The Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW) 2021 officially wrapped up last week, and for participants from the Joint Master’s of Geography of Environment and Human Risk it was a major success. Held online this year, rather than in Geneva, the high-level forum is the humanitarian field’s largest event of the year and it brings individuals, organizations, and networks the opportunity to collaborate and address key issues in crisis response and preparedness.
Students and alumni of the Master’s Programme were highly active over the course of this year’s three-week event through the University Surge Support Group (USSG), an initiative that connects students to professionals and humanitarian organizations. Furthermore, their events received important engagement from high-level officials in the humanitarian field.
The first week was highlighted by the USSG’s Opening Session, which was hosted by UNU-EHS and Tilburg University. The session’s aim was to illustrate the critical role that universities play as a career pipeline and as hubs for research for the humanitarian field.
“The humanitarian system needs to evolve to address current challenges and leverage tomorrow’s opportunities. For this, we need to invite the next generation of humanitarians. However, students are sometimes not even aware of the humanitarian field, or find it difficult to enter. The ambition of the USSG is to help students from all studies, backgrounds and countries create meaningful connections with humanitarians, and give them a seat at the table,” said Kenny Meesters of Tilburg University, who initiated the USSG and co-organized this year’s events with UNU-EHS Senior Scientist Joerg Szarzynksi.
On hand to build that connection for the session were Master’s Programme alumni James McArthur and Anna Lena Huhn, who imparted their knowledge and reflected on their career paths to an audience of over 100 interested students and jobs seekers. […]
Read the full article by UNU-EHS here.
