First HRC Fellowship Training Programme
Humanity research consultancy has been running our first Fellowship Training Programme on the topic of becoming a research consultant combating modern slavery, from 19th September to 28th November. As an approach to meet HRC’s goal of providing young local researchers opportunities to engage with consultancy work using their local wisdom, this programme aims at empowering ten young Asian and African professionals with passion in tackling issues around extreme human rights abuses, and looking to develop a career in this field. We are fortunate to have a diverse group of participants, including researchers from Bahrain, Ethiopia, India, Palestine, Taiwan, and Uganda.
So far, we have run four out of six sessions in this 12-week programme. This online training is in conjunction with several exceptional external speakers, and have covered various topics ranging from the introduction and case studies of modern slavery to the practical side of bringing themselves into the field of international development. Splitting each three-hour session into two parts, our participants take part in two workshops/interactive presentations once every two weeks.
The first session was introductory of HRC’s work, and the programme itself. Mina, the founder of and a senior consultant at HRC, also shared her experience as being a research consultant with the participants.
The second session included a workshop on the relations between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and modern slavery, as well as modern slavery on a global scale. As the first official workshop of this programme, we wished to provide our participants with the big picture of modern slavery worldwide, and to introduce them the international mechanisms and key stakeholders related to this issue. We were thus honoured to have Birgitte Krogh-Poulsen with us in the following period. Birgitte has been a social development specialist for more than ten years, and our participants benefited from her sharing of the mindsets and essential self-development before starting a career as a consultant.
Different categories of modern slavery were introduced in the third session, and several case studies were discussed to help the participants obtain a better understanding of each form of modern slavery. In the second workshop of the day, Karen Leigh Anderson, a social business specialist led us to explore our strengths, and how to apply these strengths to advance our career. Each participant had completed the Gallup CliftonStrengths Assessment before the session, which they have found informative and helpful for finding their unique inner powers.
The fourth session featured a workshop on modern slavery in supply chains, and a presentation on practical skills for desk research given by Eric Kasper, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Other than sharing his journey as a researcher, Eric has also introduced several tools and software to the participants, and to upskill them by providing useful tips to work more efficiently.
Apart from participating in learning sessions and engaging with discussions, participants are conducting a teamwork project throughout the training. The goal of this task is to create an opportunity for them to experience the day-to-day working of a research consultant in an international development sector, including working virtually with team members from around the world, and writing client-oriented reports. A final presentation on these projects will take place in our last session, and we are looking forward to our participant’s excellent work.