Courses
Monitoring and Evaluation as Learning Disciplines for Peacebuilding
Trainers:Course Dates:5 - 9 December 2011Participants familiar with the theory and practice of peacebuilding, but less so with monitoring and evaluation, will find this introductory course helpful in acquiring tools for analysis, reflection and learning. Oriented toward utilization-focused evaluation and working with qualitative data, this course uses experiential learning activities and practical exercises to build skills and gain experience. This training will provide participants with the opportunity to analyze and understand the role that M&E plays in designing and measuring the impact of development and humanitarian projects in conflict affected countries. Participants will learn and develop professional skills in project monitoring and evaluation with an emphasis on practical field based approaches. Conflict analysis, participatory rural appraisal, and remote monitoring systems will be emphasized that are most appropriate for conflict affected countries and areas of program operation. At the end of the course participants will have the opportunity to compare their work with donor funded projects and successful M&E frameworks currently used in conflict contexts. The course will focus heavily on participatory approaches to M&E and will also address the complexity of measuring change in conflict dynamics, identifying reasonable measures of impact, and working with local populations to achieve results. A special emphasis will be placed on conflict sensitive M&E approaches and the importance of conflict analysis and information when designing work in conflict zones. This training course will be highly interactive in nature and incorporate “real-time” interventions that may be impacted by some of the decisions participants make. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet with some representatives from the implementing agencies and talk about the challenges on the ground related to M&E. The course is practical in methodology – providing and demonstrating a range of tools for guiding conflict sensitive design, monitoring and evaluation of projects. It will outline current practice, approaches and lessons learnt, whilst building on participants own experiences, to provide ideas and tools for implementing conflict-sensitive approaches to development assistance and contingency planning in conflict-prone and conflict-affected environments. Learning objectives: To acquire tools for analysis, reflection and learning that add value to peacebuilding practice. To understand the basic concepts and activities involved in monitoring and evaluating peacebuilding initiatives. To develop skills in identifying and working with theories of change. To develop and practice skills that are important for monitoring and evaluating projects, such as indicator development and evaluation planning.
Youth Leadership for Peacebuilding & Advocacy
Trainers:Course Dates:23-28 May 2011Please note this course is designed for young people (19-29 years old)
Over the past decades, it has become clear that young people are increasingly playing a major role in political affairs, particularly in societies in transition. In armed conflicts, youth are not only the major victims but are often the major protagonists of violence. In other situations, youth are organizing not only to respond to events but to play a major role within them. Youth associations and NGOs often work to influence policy makers to address the issues that are affecting their generation. In each country, this is a manifestation of a global movement of young people to take on more significant leadership roles in their communities and nation. In this highly interactive course, we will explore the role of young people in decision making processes. We will examine the diverse roles that young people play in advancing societies, shaping culture, and influencing policy. The course is designed primarily for young leaders (up to 29years old), supporting them to carve out roles within their communities and building their skills to be effective advocates and leaders in their own communities. The overall goal of this course is for youth participants to develop the necessary knowledge, theoretical frameworks, skills, and tools to establish themselves as effective leaders of their generation. The specific objectives are: • To create space for youth leaders to reflect on their current role in the society and to envision what role they would like to play; • To strengthen the leadership skills of participants; • To equip participants with the tools to do situation and policy analysis and define specific youth-led interventions; and • To build the skills of youth leaders in non-adversarial advocacy strategies.Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict and Post Conflict
Course Dates:14-21 December 2011SOUTH ASIA FOCUSED RESIDENTIAL TRAINING COURSE
In collaboration with
‘ANTARANG’ INDIA – Psychosocial Training & Research Organization, Bangalore
This seven-day course is for Psychosocial Practitioners and Managers working in mental health/ psychosocial programming in conflict and post-conflict situations. This course will also prepare those who have educational background in mental health and psychosocial support but lack in skills and field experience.
This training promotes personalized learning through theoretical inputs, introspective exercises, group interactions blending it with experiential field exposures, face to face interviews and skills-practice, simultaneously building group synergy for shared peer wisdom and reflective edification.
The course will be most appropriate for psychosocial practitioners who are exposed to ground realities in field related or program related positions and feel strongly the need to work with improved clarity, advanced empathy, passion and personal effectiveness.
This course will introduce you to techniques in both training and in self exploration that one can effectively use in mental health and psychosocial support practice to reach out individuals, groups/families and community.
Conflict Sensitive Economic Recovery
Just and lasting peace requires broadly shared economic opportunities, including decent work, to redress economic issues and grievances that fuelled violent conflict in the first place, and to address the economic impacts of conflict on the livelihoods and lives of conflict-affected populations. Indeed strengthening the private sector and market-based economies has become a key concern for development assistance in recent years, including in countries affected by conflict. But while the links between peace and the economy may be obvious, it is less clear how a peacebuilding approach to such economic interventions can be achieved in practice, and how they can be made conflict-sensitive. This is a crucial question for peacebuilding practitioners that seek innovative avenues for promoting peace. It is also a key concern for development practitioners that find themselves operating in the midst or aftermath of conflict. This course is designed to familiarise peacebuilding and development practitioners with current international debates as well as practice in combining peacebuilding and economic interventions, and to give them a chance to work through some of the emerging issues and dilemmas. In particular, participants will learn to assess the conflict risks and peacebuilding opportunities present in different economic interventions, through conflict and political economy analysis; to identify different types of economic actors and their capacities for contributing to peace and conflict; and to develop practical ideas and strategies for working with them. Participants will be exposed to case studies and experiences in tackling the economic dimensions of peacebuilding from different regions, focusing on their relevance for the South Asia context. The course will also draw on relevant expertise from Sri Lankan experts and practitioners, from government, the donor community, the private sector and civil society. Finally, participants will be exposed to concrete initiatives that combine economic and peacebuilding interventions, through a four-day field visit component.