Habitat-USAID/BHA's International Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements research fellowship
Helping students and young professionals launch their career in the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector
Since 2013, the U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, or USAID/BHA, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International and supported by InterAction, have sponsored graduate students through fellowship opportunities, helping boost their research and launch their futures in the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector.
The programs pair Habitat’s expertise in housing with a breadth of sector experience from our partners and funders to offer students a comprehensive learning opportunity.
Fellowship opportunities are open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents enrolled full-time in accredited graduate school programs in the U.S. or U.S. citizens studying abroad in a discipline such as city, urban, environmental or regional planning; architecture or architectural engineering; civil or environmental engineering; international or development studies; humanities or social studies; or similar disciplines.
In 2024, the fellowship chose six fellows as they pursue their thesis or professional report writing. We look forward to offering research opportunities in the future, subject to funding availability.
We have also launched a practicum support program, also known as practical internships, in addition to our research fellowship to create more opportunities for students to gain invaluable international experience in the day-to-day activities of professionals in the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector. Participants will travel internationally to the host organizations’ countries.
Research fellowship details
The research fellowship offers graduate students the opportunity to receive professional mentorship, networking opportunities and financial support for research on a humanitarian shelter and settlements topic.
Professional mentorship
- The candidates will have the chance to gain firsthand experience and visibility into the work as they complete their graduate studies, helping lay pivotal groundwork for their professional careers.
Networking opportunities
- We provide our fellows with contacts and networking opportunities to develop direct relationships with leading experts from international and national humanitarian organizations.
Financial support
- Each fellow will receive a financial support of up to $19,000 each – made up of a $10,000 stipend and up to $9,000 for travel-related expenses when necessary – to support international graduate research for about 10 months.
Research guidelines and award process
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Fellows will be U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are currently enrolled full-time in accredited graduate school programs in the U.S. or U.S. citizens studying abroad in one of the disciplines listed above. The topic of this graduate student research will take place in an international setting outside the U.S.
Examples of possible research topics include, but are not limited to, any of the following research priorities identified by the Global Shelter Cluster:
- The longer term, including recovery: Managing the transition of crisis-affected households to longer-term recovery in conflict and disaster contexts.
- Sample research questions include:
- Which evidence exists to demonstrate how best to support households who have lost their shelter and settlements in the longer term?
- What are the barriers to supporting households who have lost their shelter and settlements in the longer term?
- How are households themselves able to recover in the longer term?
- Sample research questions include:
- Cash and markets in support of shelter and settlements: How households effectively use cash to secure and support their shelter and settlements in conflict and disaster contexts.
- Sample research questions include:
- Which evidence demonstrates criteria indicating that cash programming will work well for those who have lost their shelter and settlements, compared with other modalities?
- What is the impact of cash programming for households who have lost their shelter and settlements, in comparison with other modalities?
- Sample research questions include:
- The wider impact of shelter and settlements: Measuring the contribution of shelter and settlement assistance to wider humanitarian outcomes in conflict and disaster contexts, especially with regard to livelihoods, physical and mental health, social cohesion, gender and society, risk from hazards, and access to basic services.
- Sample research questions include:
- Which evidence demonstrates the role of shelter and settlements in gender-based violence and the health/livelihoods/safety of households who have lost their shelter and settlements?
- How do the wider impacts of supporting households who have lost their shelter and settlements indicate how support is best provided?
- Sample research questions include:
Check out the Global Shelter Cluster Baseline Report, which expands on the research priorities and the rationale behind them to help provide applicants with more insights and ideas.
- The longer term, including recovery: Managing the transition of crisis-affected households to longer-term recovery in conflict and disaster contexts.
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Graduate work on any of the research topics could entail travel to Washington, D.C., or to sites in other countries. Graduate fellows may perform their work at their home universities, but we prefer and highly encourage international field research if it is safe to do so — adhering to any travel restrictions, vaccinations and insurance requirements.
If students need specific workspace assignments in Washington, D.C., USAID/BHA might arrange these assignments, subject to applicable public safety requirements and travel restrictions at the time. Graduate students will likely spend the bulk of the summer at their home universities or at field sites, rather than in Washington, D.C.
The selected candidates may be able to travel to proposed international field sites while receiving fellowship support, subject to safety requirements and travel restrictions, as well as at the discretion of Habitat. Selected fellows will be required to adhere to the Habitat’s Accountability Framework and Safeguarding Policy and undertake the Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse training. If the research work involves direct contact with communities affected by disasters, a background check will be required.
