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how to break the impasse in humanitarian professional education.

office building of the international red cross academy.

in front of the office building of the international red cross academy, there are two statues on each side, one of which is henry dunant, the founder of the international red cross movement, and the other is sheng xuanhuai, the first president of the chinese red cross society. the two pioneers of the red cross movement at home and abroad seem to imply the positioning of this three-story building that combines chinese and western styles: based in china and looking to the world.

on august 31, 2019, the international red cross academy was established at soochow university. it is the world's first truly red cross institution of higher learning, filling the gap in humanitarian education.

five years have passed, and the international red cross academy has grown from 0 to 1, and has gradually established its own influence in talent cultivation, theoretical research, and international exchanges.

filling the gap

the idea of ​​establishing the international red cross academy originally came from the suggestion of professor chi zihua, director of the red cross movement research center of soochow university.

on september 23, 2014, hua jianmin, then president of the chinese red cross society, visited suzhou for research. at the research seminar, professor chi zihua specifically proposed: "it is recommended that the general association negotiate with soochow university to establish a red cross college on the basis of the red cross movement research center, so that it can become a cadre training base, continuing education base and scientific research innovation base for the national red cross system, and play a greater role in the construction of the red cross cultural soft power." president hua jianmin expressed his agreement and appreciation for this.

on april 2, 2015, professor chi zihua formally proposed to the general assembly to establish a red cross academy. he cited the history of talent training in the chinese red cross movement, and the data showed that at that time, the international committee of the red cross had about 13,000 employees in more than 80 countries around the world; the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies had more than 100 million employees and volunteers in 191 member states around the world. and all of these did not have a dedicated cadre training academy. "therefore, taking the lead in establishing a 'red cross academy' in china will not only help the red cross cultivate talents and promote the development of the chinese red cross cause, but also have international significance that cannot be underestimated." chi zihua said in the "proposal".

at that time, the tsinghua university institute of philanthropy and the shenzhen international philanthropy college were under preparation, and some universities had opened philanthropy majors. "as one of the oldest international organizations, the red cross does not have its own university, which is regrettable," liu xuanguo, vice president of the international red cross college, recalled to china philanthropy many years later.

this is also the "dissatisfaction" of many red cross workers. wang rupeng, president of the international red cross academy, believes that the red cross movement has a history of more than 160 years, and although there are research institutions such as the solferino academy, there has never been a humanitarian education institution to train professional humanitarian workers.

"red cross work requires professional talents." wang rupeng cited the nine statutory responsibilities of the chinese red cross as an example. there are not only "three rescues and three donations" work, namely emergency rescue, emergency first aid, humanitarian assistance, blood donation, hematopoietic stem cell donation, and human organ tissue donation, but also international humanitarian rescue, international humanitarian law dissemination, red cross volunteer service, red cross youth work, etc. "these tasks require professional talents and cannot be done with love alone."

in november 2023, staff from the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies carried out humanitarian relief work after the earthquake in afghanistan. photo/meer abdullah rasikh/ifrc

this is also the difference between the international red cross academy and other public welfare and charity research institutions in china. the red cross organization is different from charitable organizations. in addition to engaging in some public welfare and charity work to help the poor and the needy, the red cross movement also includes "three donations" such as medical and public health content, and even humanitarian work.

the core of humanitarianism is to emphasize the value of human beings and to safeguard human dignity and rights. therefore, it is listed as the primary principle of the international red cross and red crescent movement. its purpose is to protect human life and health; safeguard human dignity; promote mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation among people, and promote lasting peace. in a sense, humanitarianism is people-oriented, no matter who they are or where they come from.

it is also for this reason that once an armed conflict or major disaster occurs in any part of the world, causing a humanitarian crisis, the red cross will be obliged to launch international humanitarian rescue.

"the international red cross academy is a specialized educational institution dedicated to the research of the red cross movement, talent cultivation in the humanitarian and public welfare fields, the dissemination of red cross culture, and international exchanges and cooperation. its establishment fills the gap in the chinese red cross movement as well as the gap in the international red cross movement," wang rupeng told china philanthropy.

based on these consensuses, the china red cross foundation quickly drafted a plan for the establishment of the international red cross academy and submitted it to the china red cross society. on july 22, 2016, the executive committee of the china red cross society discussed the "plan for the establishment of the international red cross academy" for the first time and agreed to start the preparatory work.

2017 is a key year for the preparation of the international red cross academy. on january 18, 2017, chinese president xi jinping delivered a keynote speech entitled "building a community with a shared future for mankind" at the united nations headquarters in geneva, systematically expounding on the idea of ​​building a community with a shared future for mankind and proposing that "the red cross should become a spirit and a banner."

in the same year, chen zhu, president of the chinese red cross society, was elected as vice president of the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies. he felt deeply that chinese faces were scarce in the international red cross movement. "we should vigorously cultivate international professional talents and send them to international organizations," said chen zhu.

this year, the preparatory work for the international red cross academy made a breakthrough. on october 31 of that year, the preparatory committee for the international red cross academy (hereinafter referred to as the preparatory committee) was formally established.

the president and teachers of the international red cross college took a group photo with students majoring in international humanitarian practice.

co-construction and sharing

on the second floor wall of the international red cross academy's office building, there is an inscription that reads, "adhere to the truth and innovate, build and share together, and build the international red cross academy into a humanitarian education base, a highland for red cross movement research, a red cross cultural dissemination position, and an international humanitarian exchange and cooperation platform." this is the expectation of peng peiyun, former president of the chinese red cross society, for the international red cross academy. based on this, the academy further clarified its target positioning and purpose.

