JUHAN Cognitive Objectives

1. Students can articulate a common understanding of the concept of humanitarian crises.

2. Students can identify and understand the roles and interactions among key actors in humanitarian response.

3. Students demonstrate understanding of factors the key actors take into account in determining whether to intervene during humanitarian crises. They are aware of the social, political, economic, ethical, legal, cultural, and religious dimensions that factor into this decision-making.

4. Students demonstrate an understanding of the causes of humanitarian crises.

5. Students recognize and understand the phases of humanitarian crises.

6. Students demonstrate an understanding of the consequences of humanitarian crises.

7. Students understand the multiple beneficiaries, and particularly, the vulnerable groups, and articulate ways in which beneficiaries interact with other humanitarian actors.

8. Students demonstrate an awareness of how gender expectations make some members of communities vulnerable/potentially exploitable in humanitarian crises.

9. Students can differentiate between the consequences of military intervention for humanitarian reasons and humanitarian action by civil interests (NGO’s), and can describe the ways in which these two modes of humanitarianism interact.

10. Students are able to choose appropriate tools of humanitarian action.

11. Students are able and willing to continually question the effectiveness of humanitarian responses and adapt accordingly.

These cognitive objectives were developed by faculty collaborators at Fairfield, Fordham, and Georgetown Universities. Thus, this program reaches across institutional boundaries, providing students and faculty with a wide range of resources and opportunities.

Excerpted from the JUHAN Assessment Toolkit for Universities’ Humanitarian Engagement, June 2012