Habitat is collaborating with USAID/BHA to support these graduate student fellowships. The home university graduate student research/professional report advisor will oversee and be responsible for the quality, progress and completion of the research and final deliverables. Both USAID/BHA and Habitat will receive e-copies of approved theses and professional reports from graduate students, encourage fellows to publish work in peer-review journals and humanitarian publications, host an end-of-project presentation of the research work, and would welcome the opportunity to serve on thesis or professional report committees.
USAID/BHA, through Habitat, will provide basic administrative support for the graduate students until a final report and end-of-project presentation is finalized.
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In this informational webinar, our 2022 cohort spoke and answered questions about the HFHI-USAID/BHA’s Humanitarian Shelter and Settlement Fellowship Program and the steps for any first year master’s student with an interest in applying to our 2023 cohort call for applications.
In January of 2023, Habitat-USAID/BHA was proud to receive the final presentations of our 2022 cohort for the Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements Fellowship. In this recording from the presentation, each of our fellowship members presented their research experiences in Peru, Indonesia and Lebanon to a number of InterAction Network Shelter and Settlement experts in Washington, D.C., who provided constructive feedback and dialogue.
In this webinar, 2023 Humanitarian Shelter & Settlements fellow Emily Nabong interviews Melina Holder of the 2022 fellowship cohort. For more information, please visit our Fellowship Resources.
“The fellowship enabled me direct access to shelter and settlement professionals and communities at the field level, which gave me a stronger awareness of how the humanitarian sector operates and where I myself would fit into this system as a young professional.”
“Receiving the fellowship meant that I was able to find housing in the city of my research, which significantly increased my ability to complete full days of fieldwork and to prioritize the research itself, without constantly assessing my research choices against the potential financial implications.”
“The fellowship allowed me to conduct real primary data collection, whereas I would have depended upon my prior work experience and personal impressions otherwise. I could not have afforded to take time to travel to Haiti for my research without this fellowship.”
Lizzie brings to the team two decades of experience in helping those affected by humanitarian crises, disasters and conflict as they recover their shelter and settlements.
She has conducted fieldwork as a humanitarian practitioner, government donor, senior manager and researcher in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Lizzie is an associate director for Habitat for Humanity International, a researcher with the Open University, an associate lecturer with Oxford Brookes University and an associate trainer for RedR. She is co-founder of the U.K. Shelter Forum, and prior to her humanitarian career, she qualified and practiced as an architect in the U.K.
In his role, Mario provides global leadership and subject matter support to Habitat’s affiliates that implement disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response programs.
He has over 30 years of professional experience in humanitarian shelter; housing and human settlements including water, sanitation and hygiene work; and community development.
He belongs to several global and regional collaborative networks and is a former co-chair of the Shelter and Settlements working group at InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based humanitarian and development organizations. He is also a member of the international board of directors of the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction.
He’s a civil engineer with a postgraduate diploma in housing and human settlements from the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Mohamed joined InterAction as the senior coordinator and technical specialist for shelter, settlements and disaster risk reduction in 2011. He’s a humanitarian shelter and reconstruction specialist who works to improve the collaboration, capacity, practice and policies of stakeholders responding to humanitarian disasters and crises.
Before joining InterAction, Mohamed worked for U.N. agencies and international nongovernmental organizations in complex humanitarian emergencies and development programs.
He has responded to and managed emergencies such as the conflict and famine in Somalia, the post-genocide refugee crisis in Tanzania/Rwanda, the tsunami and armed conflict in Sri Lanka, and Tropical Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, as well as emergencies in Haiti, Eretria, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and Sudan.
He has also managed several large infrastructure, reconstruction and refugee resettlement programs in the Middle East and North Africa region.
In the private sector, he has worked for Shell Petroleum in Singapore and with the Science Applications International Corporation on a U.S. government chemical weapons demilitarization project in Maryland.
Mohamed holds a Master of Engineering in project management systems from the University of Canterbury and a Bachelor of Engineering in project management systems from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.
Charles has more than 40 years of experience in managing the process of physical, social and economic change, both in the U.S. and abroad.
His professional experience is rooted in his schooling in urban and environmental planning — he has an undergraduate degree from University of California, Davis, and graduate degree from University of California, Berkeley.
Charles also completed doctoral studies in urban planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and conducted doctoral research supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and MacArthur Foundation award.
Charles has participated in nearly every major international disaster and crisis involving a shelter response since his arrival at USAID/BHA in 1998, designing and implementing shelter and settlements sector projects and disaster risk reduction activities in numerous countries. He gives presentations at training courses, meetings and conferences on a regular basis and has been published on a wide variety of topics.
