Humanitarian Action and Peacebuilding

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

• From Conflict Sensitivity to Conflict Transformation (20 credits)

  This module equips you with a sound understanding of the complexity of conflicts, including of conceptual frameworks and theoretical debates related to humanitarian action and peacebuilding in complex environments. It provides you with the analytical tools to understand the contexts of conflict and to assess the challenges faced as practitioners. 

• Culture-Sensitivity in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings (20 credits)

  It is agreed that emergencies, rehabilitation and peacebuilding programmes need to be embedded in local cultures. How can we be truly 'culture sensitive'? If this principle is clear, the practicalities remain confusing and difficult to put into operation. Culture sensitivity requires knowledge, skills and competences but also an attitude towards others. This module allows you to understand and deal with core issues related to culture, communication, trust building and culture-sensitivity. You also to explore issues related to cultural dimensions such as gender, displacement and identity. 

• Leadership, Team and Self-management in Conflict Settings (20 credits)

  You will critically examine some of the personal skills (or 'soft skills') needed by professionals working in humanitarian action and peacebuilding. In particular, the module focuses on leadership skills, team management and self-management skills. The session on self-management is more specifically centred on stress and stress management and introduces you to a number of techniques that can be applied for self-support, but also to support peers and members of communities in conflict-affected countries.

• Protection of Civilians in Conflict and Post-conflict Settings (20 credits)

  This module reviews the critical issues related to the protection of civilians in conflict and post-conflict contexts by exploring different conceptual and operational frameworks. In its second part, the module focuses on the planning and implementation of protection activities and offers you the opportunity to apply different tools to concrete situations. The module concludes with a discussion on community-based protection strategies, including unarmed civilian protection.

• Post-Conflict Stabilisation and Recovery (20 credits)

  This module reviews the critical issues related to the protection of civilians in conflict and post-conflict contexts by exploring different conceptual and operational frameworks. In its second part, the module focuses on the planning and implementation of protection activities and offers you the opportunity to apply different tools to concrete situations. The module concludes with a discussion on community-based protection strategies, including unarmed civilian protection.

• Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Programmes in Urban Conflicts (20 credits)

  Focusing on urban spaces becomes increasingly important for the efficiency of humanitarian actions, but presents new challenges as humanitarian and development traditions are usually focused on 'open spaces' and rural environments. In urban conflicts, all lines are blurred and programming will need to take that into account. Conflicts particularly have an impact on the way people produce, understand and inhabit spaces and places. Rebuilding some social links and establishing communities in locations will become one of the key elements in conflict transformation and humanitarian programmes. Through action research methods, issues related to urban settings and specificities of humanitarian projects can be investigated.

• Conflict and Post-conflict Research: Methods and Ethics (10 credits)

Optional modules

• Mental health, psychosocial support, and wellbeing in conflict-affected areas (20 credits)

  The objective of this module is to explore, through a culturally sensitive lens, the impact of mental health and psychosocial problems on the wellbeing of humanitarian and peacebuilding practitioners as well as on the affected populations. It will present a double framework for practitioners working in the field: firstly it will look at how practitioners can operate in a way that is sensitive towards the psychosocial problems faced by the affected populations (hence avoid aggravating the suffering of the communities they serve); secondly, it will consider how these problems, as well as the stress intrinsic to working in conflict affected areas can impact on humanitarian workers themselves - offering some guidance and tools on how to better account for well-being in crisis situations.

• Forced Migration, Protection and Humanitarianism (20 credits)

  This module explores the experience of refugees and other forced migrants displaced by conflict. It examines the causes of contemporary forced migration in order to understand the implications of different causes for the nature of migration flows and the corresponding humanitarian response. It critically evaluates the international and regional normative frameworks for the protection of forced migrants, considering different migrant categories: refugees, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, and victims of human trafficking. The module considers the practical dilemmas in protecting the rights of forced migrants.