SPECIALISED (RE)INTEGRATION TRAINING COURSE

Transition International (TI) and the Barcelona International Peace Centre (BIPC) are pleased to announce the Specialised (Re)integration course, focussed on the (re)integration of ex-combatants, returnees, refugees, internally displaced persons, children released from armed forces and groups and other youth at risk. The course will be held in Barcelona, Spain from the 9th to the 16th of July 2023.

Introduction

This course aims to bring together practitioners, policy makers, researchers and donors from around the world to share experiences and develop a common understanding of possible and innovative approaches to (re)integration. