AI for humanitarian practitioners

Go to claude.ai and sign up with your email or your Google account.

For the course, take Pro (about 20 dollars a month): it lets Claude work on the files in your folders. In Claude, open Settings, then Billing, and upgrade.

If your organisation provides Claude, or does not allow external AI tools, check with your trainer first.

Download it from claude.com/download, install it, open it and sign in with the same account.

If it won't install, for example on a work laptop, tell your trainer and use claude.ai in your browser for now.

Your first real practice with Claude. Start a new chat, copy the prompt below, paste it and send it. Answer in your own words; you can dictate. At the end, read the file Claude writes, correct it, and keep it: it goes in your Claude folder in the next step.

I'm taking a course on using AI in my work as a humanitarian or development professional. Below is a starter version of my "about-me" file. Help me make it mine by interviewing me.

How to run the interview:
- At the start, remind me once not to share names of people, beneficiary, patient or protection data, or confidential client information.
- Go through the starter one section at a time. Show me the section, then help me fill in the brackets and decide, line by line, what to keep, change or delete.
- Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer. Don't suggest answers for me.
- In each section, challenge at least one line: ask me whether it is really true of me or just sounds right.
- If an answer is vague, ask one short follow-up.

When we have finished every section:
- Write my about-me file in Markdown, under 400 words, with the same headings.
- Use only what I confirmed or told you. Mark anything unclear as [to confirm].
- Then list three things I should check or add before session 2.

Starter about-me file:

# About me

## Who I am
- [My role: independent consultant, programme manager, adviser…] in humanitarian and development work, [number] years of experience.
- Assignments I do most: [evaluations, third-party monitoring, needs assessments, research, training].
- Sectors and themes I know best: [for example health, protection, food security, livelihoods].
- Countries and regions: [ ].
- Usual clients: [UN agencies, international NGOs, donors]. They expect evidence-based findings, clear and usable recommendations, and deliverables on time in their template.

## How I work
- Frameworks I use: OECD-DAC criteria, theory of change, [contribution analysis, Core Humanitarian Standard].
- I triangulate document review, interviews and data. Every finding traces back to a source.
- A good deliverable answers the questions in the terms of reference, keeps findings, conclusions and recommendations separate, and makes recommendations specific enough to act on.
- Working languages: [English, French].

## Where I want help
- The three tasks that take most of my time: [ ].
- What I find hard or slow: [ ].

## What I am working on now
- [The assignment I chose for the course, in two lines, anonymised.]

On your laptop, for example in Documents, create one folder for your work with Claude: 00_Me for your about-me file, then one folder per assignment, always with the same structure.

Claude/
  00_Me/                 your about-me file goes here
  2026-11 Assignment name/
    01_Reference/        terms of reference, proposal, templates
    02_Sources/          documents, data
    03_Collection/       interview notes, anonymised only
    04_Analysis/
    05_Deliverables/

Claude works on copies: your originals stay where they are.

Copy two or three anonymised documents from your project into its folder. In the Claude app, attach one of them and try one small real task, for example: "Summarise this document in five lines, with page numbers." Check the summary against the document, and bring the result to session 2.