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Professional competencies in humanitarian aid and development: frameworks for health professionals

  • Last updated:March 15, 2026
Professional competencies in humanitarian aid and development: frameworks for health professionals
Text and photo: Bruno Abarca

For professionals with a health profile who wish to work in international cooperation or humanitarian action, it is important to know the main competency frameworks.

Although these frameworks are relatively little known tools (even by people with years of experience in the sector), professional competencies are a central element in talent management processes in humanitarian and cooperation organizations. These competencies are also key to advances in the professionalization of the humanitarian system, for example in the health and nutrition sectors.

Competencies are a fundamental part of the job description

Since the end of the 1990s, the professionalization of the humanitarian sector and its personnel began to be promoted. A first major step in this direction was taken with the publication of the humanitarian standards and the Sphere handbook. This initiative, however, was not intended as a professional certification system, but rather as a common technical reference. Similarly, in the early years of the 20th century, several initiatives emerged to define the first humanitarian competency frameworks, but always within a model of organizational self-regulation.

Today, these competencies are widely used by virtually all humanitarian organizations, regardless of their size, identity or mode of operation. Far from there being standardized job categories in the humanitarian sector, the same title may correspond to different functions and levels of responsibility, depending on the organization using it. However, all job descriptions, however heterogeneous their functions, refer to competencies that are more or less standardized.

While the functions of a position, according to its terms of reference, refer to “what they do”, competencies focus on how the functions are carried out. Professional competencies are the behaviors, skills and attributes that a professional is expected to have in order to achieve high levels of performance. Therefore, beyond knowing the most common professional profiles, according to the most common organizational models in the sector, it is also necessary to understand the language of professional competencies.

Core humanitarian competency framework

Regardless of the professional profile or role performed, there is a core humanitarian competency framework, cross-cutting to all of them. This framework was first published in 2010 by a group of British humanitarian organizations and updated in 2017. It sets out six key domains, under which core competencies are framed for all staff, and additional competencies for positions of greater responsibility:

  • Understand humanitarian contexts and apply principles and standards. Any humanitarian professional must understand the phases of humanitarian response, the underlying causes of the humanitarian crisis in which he/she is intervening and its intersection with the dimensions of gender, diversity and inclusion. They must also consider the capabilities and experiences of the people affected by the crisis. Finally, they must apply the standards and humanitarian principles, in a alignment with the organization's mission, vision and codes of conduct.
  • To be accountable for their own work and achieve results, using resources efficiently. Staff must be aware of the project management cycle and participate in it by ensuring quality and impact, and even contributing to learning and the extraction of lessons learned. Furthermore, they must understand the importance and its role in accountability to the population affected by the crisis, as well as make decisions demonstrating flexibility in changing contexts, critically assessing their potential impact.
  • Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with other staff, organizations and communities. It is essential to understand and internalize that the effectiveness of aid depends on dialogue with the population affected by the crisis, teamwork based on empathy and communication, relationships between actors, negotiation and conflict resolution.
  • Operate safely at all times in volatile environments. Your own safety and the safety of others is a top priority in these contexts, and therefore appropriate risk-reducing behavior and strict compliance with protocols and alignment with the organization's safety culture must be adopted.
  • Adapt to be able to operate in changing environments and under pressure. This requires remaining calm, trying to recognize and act on stress, maintaining professional integrity at all times, and staying positive. It must also be understood that this can only be achieved as a team, looking out for each other's well-being and offering support.
  • Demonstrate leadership skills. This refers not only to strategic vision in positions with greater responsibility, but also to having critical judgment in complex and challenging situations, demonstrating awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses, inspiring confidence and helping to motivate the rest of the team.

🧠 Let's pause and reflect

What competencies, beyond purely clinical ones, should a health professional develop to work in humanitarian action or development cooperation? Think about areas such as multidisciplinary coordination, humanitarian principles, good operational practices, or project cycle management.

  • 1 Think and write your answer.
  • 2 Click on «Copy and open».
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Humanitarian technical competency frameworks in health and nutrition

In addition to the core humanitarian competencies, which are transversal to all sectors and professions, with varying degrees of demand, there are also other additional technical competencies. Technical competencies depend to a great extent on the specific area or professional sector, and depending on the position, they are more important (technical specialists) or less important (generalist profiles). A head of base or country director position does not require a high level of technical expertise, but rather high leadership skills, results orientation, accountability, and the ability to coordinate a team, among which there will be more specialized technical profiles.

There is no single entity responsible for defining the technical competencies of each type of profession. On the contrary, many of these frameworks have been developed by international organizations, leading sector agencies or academic institutions, as a reference for adaptation to humanitarian crises and complex emergencies. Ultimately, it is the technical and human resources departments of each organization that define these technical competencies in the terms of reference for each position.

Health humanitarian professional competencies

Under this category there are frameworks related to nursing, pharmacy, public health or One Health, among many others. Although each is different, they are all tailored for health professionals in humanitarian and international cooperation contexts, are complemented by core humanitarian competencies and, in general, cover the following blocks:

Nutrition humanitarian professional competencies

The Global Nutrition Cluster has developed a specific competency framework, which is worth highlighting. It covers core values (related to core humanitarian competencies), general competencies for nutrition programs and more specific technical competencies.

The general technical competencies in nutrition in humanitarian contexts include understanding how crises affect the nutritional situation and knowing the main approaches, standards, guidelines and actors in the sector. They involve measuring, monitoring and analyzing the nutritional situation through proper data management, identifying appropriate interventions according to needs and standards, and designing, managing, monitoring and evaluating nutrition programs. They also require adopting integrated and multisectoral approaches that address the causes of hunger and undernutrition, mobilizing communities with participatory approaches, coordinating with other actors, promoting advocacy actions, strengthening community resilience and reinforcing individual, organizational and institutional capacities to improve sustainable nutrition outcomes.

Among the more specific technical competencies are the promotion of nutritious diets, the promotion and protection of infant and young child feeding, the management of younger children and their mothers at nutritional risk, the protection of nutrition in childhood, adolescence, women of reproductive age, and people with additional needs, as well as diagnosis and treatment of acute malnutrition, chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.

Working in humanitarian action

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How to cite this page

Abarca, B. (March 16, 2026). Professional competencies in humanitarian aid and development: frameworks for health professionals. Salud Everywhere. https://saludeverywhere.com/en/humanitarian-careers/professional-competencies-humanitarian-aid-health/

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