Aid practitioners work long hours in risky and stressful conditions, made all the more intense during COVID-19. As staff well-being gets more attention in the sector, it can be helpful to consider the intersections between mental health, people management and organisational culture using the lens of care and compassion.

This Area of Common Concern will address How do organizations fulfill their Duty of Care when so many contributors to chronic stress are often invisible and ingrained? What happens when care, culture and power are considered inside organizations?  

Expected outcomes: 

Sessions under this topic will: 

• raise awareness about the responsibilities, challenges and opportunities to protect staff well-being and cultivate supportive organizational cultures. 

• share lessons learned from aid organizations, service providers and academia on innovative practices to improve staff mental health outcomes, organizational cultures and people management.

• connect and weave together diverse perspectives from aid leaders as well as people working on mental health, human resources, organizational culture, compassion, mindfulness, ethics, gender, diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging, safeguarding, and reimaging aid through the participation revolution, localization, harmonization and simplification, and new models of collaboration.