Certificate in Innovation Management in Contexts of Uncertainty
Program Overview
The certificate is a 7-credit program offered to Master Card Foundation scholarship program students from all majors. It aims to introduce students to critical thinking, collaboration across various fields, project management, and the cultivation of resilience skills that are essential for professional growth. Through course work, and the experiential learning course, the certificate will build their capacity to create practical and innovative solutions in their jobs, particularly in contexts of uncertainty. By focusing on real-world applications and hands-on experiences, the program ensures that Scholars are not only prepared to face professional challenges but also capable of making transformative contributions to society in times of need.
Program competencies
Students who complete the certificate will be able to:
PLO1: Identify assets, resources, and problems of population groups in fragile, low-resourced and/or settings of uncertainty using participatory approaches.
PLO2: Demonstrate design techniques and entrepreneurial skills to develop, implement, and scale-up appropriate innovations.
PLO3: Incorporate multidisciplinary perspectives to manage complexity while adhering to ethical standards.
PLO4: Reflect critically on how crises impede effective action and, on the skills, and attitudes needed to mitigate challenges.
The certificate is composed of 7 credits that include:
HEHI 301 - “Foundations of Humanitarian Engineering and Public Health Innovations”; 3 cr.
This is a multidisciplinary course that covers the fundamentals of designing solutions for health challenges faced by disadvantaged populations. It introduces tools for identifying humanitarian and/or development needs and designing practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions and interventions. The course is offered to students from all majors. Students will be exposed to health and health system challenges in addition to design fundamentals including participatory needs assessment, formal multidisciplinary design processes, and relevant technologies and tools with real world applications and case studies.
HEHI 303 - “Experiential Learning”; 4 cr.
A service-learning graduate course that revolves around managing complex projects while
working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating closely with community partners within fragile low-resourced settings. Multidisciplinary teams will conduct background research, develop needs assessments with relevant stakeholders, design and create solutions/interventions that are tested and refined with community partners, and develop a business plan; all under joint supervision of two mentors from two different disciplines. The course will be offered in the winter term. Prerequisites: HEHI 301.
Certificate for Public Health in Conflict and Protracted Crisis
Program Overview
The certificate is a 12-credit program offered to MPH and MS students at FHS and focuses on the determinants of health in contexts of emergencies and volatile environments. The certificate aims to introduce students to the concepts of quality and timeliness of health-related humanitarian responses and to equip graduates with in-depth knowledge about the health needs of populations affected by conflict and complex emergencies as well as developing interventions to address them. Through coursework, a practicum at a relevant site, and the completion of an ILE, thesis, or project (according to program requirements), the certificate will provide an opportunity for students to develop and assess their competency in planning, implementing, and evaluating public health in complex emergencies.
Program competencies
Students who complete the certificate will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the multidisciplinary literature on conflict and forced migration from a critical public health perspective.
- Apply public health tools and methods in research and evaluation in refugee and other humanitarian settings.
- Demonstrate the capacity to plan, implement and evaluate a health intervention in a variety of humanitarian contexts.
- Describe the ways in which conflict, forced migration and humanitarian crises shape public health program management and coordination.
- Demonstrate ethical conduct in dealing with populations affected by war and forced migration.
Eligibility to apply
Students must be enrolled in any MPH concentration or MS program at FHS and have a demonstrated interest in improving public health in conflict settings or humanitarian emergencies. A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.7 at the time of application submission is required.
Certificate Requirements
Students must complete the application form, attach an updated CV, and provide the name of their academic adviser and one additional reference (academic or professional). All documents should be sent to Ms. Sawsan Awada at
[email protected]. Before applying to the certificate program, students should consult with their registration advisers to understand enrollment process.
The certificate is composed of 12 credits that include:
Two required courses
- An online course - “Building a Better Response”; 0 cr.
BBR Certificate is an online self-paced course that aims to enhance the effectiveness of NGOs and other humanitarian actors in international humanitarian coordination systems. The curriculum is designed to fill knowledge gaps and strengthen the capacity of humanitarian professionals to engage more effectively in coordination efforts, thereby improving responses to the needs of affected populations. - PBHL 308 - Research Methods in Humanitarian Settings; 1 cr.
The course: 1) introduces students to the definition, types, and management of humanitarian emergencies; 2) enhances their methodological skills to conduct research and evaluation in complex humanitarian and disease outbreak settings; 3) prepares them to identify and discuss solutions to practical, conceptual, and ethical challenges in humanitarian response. Prerequisites: PBHL 310 and PBHL 312.
Two elective courses (6 cr.)
- HPCH 343 - Forced Migration and the Humanitarian Relief System; 3 cr.
This course provides: 1) an introduction to key legal and theoretical frameworks on forced migration (internal and cross-border) and the meanings of the term refugee as a political and social construct; 2) a survey of global actors in the vast field of refugee humanitarian relief; and 3) a description and critique of the refugee “humanitarian relief industry.” The course addresses forced migration as a global phenomenon, but synthesizes conceptual and legal writings on the subject with refugee experiences in the Arab region. It incorporates readings from multiple disciplines (including literature), invited talks by practitioners and activists, and learning opportunities outside the classroom. The course’s thematic focus is health, broadly conceived, and its philosophical orientation is embedded in demands for human rights and justice for all refugees.
- HEHI 201/301 - Foundations of Humanitarian Engineering and Public Health Innovations; 3 cr.
This is a multidisciplinary course that covers the fundamentals of designing solutions for health challenges faced by disadvantaged populations. It introduces tools for identifying humanitarian and/or development needs and designing practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions and interventions. The course is offered to students from all majors. Students will be exposed to health and health system challenges in addition to design fundamentals including participatory needs assessment, formal multidisciplinary design processes, and relevant technologies and tools with real world applications and case studies.
A practicum, ILE, thesis, or project focused on conflict-related topics, tailored to the student’s program:
- For MPH students, their practicum and ILE would both need to be focused on relevant conflict-related topics. The practicum would need to take place on either a conflict-related site or another type of site that has conflict-related activities. The students must reinforce at least one competency of the certificate in the ILE project.
- For MS- EH students, their thesis or project would need to be focused on relevant conflict-related topics.
- For MS-EPI, their thesis would need to focus on relevant conflict-related topics.