Greetings.
This is to introduce you to the joint course between Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA) and Peace Direct on Strengthening Policy and Practice, meeting the challenges of working in Complex Environments that will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 22nd to 26th October 2018.
The five day interactive training will bring together 15-20 practitioners and NGO leaders from across Africa to examine the links between policy and practice in fragile, conflict-affected contexts led by conflict transformation specialist, Dr.Simon Fisher.
The bespoke course is designed to draw on the experience and practice of professionals working in development, humanitarian aid or peacebuilding and aims to strengthen internal policies and programmatic approaches to working in fragile and conflict affected countries.
Drawing on current best practice and emerging trends, participants will develop effective approaches to peacebuilding, development and post-conflict reconstruction. Participants will identify how they can balance their organizational mandate with the demands of working in complex and rapidly changing political emergencies.
After five days of collaboration, in-depth discussion and practical exercises, participants will come away with a comprehensive set of approaches and tools that they can use to analyze conflict contexts and apply practically to their work.
Participants will:
-Explore the relationship between organizational policy and practice in situations of instability, conflict or violence.
-Deepen their understanding of peacebuilding from a conflict transformation perspective and apply their learning to their own work.
-Learn how to apply appropriate conflict analysis to their own organizations and contexts.
-Examine issues relating to aid and conflict in order to develop conflict sensitive policies for their organizations.
-Consider the key policy and practice issues relating to the prevention of violent conflict and peacebuilding.
-Strengthen their competence in proactively contributing to the development of appropriate policies and best practices when working in environments affected by conflict or violence.
Suitable for
-This course is for staff of international and national agencies and those with advisory and management responsibility for relief, development, and peacebuilding programmes.
-It is particularly relevant for anyone engaged in the planning and implementation of field-based programmes in fragile and conflict affected contexts, or those responsible for developing policies for appropriate responses in complex, political emergencies.
About this course
The Strengthening Policy and Practice (SPP) course has been run by theUK-based organisation Responding to Conflict for over 20 years. In 2016 Responding to Conflict became the training arm of part of Peace Direct, a UK based organisation that works with local peacebuilding organizations across the world.
The Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA) has been running the SPP course with Responding to Conflict for almost five years.
Since its inception it has proved to be an extremely popular course,teaching participants the latest tools and techniques for analyzing conflict contexts, while drawing on the skills and experience of the training participants.
Testimonials
;What we learn here we can use over there. For example, how to handle conflicts, how to manage parties involved in conflicts, to do diagnosis of the root causes, and how to develop tools you can use, how to do delegations and see what the delegations stand for. We learned about how there are visible and invisible parties. I think the issue to understand the nature of conflict and the policies that are available was very valuable."–Participant, UK
;It was excellent to be together with different people and identify shared goals and values and to develop common strategies . . . and a feeling of solidarity."–Participant, Liberia
Lead Facilitator/Trainer: Dr. Simon Fisher
Dr. Simon Fisher is a conflict transformation specialist with extensive global experience and a PhD from Oxford Brookes University. Dr. Fisher has comprehensive experience in education, development and conflict transformation in Africa, Europe and Asia.
He has worked with many kinds of organizations in over 40 countries in support of initiatives to prevent violence and build sustainable peace. In1991 he founded and became the first director of Responding to Conflict,where he was responsible for a range of conflict transformation training and support programmes worldwide.
He is an Associate Lecturer at CENDEP (the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice) at Oxford Brookes University and also teaches on Applied Conflict Transformation programmes at universities in Cambodia and South Africa. In addition, Dr. Fisher acts as Advisor to the UK Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues and has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford.
Dr. Fisher is an Associate of Peace Direct and now works as a consultant on a variety of peace-related issues, from facilitating peace processes building and evaluating. His current international focus is on supporting peace initiatives within Syria and Zimbabwe. In the UK he is an active member of Rethinking Security, a group of peace building practitioners and academics working to change public and political perceptions of security from a nationalistic frame to one of shared, sustainable security for the world as a whole.
Course fee
Option 1: US $1600 (includes full board accommodation at the training centre from 21stOctober evening to 27th October @1000 hours. It also includes tuition, certificate or participation and airport pickup and drop off in Nairobi where applicable.
Option 2: US $1100 (for those wishing to make their own accommodation arrangements). The amount covers tuition, day to day conference package at the training centre, certificate of participation and airport pick-up and drop off in Nairobi where applicable.
A course application form is attached to this email.
For queries and registration to the course, contact [copa@copafrica.org] or [courses@peacedirect.org]
Coalition for Peace in Africa
P.O Box 61753-00200 City Square,
2018 SPP Application-form.docx (81.3 KB)
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 020 3866686
Cell: + 254 703 429 667
Email: [copa@copafrica.org]
Web: www.copafrica.org
Peace Direct
Studio 302, 203-213 Mare Street
London, E8 3QE
Tel: +44 203 422 5549
Email: [courses@peacedirect.org]
Web: www.peacedirect.org