds as researchers, policymakers, advocates, and practitioners. The program broadly features SIS faculty experts in peacebuilding, diplomacy, global health, migration, human rights, climate and environmental crises, and international development.

Explore the Faculty

Applications open at the start of every semester. For current AU students, please reach out to Olivia Klimko to receive information on the next application period.

Applications for this certificate program open each semester. This certificate program is designed to be completed at no extra time or cost investment for existing MA students. Tuition is assessed on a per-credit basis. Other student fees are required. Graduate tuition is subject to increase on an annual basis. To learn more, visit Tuition & Fees for the most updated information.

Get Involved!

Interested in global humanitarian response? The Changing Aid Initiative through AU has opportunities for students interested in the field. 

Explore the Initiative

Sample Coursework

Professor: Lauren Carruth

This course offers essential information, skills, and a critical perspective necessary for students to be able to design and evaluate humanitarian responses ethically and effectively. It begins with an introduction to the historical, legal, institutional, and political-economic foundations and functions of humanitarian responses. Then, it introduces common medical, nutrition, and food interventions in politically insecure and disaster settings. The course material requires students to confront several ethical dilemmas and debates articulated by a range of humanitarian professionals and social scientists. For example, gender-based violence in humanitarian crises and responses, the "localization" of aid and the related rise of "accountability" metrics, the so-called global "migration crisis" and its overlap with the global increases in numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons, and epidemics of disease in politically insecure settings.

Professor: Susanna Campbell

External actors engage in various types of military intervention in conflict-affected and fragile states: peacekeeping operations, humanitarian interventions, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism. Many of these interventions occur simultaneously in places like Libya, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Haiti, East Timor and the Sudans. This course examines the conditions and decisions behind such military interventions and how they affect everyday people on the ground. Based on specific case studies, students analyze the political, bureaucratic, financial and ethical aspects to peace operations and interventions, including issues of stability versus justice, inclusion, terrorism, gender and sexual abuse, and long-term development.

Professor: Maria de Jesus

This course explores the complexities of global migration, viewed through both human experiences and policy perspectives. It delves into the ethical considerations, dynamics, and challenges associated with current migration policies and responses. Students analyze the multifaceted nature of migration, including its geospatial, transnational, structural, social, and psychological dimensions. Key themes include governance, geopolitics, immigration, integration, belonging, lived experiences, racialization, state-sponsored violence, family separation, and the precarious living conditions faced by displaced people. The course employs innovative pedagogical approaches, drawing on a variety of data sources, such as digital storytelling, artistic expression, maps, case studies, quantitative data, and thematic analysis, to highlight both the human and policy facets of global migration. Through experiential learning and collaborative activities, students develop the critical knowledge and skills necessary to influence migration narratives and policy as well as improve the well-being of migrants, refugees, and displaced people.

Professor: Tazreena Sajjad

Few issues pose as significant a challenge to states as international migration does, affecting nearly all critical aspects of governance. The myriad ways that immigration and refugee flows affect state interests, both material and idealistic, creates highly contentious politics where domestic interests clash and defining a national interest is an elusive quest for the state. This course offers students a broad overview of migration and refugee dynamics, and identifies those aspects most challenging to state governance. This includes understanding the factors that generate migration and refugee flows, as well as the politics they generate, both international and domestic. The course examines the security implications (broadly defined) of global migration and refugee flows, including defense, homeland security, and economic and societal dimensions. It also carefully considers the human rights implications of these dynamics. The course also examines policy development over the past half-century in a comparative perspective with an eye towards identifying new challenges and generating questions for future research.

Professor: Victoria Kiechel

Issues surrounding global human migration are among the most wicked of wicked problems. Addressing questions of human rights, resource access, sustainability, climate change impacts, peacebuilding, and security requires integrating methods and perspectives from many disciplines. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this practicum engages students in research and proposing recommendations for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Topics explored may include circular labor migration, food insecurity, changing migration patterns, vulnerability to trafficking, potential means and methods of community stabilization, and increasing the agency of migrants.