"co-building an international college and sharing humanitarian education" is the purpose of the college. what is co-construction? at that time, there were three ideas for running a school. one was to build an independent legal person college, the second was to cooperate with well-known universities to run a school, and the third was to rely on the existing resources of the red cross and cooperate with commercial organizations to rebuild a college. but no matter which idea is adopted, the college needs to raise funds on its own. for this reason, the china red cross foundation has set up a special humanitarian education fund, which is specifically used for the preparation of the college. after co-operating with soochow university to run a school, a "red college development fund" was also established in the soochow university education development foundation to provide financial support for the development of the college through two fundraising platforms. in the words of liu xuanguo, the college's school-running model is a "light asset" model, which uses the teaching resources and school hardware of soochow university to integrate teachers and educational resources from all aspects of the social field.

the reason for choosing to cooperate with soochow university in running a school is, on the one hand, based on the existing academic resources of professor chi zihua and the red cross research center; on the other hand, soochow university can provide office space for the establishment of the college and allocate the office building of the original international red cross college to use.

the green building where the college’s offices are located is less than 100 meters away from the gate of the old site of soochow university. this seems to imply a kind of historical heritage: soochow university has a close relationship with the red cross movement. in the tokyo trial, two-thirds of the judges and prosecutors came from soochow university law school. this famous war crimes trial case also made important contributions to the subsequent adoption of the geneva conventions and the development of international humanitarian law.

as a secondary college of soochow university, the international red cross college is jointly managed by the china red cross society, soochow university and the china red cross foundation in terms of governance structure. the three parties send representatives to form a board of directors as the decision-making body of the college, studying and deciding major issues related to the construction and development of the college; the board of directors has a college affairs committee as the executive body of the college, responsible for daily work such as teaching research and administrative operations. on june 10, 2023, the college established an academic advisory committee, with ge daoshun, who had just been introduced as a distinguished professor, as the chairman. so far, the board of directors, the college affairs committee, the academic advisory committee and the party organization of the college have each performed their duties and cooperated with each other to form the governance structure of the college.

according to the goal set at the beginning of the college's establishment, the college needs to raise at least 100 million yuan to maintain its scale of development. in 2018, the preparatory committee changed its fundraising strategy and decided to recruit 100 co-sponsors (co-builders), each of whom donated 1 million yuan to form a consortium to build the college. today, the international red cross college has more than 30 co-sponsors (co-builders), and in the future, some large donors will be allowed to join the board of directors and participate in the college's development decisions based on the amount of their donations.

in its initial positioning, the international red cross academy was mainly based on two functions, namely talent training and theoretical research, and accordingly established the direction of discipline construction and talent training. however, its coverage is expanding - since its establishment, the academy has not only trained staff of the red cross system, but also provided various levels of training services for practitioners in the public welfare and charity sectors.

at present, the academic education of the international red cross academy mainly offers undergraduate students a minor in international humanitarian work practice and a master of public administration (mpa) in humanitarian public welfare management. the professional training of in-service personnel is still the main direction of the academy. in addition to short-term training for the red cross system, there are also advanced training courses in sociology (humanitarian work management) and advanced training courses in humanitarian affairs.

taking the humanitarian affairs advanced training course as an example, its trainees include not only leaders from provincial and municipal red cross societies, but also senior managers of public welfare and charity organizations, entrepreneurs and media leaders who are enthusiastic about humanitarian public welfare. "we consciously make the trainee structure more diverse, which is actually to build a platform for everyone to exchange experiences, share resources, support each other and develop together," said wang rupeng. by the end of 2023, the international red cross academy has opened 55 training courses of various types, trained more than 4,000 people in total, and launched 165 courses on the cloud education platform, with a total duration of more than 789 minutes.

the international red cross academy has now become a business card of the chinese red cross movement. in the past two years, the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies and the international committee of the red cross have successively become co-founders of the academy. when leaders of the international red cross organization and some national red cross societies visit china, they will also take the international red cross academy as an important stop. international exchanges based on the soochow international humanitarian forum have also gradually brought china's red cross movement onto the world stage.

at the opening ceremony of the 3rd soochow international humanitarian forum, young students from different countries read out the seven fundamental principles of the international red cross movement.

from 1 to 2

in the past five years, the college has gone through the start-up period from 0 to 1. how to achieve the development from 1 to 2 is the key to determining the long-term sustainable development of the college.

in the view of executive vice president zheng geng, as a teaching institution, the key to achieving its influence lies in discipline construction. "in the past five years, we have been doing integration and exploration, integrating resources and building an academic platform through the development of continuing education and training. in the next five years, our direction will be professional setting." zheng geng said that at present, the academic education of the international red cross college is still in cooperation with other colleges and is affiliated with other colleges. it has no independent source of students and it is difficult to form a disciplinary influence. only when the college has specific majors can it have a better handle to promote the development of the college.

talent is the most critical factor. at present, most of the faculty members of the college are part-time professors and visiting professors, who rely on their own research resources to do research projects. there are only 4 full-time teachers, including 2 professors, 1 associate professor, and 1 lecturer, which is difficult to support the teaching and theoretical research system of professional courses.

in zheng geng's view, whether the red cross interdisciplinary subject can be approved as a subject is the key to the college's achievement from 1 to 2. at present, the international red cross college has eight teaching and research centers, namely the red cross cause in the new era, the red cross movement, international humanitarian law and humanitarian policy, emergency management and humanitarian assistance, humanitarian resource mobilization and communication, "nightingale" humanitarian assistance, "belt and road" humanitarian cooperation and cloud education development center.

"from the initial six teaching and research centers to the current eight teaching and research centers, the college has been constantly adjusting according to new changes." ge daoshun, director of the academic advisory committee, told china philanthropy that on the one hand, the college was hit by the three-year pandemic shortly after its establishment, and many courses had to be transferred online; on the other hand, the current humanitarian environment has also changed, and the corresponding discipline construction must keep up. "the original humanitarian crisis focused on human conflicts. now with climate change and the development of artificial intelligence, the scope of humanitarian crises has been greatly expanded. if no new rules are introduced, there may be consequences that are difficult for humans to cope with."

in 2022, chen zhu, president of the red cross society of china and honorary president of the international red cross academy, proposed to speed up the construction of red cross interdisciplinary disciplines. the international red cross academy began to strengthen the introduction of professional talents at all levels. ge daoshun was one of the talents introduced at that time. since the establishment of the academy, ge daoshun, who was still working at the chinese academy of social sciences, has participated in the demonstration of the plan. in february last year, ge daoshun resigned from his job as a researcher at the chinese academy of social sciences and came to suzhou from beijing to become a full-time professor at the international red cross academy. for him, jumping out of the stable comfort zone and facing the pressure of various assessments and results as a talent introduction is undoubtedly a huge adventure. but research on humanitarian issues and governance is his obligation as a researcher. "from the perspective of the long-term development of the academy, there must be a set of knowledge and theoretical systems to support it, otherwise it will just be a training institution."

at present, the international red cross academy has been looking for a platform to allow the eight existing teaching and research centers to have a common knowledge system foundation. "this value system must also include the exchange and dialogue integration of various civilizations and cultural systems in the world, so that we can better contribute to the international red cross movement. ultimately, we return to the seven basic principles of the red cross movement to find its value orientation, that is, humanitarian values. if it involves academic thought research, it should be a set of humanitarian thought systems." ge daoshun said.

on september 5, 2023, chinese president xi jinping pointed out in a meeting with icrc president spoljaric that "humanitarianism is the greatest consensus that can bring together different civilizations." he hopes to "provide chinese ideas and solutions to strengthen global governance and the governance of humanitarian issues."

on july 12, 2024, the "soochow university institute for the governance of humanitarian issues" affiliated with the international red cross academy was officially established.

the humanitarian issues governance research institute is headed by ge daoshun. according to him, the humanitarian issues governance research institute is both an open school-level research institution and an internal red cross interdisciplinary integration platform, which forms functional complementarity and organic division of labor with the existing eight teaching and research centers. the key goals of the institute focus on the analysis of humanitarian issues and governance policy research, and the basic tasks focus on the basic knowledge and production of the history, theory and methods of the red cross interdisciplinary disciplines.

in june this year, the journal "china red cross review" founded by the international red cross academy was officially published. "this journal will build a platform for theoretical research and academic exchanges for the construction of a highland for the red cross movement research. this is an important achievement of the innovative development of the international red cross academy. it not only fills the gap in the theoretical research position construction of the chinese red cross movement in the past 120 years, but will also become an important supplement to the international red cross review in related research fields." wang rupeng said that the journal "china red cross review" will be published twice a year.

at present, all 13 theoretical projects undertaken by the international red cross academy have been completed, and the research on the second batch of theoretical projects has been launched this year. "in terms of theoretical research, we will continue to make efforts and strive to contribute chinese wisdom and chinese solutions to the development of the international red cross movement." wang rupeng said.

"in the midst of unprecedented changes in a century, faced with the complex international humanitarian situation and the humanitarian crisis caused by climate change, the international red cross academy is faced with urgent social needs and development opportunities." on july 12 this year, when chen zhu unveiled the institute of humanitarian governance of soochow university, he put forward requirements for the next development of the international red cross academy: to build a specialized and high-level faculty team closely integrated with teaching and research tasks, to introduce professional talents in a targeted manner, and to cultivate more compound humanitarian workers with an international perspective, knowledge of international rules, and the ability to participate in global governance.

author: he bin

image editor: zhang xu

editor on duty: wan xiaojun