As one of the biggest humanitarian organizations globally, the International Rescue Committee is never not actively in recruitment, said Rena Kokalari, senior director of people and culture at IRC. The “north star” for its recruitment process, she shared, is the organization’s annual emergency watchlist.
IRC, which was created in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, has more than 22,000 staff members responding to crises across 40 countries. Each year, it produces a list of 20 countries at greatest risk of new humanitarian emergencies.
“For the past 10 years, it has had 85% to 95% accuracy in terms of predicting places of continuing deterioration and conflict,” Kokalari said. She explained that this feeds into the team’s recruitment strategy by identifying “where we are going to need to be next.” The 2024 watchlist named Ethiopia, Mali, Sudan, Myanmar, and the occupied Palestinian territory.