Training

Click here for more information about training seminars organised in the framework of the Civil Society Dialogue Network project.

Upcoming Training Courses given by EPLO Member Organisations

May 2022

Title	Creative Methods in Peacebuilding
Organiser	forumZFD
Date	05 May – 23 June 2022
Location	online
Short description	Content How to transform conflicts in ways that inspire healthier dynamics in relationships and communities? How to creatively tap into conflictive energies, directing them toward transformation? What are possible creative resources for engaging with conflicts in personal, communitarian, national and global levels? Investigating these questions, this course provides an overview of key creative approaches to conflict transformation, critically discussing their potential, limitations and ethics. Furthermore, it explores how creativity and insights from embodiment and arts can contribute to fostering non-violent alternatives to engage with conflicts and promote peaces. In the course, we will discuss theoretical approaches such as arts-based peacebuilding, the moral imagination, creative and elicitive conflict transformation. We will also explore case studies and experiment with creative practices, such as movement and dance, music, theater and visuals. The methodology is based on hands-on engagement in a participatory dynamic that combines theory and practice. It invites to observe one’s own transformative processes, exchanging experiences and dialoguing with theories, artistic creations and other participants through contextual lenses. With a focus on the practitioners themselves, the aim is to explore creative resources for transforming conflicts in one’s own context. Objectives To build a vocabulary of key terms and main theoretical discussions in creative methods in peacebuilding. To explore diverse creative approaches in peacebuilding, as dance, theater, music, and visuals in dialogue with theory, case studies and personal practice. To investigate individual and collective dynamics of creativity, imagination, vulnerability and power in engaging with these methods. To increase understanding on the contributions, potential, limitations, and ethics of creative and artistic methods for peacebuilding through case studies. To explore self-reflection and conflict analysis, investigating potential creative approaches that could contribute to transformation. Key Concepts Creativity and Arts Peace Creative and Elicitive approaches to Conflict transformation Arts-based Peacebuilding Moral Imagination
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Title	National Dialogue & Peace Mediation
Organiser	swisspeace
Date	09 – 13 May 2022
Location	online
Short description	Today’s peace processes are highly complex, as currently seen in Syria, Yemen and South Sudan. Peace mediation and national dialogues are widely recognized as two relevant avenues for the peaceful settlement of conflicts. Peace mediation processes are assisted negotiation processes, often with limited participation and a focus on questions of power-sharing. National dialogues, in contrast, aim to provide a space to discuss a broader range of issues relevant to the wider society, expand participation beyond political and military elites and (re)build relations among different actors. Nevertheless, the two concepts are closely interlinked as national dialogues can be set up before, during or after peace mediation processes.
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Title	Documenting and Archiving from a Dealing with the Past Perspective
Organiser	swisspeace
Date	16 – 18 May 2022 23 – 25 May 2022
Location	online
Short description	Documentary evidence plays an important role in dealing with the past processes. It is indispensable for truth seeking, accountability, reparations, institutional reforms, vetting, memorialization and history. However, if the creation, collection, management, and preservation of such evidence is not properly done, records and archives documenting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law can be at risk of losing their value and thus prevent their future usability. In this course, participants will acquire a comprehensive understanding on how documenting and archival practices can support dealing with the past processes. Additionally, topics related to documenting and archiving principles, good practices for the creation and capture of information, arrangement and description, access, preservation and protection will also be introduced. Finally, participants will also learn about ethical and legal responsibilities, such as informed consent, information privacy, the right to be forgotten and do no harm. This course is perfect for civil society and governmental actors who want to update their skills in a practice-oriented manner. Course materials are introduced by drawing on concrete examples, which allows participants to gain valuable knowledge for their daily work.
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Title	Unpacking Radicalization
Organiser	swisspeace
Date	30 May – 02 June 2022
Location	online
Short description	The emergence of Countering or Preventing Violent Extremism (C/PVE) policies poses various challenges for peacebuilding practice. The proximity of C/PVE to terrorism and security-related measures obscures that radicalization processes include societal and political protests, which remain within the boundaries of democratic negotiation. Furthermore, C/PVE overwhelmingly focuses on Islamist violent extremism and relies on western-centric concepts and language, which may do more harm than good. This course looks into the concept of radicalization as well as C/PVE policies and practice and discusses them through different case studies from the Global South.
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June 2022

Title	Power and powerlessness in peacebuilding
Organiser	forumZFD
Date	1-29 June 2022
Location	online
Short description	Content As people working to interrupt violence, transform conflict, and weave peaceful possibilities, we encounter power and powerlessness at every level of our work (and life), although we may not be habituated to notice or know what to do with these dynamics. Our awareness of and intentional engagement with power dynamics can shape our peacebuilding work toward balancing power, sharing power, and building power together and power within – rather than (unintentionally) replicating unjust, toxic, and/or oppressive power dynamics – in ourselves, our relationships, our projects, and our organizations. This training is a four-week course that invites peacebuilding and conflict transformation practitioners to consider the questions: How do we experience power and powerlessness in peacebuilding? What does power have to do with identity, violence and peace? How does awareness (or its opposite, oblivion) about power shape the possibilities of our work/our integrity and privilege as peacebuilders? What can we do to break the patterns of misuse and abuse of power? How do we generate patterns of shared power and attend to power within? Objectives Consider definitions and experiences of power and powerlessness. Deepen intersectional awareness of positionality, power, and privilege – by looking at our own biographies and experiences. Imagine how to invite colleagues and communities into new patterns of power. Key concepts power structures and dynamics identity, violence and peace abuses and misuses of power privileges systemic racism, sexism, ableism, colonial and hierarchical practices
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Title	Peacebuilding & Institutional Reform
Organiser	swisspeace
Date	1-29 June 2022
Location	online
Short description	Can institutional reform contribute to sustainable peace in countries emerging from violent conflict? Constitutional reviews, decentralization, and electoral system change are reforms common to most peace processes. As sites for political contestation, these reforms often (re)define the “rules of the game” for years to follow. The international community mobilizes them to strengthen legitimate state institutions and good governance in conflict-affected contexts. While this international support often has an “all good things go together” rationale, experiences show that reform processes face many hurdles. Furthermore, they do not necessarily produce satisfactory outcomes. Going beyond a purely technical understanding, this course views reform as a deeply political intervention transforming the socio-economic and political setup of a country; as such, it introduces a Political Economy Analysis (PEA) approach to analyzing reforms. Drawing on conceptual, policy, and practice trends, the course explores opportunities and risks institutional reform may pose to peacebuilding in highly polarized contexts.
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Title	Digital Peacebuilding in Theory & Practice
Organiser	swisspeace
Date	22 – 24 June 2022 29 June – 01 July 2022
Location	online
Short description	Digital technology brings opportunities and challenges to peacebuilding. These include digital tools, digital spaces where conflict and peacebuilding can happen, and the ways these are both democratized and weaponized. This course does not aim to transform all peacebuilders into technical specialists, but rather, to encourage you to engage with this increasingly essential part of the peacebuilding landscape. In this course, participants will learn how to assess what digital technology is needed in peace programming. We will look at digital conflict drivers and how digital technologies are part of conflict contexts. We will also discuss policy recommendations and what is coming next to this evolving field. This course emphasizes applied learning. Working on case studies from several regions and contexts, participants will conceptualize and receive feedback on various types of digital peacebuilding research, projects, and project components.
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September 2022

