Humanitarian Shelter Response for Shelter and Settlement Officers Training Course

Course overview

Shelter and Settlement Officers must make defensible decisions quickly when displacement, damaged housing, insecure land tenure, protection risks and limited supply chains collide. This course prepares participants to assess shelter needs, select appropriate response options and translate technical findings into operational plans that agencies, communities, donors and local authorities can act on. It addresses the practical work between an initial assessment and a safe, accountable shelter and settlement response: defining caseloads, setting standards, planning sites, managing technical assistance and monitoring whether assistance remains adequate as conditions change.

Participants work through the full shelter response cycle, using Sphere standards, UNHCR operational guidance and field-ready assessment approaches. They learn to analyse shelter vulnerability; compare in-kind, cash, voucher, repair and rental support options; develop settlement layouts; integrate protection, inclusion, environmental and housing, land and property considerations; and prepare bills of quantities, technical specifications and monitoring indicators. The course also covers coordination with CCCM, WASH, protection, logistics and local government counterparts, with particular attention to avoiding unsafe site development and exclusion from assistance.

Instruction combines technical briefings with a sustained displacement-response case study. Participants interpret assessment data, map a proposed settlement in QGIS, build a response-option matrix, draft household assistance packages and review a shelter plan against Sphere benchmarks. They leave with a completed Shelter and Settlement Response Package: a needs-analysis summary, response strategy, site-planning concept, targeting criteria, technical specifications, implementation schedule, monitoring framework and risk register. This practical portfolio can be adapted for their own programme or used to strengthen an upcoming concept note, proposal or operational plan.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct a multi-sector shelter and settlement needs assessment using disaggregated household data, observation checklists and key-informant findings
• Apply Sphere shelter and settlement standards to define safe living-space, privacy, accessibility and site-service benchmarks
• Compare cash, voucher, in-kind, repair, rental and transitional shelter options through a documented response-option analysis
• Develop targeting and prioritisation criteria that account for vulnerability, protection risk, tenure status and exclusion barriers
• Produce a basic settlement layout showing plots, circulation, drainage, communal facilities, firebreaks and accessible routes
• Prepare shelter technical specifications, quantities and quality-control checkpoints for repair and shelter-assistance packages
• Build a shelter implementation plan with procurement dependencies, community engagement steps, coordination actions and monitoring indicators
• Create a Shelter and Settlement Response Package containing a strategy narrative, risk register, activity schedule and results framework

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Shelter and Settlement Officers — who must design, implement and monitor technically sound shelter assistance
• Shelter Programme Managers — who need to approve response options, resource plans and delivery controls
• Humanitarian Project Officers — who coordinate shelter activities across assessment, implementation and reporting
• CCCM Officers — who manage displacement sites and need to align site planning with service delivery and protection
• WASH Officers — who must coordinate drainage, water points and sanitation access within settlement plans
• Humanitarian Engineers — who support repair, transitional shelter and site-development specifications

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to humanitarian programme delivery, emergency assessment, community engagement or shelter-related project work. They should understand basic humanitarian principles, the project cycle, simple quantitative data such as household counts and percentages, and common response terminology including displaced households, host communities and vulnerability criteria. Experience using spreadsheets is helpful for quantities and caseload calculations. Participants should bring a laptop capable of running QGIS and accessing KoboToolbox exercises. Prior engineering qualifications, CAD skills, advanced GIS expertise or previous site-planning experience are not required; core technical concepts are taught during the course.

Training methodology

The course uses instructor-led technical sessions, guided calculations and a single evolving displacement case study. Participants work in response-design teams to analyse household assessment data, identify protection and tenure constraints, compare delivery modalities and develop a settlement concept. Hands-on sessions use KoboToolbox outputs, spreadsheet templates and QGIS mapping exercises rather than abstract examples. Facilitated peer review tests each team’s assumptions against Sphere standards, operational constraints and community feedback. On Day 5, each participant converts the case work into an application plan for a current or anticipated shelter programme.

Course outline

Day 1: Shelter response foundations and needs analysis

• Humanitarian shelter response cycle from rapid assessment to recovery planning
• Sphere Shelter and Settlement standards and contextual application
• Household shelter vulnerability analysis using disaggregated assessment data
• Damage classification for housing, shelter materials and essential household items
• Protection, gender, age and disability considerations in shelter assessment
• Housing, land and property tenure screening and referral pathways
• Community engagement methods for validating shelter priorities

Workshop: Teams analyse a rapid-assessment dataset and produce a prioritised shelter needs profile with key information gaps and assessment recommendations.

Day 2: Response options, targeting and delivery modalities

• Shelter response-option analysis for repair, in-kind, cash, voucher and rental support
• Market functionality assessment for shelter materials, labour and transport
• Targeting criteria and vulnerability scoring for shelter assistance
• Conditional cash and voucher design for housing repair activities
• Transitional shelter, emergency shelter and durable solutions decision criteria
• Community-based implementation models and technical assistance arrangements
• Response strategy narratives, assumptions and decision logs

Workshop: Teams create a weighted response-option matrix and select a justified assistance package for three displacement-affected household groups.

Day 3: Settlement planning and technical shelter design

• Settlement typologies for collective centres, planned sites, dispersed settlements and host communities
• Site screening criteria for topography, drainage, hazards, access and land availability
• Plot layout principles, circulation networks, firebreaks and communal space allocation
• Integration of WASH facilities, waste management and drainage into settlement layouts
• Accessible and inclusive shelter design for older persons and persons with disabilities
• Basic shelter repair specifications, material selection and climate adaptation
• QGIS mapping for site features, service locations and population estimates

Workshop: Participants develop a QGIS-supported concept layout for a temporary settlement, including plots, access routes, drainage lines and service areas.

Day 4: Implementation controls, coordination and monitoring

• Bills of quantities and shelter material quantity calculations
• Technical specifications, workmanship standards and contractor quality checks
• Procurement planning for shelter kits, local materials, labour and transport
• Construction supervision, household self-recovery support and completion verification
• Shelter coordination roles, cluster information products and referral mechanisms
• Monitoring indicators for adequacy, safety, occupancy, satisfaction and repairs
• Risk registers for land disputes, fraud, fire, weather, safeguarding and environmental harm

Workshop: Teams prepare an implementation control pack containing a bill of quantities, inspection checklist, procurement dependencies and programme risk register.

Day 5: Integrated shelter response planning and presentation

• Results frameworks linking shelter outputs, outcomes and assumptions
• Caseload planning, phasing and activity scheduling
• Budget logic for materials, labour, technical support and site works
• Accountability to affected populations and feedback-response mechanisms
• Environmental screening and resource-efficient shelter programming
• Donor-ready shelter strategy writing and evidence presentation
• Adaptive management triggers for changing displacement, market and access conditions

Workshop: Each participant finalises and presents a Shelter and Settlement Response Package, receiving peer and instructor review against technical, protection and delivery criteria.

Tools & standards covered

Sphere Handbook, UNHCR Emergency Handbook, KoboToolbox, QGIS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions