At The KonTerra Group, we are passionate about supporting the wellbeing and resilience of staff, teams, and leaders in the international humanitarian and development sector. It is an honor to receive the Humentum Industry Operational Excellence Award for our work, and we are humbled by the community recognition. We could not be more grateful to Humentum and the KonTerra clients who nominated us.
We know that individuals and teams within organizations in this sector need effective staff care and resilience services now more than ever. The need is tremendous. The global pandemic only compounds the challenges faced by staff, particularly those already working in high-stress or high-threat environments or those who regularly face trauma and the trauma of others. Protecting the psychological safety and wellbeing of staff is now recognized as a fundamental component of an organization’s duty of care to their staff, and organizations can no longer take a passive approach to staff care resources.
The international development and humanitarian sector has unique needs, and psychosocial services are a very delicate issue, depending on your geographic location. The KonTerra Group has done a wonderful job for EDC in providing resources that proactively support our staff in multiple languages and recognizing that different contexts require different approaches and levels of engagement with staff. – Education Development Center
The operational needs within the humanitarian and development sector are unique and complex. Humentum has been an important partner for the community, helping to navigate these complexities. This has been the case with staff care as well, when in 2017, KonTerra partnered with Humentum (InsideNGO) and DisasterReady to publish the Essential Principles of Staff Care, a free resource for the community that provides guidance on staff care programming options.
Many Humentum member organizations have helped lead the way in their approach to comprehensive staff care services, particularly in their support for their local national staff in the most challenging environments. These industry leaders, including Mercy Corps, EDC, CARE, Chemonics, IRC, and others, have partnered closely with KonTerra and have become models for effective staff care support in the sector.
Last year was extremely difficult for staff shifting to working from home or for those that continued to work in person in our Country Offices challenged by COVID-19. The KonTerra Group worked with us to address burnout, the challenges of working from home, and many other issues, as well as helping us with very specific needs for individuals. KonTerra has always been very helpful in providing counseling services for our staff, but they really stepped up during the pandemic. – Ann Moffett, CARE USA, HR Business Partner
At KonTerra, we are humbled by this incredible recognition. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively alongside our clients as we design and deliver staff care and organizational resilience services to the Humentum community. We look forward to continuing to partner in this way for many years to come.