UHE Certification Assessment Outline

Archive note, written 27 October 2026. This page was rebuilt at its original address from PHAP's UHE Self-Assessment (version 1.0, 31 March 2017).

Each certification assessment is developed on the basis of an outline of required knowledge and ability. Therefore, the best place to start is with a careful review of this outline to ensure that you understand what the certification assessment is designed to measure. As you read through the outline, you can also reflect on your own current level in each area. To facilitate this reflection, we have created downloadable Self-Assessment forms for each certification area.

A UHE certification holder understands the components and dynamics of the international humanitarian ecosystem. The certification assessment covers the following four domains.

Domain 1: The Big Picture

  • 1.1 Identify approaches to describing the scope and defining characteristics of humanitarian action.
  • 1.2 Recognize how the current humanitarian ecosystem emerged, including key historical milestones and turning points.
  • 1.3 Identify the basic types of crisis that may call for humanitarian response and the essential differences between them, according to commonly used typologies.
  • 1.4 Identify key ways in which humanitarian action is distinct from, and connected to, other forms of assistance and protection.
  • 1.5 Identify key contemporary reform and review processes in the humanitarian ecosystem.
  • 1.6 Identify major contemporary international policy frameworks in related areas and their relevance for humanitarian action.
  • 1.7 Recognize the main forms of accountability among different stakeholders in the context of humanitarian action.
  • 1.8 Recognize how the concepts of vulnerability and resilience are used in the context of humanitarian action.

Domain 2: Key Actors

  • 2.1 Recognize the key ways in which crisis-affected people are both the focus of humanitarian action and play an active part in its planning, implementation, and assessment.
  • 2.2 Identify the key types of governmental actors (civilian and military) that are likely to be involved in domestic crisis response and typical divisions of responsibility among them.
  • 2.3 Identify the key UN agencies active in humanitarian action, their mandates, and their positions in the UN system.
  • 2.4 Recognize how the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement emerged and identify the mandates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
  • 2.5 Identify the key functional differences among non-governmental organizations involved in humanitarian action.
  • 2.6 Identify the main kinds of donors contributing to humanitarian action and the main types of funding mechanisms and relationships.
  • 2.7 Identify purposes for which humanitarian actors engage with armed actors, both State and non-State, in situations of international or non-international armed conflict.
  • 2.8 Identify the mandates and roles of peacekeeping and political missions in crisis response.

Domain 3: Key Mechanisms and Processes

  • 3.1 Identify essential components, roles, and responsibilities of the UN-led humanitarian coordination mechanisms.
  • 3.2 Identify essential components, roles, and responsibilities of the main examples and types of NGO and Red Cross/Red Crescent networks and coordination mechanisms.
  • 3.3 Identify essential components of, and tools related to, the Humanitarian Programming Cycle.
  • 3.4 Identify key standards and codes for humanitarian action and their scope.
  • 3.5 Recognize the main international legal frameworks that apply to humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict and in other crisis situations.
  • 3.6 Identify the mandates of key intergovernmental decision-making bodies as they relate to humanitarian contexts.
  • 3.7 Identify the primary IT tools and platforms for humanitarian information management and coordination and their scope and purpose.

Domain 4: The Shaping Environment

  • 4.1 Identify key enduring and emerging examples of political and related pressures and why they require consideration by humanitarian actors.
  • 4.2 Recognize the reasoning behind common contemporary criticisms of humanitarian action and actors.

Prepare for the assessment