Title	Gender in Peace and Conflict
Organiser	forumZFD
Date	6 September – 25 October 2022
Location	online
Short description	Content How do gender and other intersecting identities relate to peace, conflict and violence? How can they offer insight into deeper layers of conflicts and inform alternatives to promote conflict transformation, justice, healing, and structural change? This course aims at providing participants with resources to understand the role of gender and other intersecting identities in peace and conflict, and to work with them in a transformative manner. It begins with an overview of the main perspectives in the fields of gender and peace and conflict studies. It investigates intersectional identities, exploring vulnerability and power in difference and belonging. This exploration is based on the discussion of academic and non-academic texts, videos and artistic creations and intend to draw from participants’ personal and professional experiences in dialogue with case studies. Finally, it aims at providing participants with resources for working with gender and intersecting identities creatively and critically in their personal and professional lives, allowing identification of new courses of action in their own context, and contributing to the dynamic balance of the conflictive system in which they find themselves in. Objectives To understand the main theoretical discussions in gender and peace and conflict studies. To investigate intersectionality and to explore dynamics of vulnerability and power in the processes of belonging and difference. To explore self-reflection and analysis of one’s own positionality in the conflictive context considering gender dynamics. To explore analysis of conflict through gender perspectives in case studies, including interpersonal, communitarian and organizational settings. To practice identifying new courses of action to contribute to transformation. Key Concepts Gender Peace Conflict transformation Intersectionality
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Title	Digital Peacebuilding
Organiser	forumZFD
Date	19 September – 7 November
Location	online
Short description	Content Recent developments in digital technologies are increasingly impacting on conflicts globally. Digital tools play an evolving role in violent conflicts and their strategic and tactical use poses a challenge to peace, justice, and social cohesion. At the same time developments in digital technologies offer peacebuilders and conflict transformation practitioners new and exciting ways to address these very dynamics, overcome these threats, and shift the power to more locally owned peacebuilding agendas. This seminar will assess how digital technologies impact conflicts and how peacebuilders can respond to these new challenges. Building on the initial analysis of key threats when digital technologies are weaponized, participants will explore the immense potential that these technologies bring to the peacebuilding field. From improved, more inclusive, and timely conflict analysis processes to capacity development in times of lockdown and shrinking spaces for civil society; from building online communities of peacebuilders to participatory documentation of human rights abuses; from intergenerational work around land and resource conflicts to mass mobilization and social justice campaigning – the possibilities are endless. The course will look at concrete examples where digital technologies have been used for conflict transformation and peacebuilding work – often developed in the Global South, with limited resources, and according to the needs. Exploring these concrete examples more in depth will allow participants to draw out key lessons for their own work. By the end of the seminar, each participant will be able to design a simple piece of digital peacebuilding and share it with the others for feedback and comparative learning. Objectives By the end of the seven weeks online course participants will… …have a sound understanding why digital peacebuilding is an essential component of any conflict transformation and peacebuilding approach in the early 21st century. …have explored the potential digital peacebuilding concepts offer in an environment of shrinking spaces for constructive civil society engagement, online misinformation, and Covid19 lockdowns. …have been introduced to concrete examples of what digital peacebuilding can look like and learned about their pros and cons. …have explored simple first steps to move conflict transformation and peacebuilding online and know about free/cost-effective resources that can help them to get started. …have developed their own concrete intervention using digital technologies. Key concepts (3-5 bullet points) Digital approaches in conflict analysis and early warning Digital approaches in conflict transformation, training, and campaign work Live online, remote online, and hybrid formats to meet various needs
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October 2022

Title	Dealing with the Past
Organiser	forumZFD
Date	12 October – 30 November
Location	online
Short description	Content Among the most daunting challenges facing societies emerging from violent conflict is what to do with the gross violations of human rights committed during the conflict. History holds countless examples of societies that sought to ignore such atrocities only to be confronted by continual re-escalation. Long after a formal peace has been declared, victims especially may feel the impact of the war still raging – relentless in its demand for answers, in the damage caused, in the absence of acknowledgement, accountability, reparation, or even change. Dealing with the Past (DwP) comprises creative strategies capable of shifting this – it is about enabling social transformation and making comprehensive transition out of violence a reality. The Organizing Tool for the seminar content is the Dealing with the Past Conceptual Framework, widely used in Germanophone Europe and in Germany’s multi- and bilateral cooperation abroad. Drawing on the Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, the Framework affirms four rights – the Right to Justice, the Right to Truth, the Right to Reparations, and Guarantees of Nonrecurrence – and sets them within a framework of conflict transformation. The training devotes a minimum of one full week to each of the four rights. It also introduces Conflict Transformation at the outset and then weaves it through the ensuing weeks, drawing on it as an access point to the complimentary fields of Restorative Justice and Reconciliation, as well as to civil society initiatives. Objectives To expose trainees to the challenges to peace that ensue from an episode of mass violence in which gross violations of human rights (GVHRs) have occurred and to introduce the concept of Conflict Transformation. To establish trainees’ fluency in basic DwP theory – to each of the four rights in the DwP Framework as well as to the concepts of Restorative Justice and Reconciliation – and to grow their sensitivity to strategic dilemmas, using both illustration of emblematic cases and comparative analyses across contexts. To expose participants to examples of civil society facilitated DwP initiatives. To enable each trainee to build a DwP strategy for one contemporary situation. Key Concepts Dealing with the Past Transitional Justice Justice Right to Know / Right to Truth Reparations Guarantees of Nonrecurrence Gross violations of human rights Victims Restorative Justice Reconciliation
Useful links	For more information please click here.