Violent conflict is the primary obstacle to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The international and national community – from the humanitarian, development, stabilization, peacebuilding and human rights sectors – need to enhance their effectiveness in supporting locally led efforts fostering sustainable peace.

Interpeace’s Effective Advising Course equips experts and advisors with new ways of approaching the complexity of their work in and on conflict affected contexts. Focused on three interlinked spheres of action: interpersonal, contextual, and organizational, the course reinforces participants’ ability to identify and seize opportunities for change.

Over a period of 11 weeks, the online global edition of this professional development course is made up of 12 ~2.5-hour sessions, 3 dedicated group work sessions,
as well as background reading and individual preparation.

A team of three experienced facilitators guide ~25 participants selected from around the world to take a step back from their day-to-day work environments and reflect on their individual roles and effectiveness as advisors.

Interpeace’s interactive and practice-oriented methodology provides a space for professionals to take a fresh look at advisory challenges and tackle these more consciously and creatively using practical frameworks.

Five core training modules structure the course:

1. Advisory roles
2. Peacebuilding contexts and principles
3. Personal agency & interpersonal skills
4. Advising in complex systems
5. Change process and managing resistance

Can institutional reform contribute to sustainable peace in countries emerging from violent conflict?

Institutional reforms that (re-)define the “rules of the game,” including constitutional reviews, decentralization reforms or changes of the electoral system, are common to most peace processes. Often with a rationale of “all good things go together,” the international community mobilizes bundles of reforms in an effort to strengthen legitimate state institutions and good governance in conflict-affected contexts. However, experiences show that these processes face many hurdles and do not necessarily produce satisfactory outcomes.

This course explores the interconnectedness of the different reform processes as well as the opportunities and risks they may pose in highly politicized and contested contexts. Going beyond a purely technical understanding, the course views institutional reform as a deeply political intervention aimed at transforming the socio-economic and political setup of a country. From conceptual trends to policy and practice, the course tackles questions surrounding legitimacy, timeframes and sequencing, inclusivity and representation, amongst others.

As a participant, you will:

• explore contemporary policy debates on institutional change, peace processes, and political transitions.
• hear experiences from local actors involved in institutional reform processes.
• reflect on current methodologies and approaches proposed by international actors.
• train your skills with practical exercises.
• exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice.

This online course provides theoretical basics informed by current issues as well as insights into proven methods from the Berghof Foundation’s peace education practice in Germany and abroad.

Around the world violent conflicts, populism, racism and anti-democratic forces are on the rise and conflicts are often dealt with through violent means in everyday life. This poses new challenges not only to practitioners seeking to diffuse these tensions, but also to those responsible for projects and programmes. Peace education methods and techniques can help counter those trends. Whether in Germany or abroad, peace education approaches can be applied within different contexts. It provides methods to transform the potential for conflict and violence towards sustainable peace. With its systemic orientation, transformative peace education addresses both individual people as well as social structures and systems.

The online course “Transformative Peace Education: From Conflict to Dialogue in Theory and Practice” provides theoretical basics informed by current issues as well as insights into proven methods from the Berghof Foundation’s peace education practice in Germany and abroad. Components of the training include:

• Theoretical basics and state of the art of peace education
• Case studies of various practical approaches
• Interactive learning methods for practical application by participants
• Joint reflection on experiences and results

This course examines the relationship between gender, violent conflict, and peacebuilding. Participants will consider how war and militarism are highly gendered phenomena that impact men and women differently, and relatedly, how peacebuilding processes account for gendered dynamics. Throughout the course, participants will consider questions such as: how do gender stereotypes influence the way that we think about war and peace? How has feminist peace activism contributed to peacebuilding? Why should peacebuilding processes remain attuned to local women peacebuilders’ needs, and how can they do so? What are the strengths and limitations of the design and implementation of the UN Security Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security? How does conflict open up potentially transformative spaces for gender relations, and how can peacebuilding processes foster rather than hinder the development of gender equality in post-conflict spaces? Ultimately, participants will gain an understanding of the gendered dimensions of violent conflict and peacebuilding as well as evaluate the respective policy frameworks that address these complexities.

In this course you will:

• learn how to analyze the gendered dimensions of violent conflict and peacebuilding, including the various roles women and men play in war and peace.
• recognize the importance of applied gender analysis for policy-making and peacebuilding processes.
• expand your understanding of peacebuilding processes to include new, gendered strategies for effecting sustainable peace.
• strengthen your work in the field of gender and peacebuilding.
• exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice.

Dialogue is a practical and effective method for transforming conflicts. Given the complexity of today’s conflicts, peace processes require different initiatives to address multiple conflict dynamics and causes. Besides formal peace negotiations and mediation between warring parties, broader peace processes encompass strategic dialogues at various levels of society. Building understanding and trust among diverse societal groups, strategic dialogues have the potential to prevent violence, foster social cohesion, and improve relations between the population and governmental institutions.

In this virtual course, participants gain insights into the complex challenges and opportunities of strategic dialogue in peace processes. It provides an in-depth training for peace practitioners facilitating and supporting strategic dialogues.

By completing this course, you will acquire conceptual understanding as well as practical tools and skills that help you facilitate and support dialogue processes more effectively. Beyond discussions of the instrument of dialogue in peace processes, the course focuses on practical application through case studies, exercises, and reflection on own cases.

As a participant, you will:

• learn how to assess the use of dialogue in complex peace processes by gaining a thorough understanding of the opportunities, challenges and requirements of a strategic approach towards dialogue;
• learn how to adaptively design strategic dialogue processes based on conflict analysis and consultations with stakeholders;
• learn how to prepare, promote and conduct locally-owned dialogue processes in a conflict-sensitive way;
• identify best practices with dialogue practitioners from different contexts;
• acquire communicative and methodological skills related to dialogue facilitation;
• exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice.

Conflict prevention remains high on the international policy agenda. Conflicts such as the ones in Syria, South Sudan or Yemen have only increased interest in how to prevent violent conflicts, locally, nationally as well as internationally. This virtual course provides a unique opportunity to explore different conceptual, thematic, and practical issues of conflict prevention with a large and diverse selection of experts and experienced practitioners.

After an introduction to the notion of conflict prevention, an overview of the international policy framework and different approaches, the course will explore two highly relevant thematic issues related to contemporary conflicts: elections and migration. Both issues will be discussed in their complex relationship with conflict, both as a cause and consequence of violence, as well as in their potential for prevention – illustrated with practical examples from the conflict contexts. Another main focus of the course will be on the potential and practical application of conflict prevention methods. The course will provide in-depth insights into different early warning and early response systems.

Throughout the course, the emphasis is on how the various concepts and methods and the practical insights can be applied to participants’ own work and contexts.

In this course participants will:

• Examine the notion of conflict prevention and learn about theoretical and practical aspects of conflict prevention methods;
• Reflect on the topics of migration and election from a conflict prevention perspective;
• Explore the potential and practical application of conflict prevention methods such as early warning and early response or conflict sensitivity in different contexts;
• Learn how to design conflict prevention measures in light of their opportunities and challenges;
• Learn from experienced conflict prevention practitioners, identify best practices, and draw lessons from other contexts for their own work;
• Exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice.