Our new, specialist short course offers a unique opportunity for policymakers and practitioners to come together with other professionals working in protracted crisis around the world, to develop the policies, approaches and skills for more effective aid.
Our extensive experience has shown that complex emergencies all too often cut across fields of specialisation in the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding fields. Recognising this triple nexus and building bridges between these areas of expertise is key to address crises more effectively.
The challenge
Many of the humanitarian emergencies around the world have turned into protracted crises and resulting forced migration has affected neighbouring regions, which are themselves confronted with severe developmental challenges. Long-term crisis is increasingly normal. The number of countries experiencing protracted crisis rose to 36 in 2021, accounting for three quarters (74%) of all people in need.
Humanitarian, development and peacebuilding professionals are not always equipped to deal with these complex emergencies and urgently need new approaches and skills to deal with prolonged crises.
The different mindsets across these three fields can be a stumbling block. This is further confounded by the challenge of applying humanitarian principles in complicated emergencies as well as the securitisation of development more broadly.
These predicaments are not helped by the frequent disconnect between headquarters pushing for synergies and those on the ground confronted with the many challenging realities of protracted crises.
Overcoming the challenge
This course will provide a space for humanitarian, development and peacebuilding workers mainly operating within protracted crises, to reflect on their experiences, learn from each other, and connect with ongoing research initiatives.
Donors and the UN have developed working groups, organised strategic retreats and specialised training but the institutional and sectoral boundaries within each organisation make it difficult for this discussion to happen. This course will allow participants to share and reflect without these constraints.
This course will enable the development of a common language in an unconstrained, neutral space. (Including a ‘walkshop’ in the picturesque Sussex countryside).
It will address what the triple nexus means in practice and how it could be implemented. Above all it will encourage the development of a new mindset, building from individual and collective experiences to see how a new – and more effective – approach is feasible.
Course aims
The course aims to improve the main analytical skills in understanding and navigating protracted crisis through a triple nexus approach. This course will provide a space for humanitarian, development and peacebuilding workers who mainly operate in protracted crises to reflect on their own experiences, learn from each other, and connect with ongoing research initiatives.
How you'll learn
The course is interactive, inclusive, participatory, and applied. The course comprises a series of interactive sessions, blending some theoretical and conceptual learning with practical sessions which enable experiential learning and sharing.
These interactive sessions allow you to knowledge share with other international development professionals, providing space for the generation of new ideas and solutions.
It will start with lectures, provocations and collective exercises to shift to a model of co-production based on the practitioners’ experience and the way we can learn and work together around pre-prepared ongoing crisis, case studies and co-produced outputs. This will enable you to bring fresh perspectives back to your workplace on how to address this question.
This five-day in-house course at IDS in Brighton will include the following:
Day 1:
Your experience – rivers of life
What do we know about protracted crisis – reading session and lecture/seminar.
Day 2:
Triple nexus – going beyond a tool box – lecture and seminar on various case studies.
Day 3:
Individual journeys and challenges problem solving – participatory workshop and blog writing.
Day 4:
Working and learning together – team building and design of final day conference through a ‘walkshop’ and collective exercise.
Day 5:
Conference followed by networking activities for future ideas and projects
Who should attend?
This course is ideal for policy advisers who are designing strategies to deal with protracted crisis and the triple nexus, as well as programme managers who have worked in protracted crisis context (countries such Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Columbia, DRC, the Great Lakes, Ethiopia, Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, the Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Sudan South, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen)
It will bring together the designers and implementers of the nexus, confronting those embracing and seeking to operationalise the approach with those on the ground facing many competing demands in terms of approaches, overwhelming needs, limited resources, and fragmented response systems.
The course is relevant to mid-level career UN Global civil servants, donors, cluster coordinator and NGOs working on the interactions between development, humanitarian and peacebuilding activities.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Understand how the current global aid architecture is inadequate to deal with protracted crisis;
- Critically reflect on the different assumptions and positionalities around the triple nexus;
- Coproduce ideas of what it means to think and act in a way contributing to the operationalisation of a nexus.
- Bring back fresh perspectives to the workplace for tackling challenges faced by participants’ organisations.
How to register
Before applying, please read our short course Terms and Conditions (pdf) and Code of Conduct (pdf).
The application procedure is a three-stage process:
Stage 1: Apply by completing the online application form. Deadline for applications is 16:00 GMT, Monday 15 May 2023. The course code is RP/21006.
Stage 2: You will be notified within two weeks as to whether your application has been approved or not. Successful applicants will receive an acceptance email and details of how to pay the course fees. Places on the course are not guaranteed until fees have been received.
Stage 3: Once fees have been received, you will be sent confirmation of your place on the course.
This is course is run regularly. To register your interest in future sessions, please contact us at: shortcourses@ids.ac.uk
Stage 3: Once fees have been received, you will be sent confirmation of your place on the course.
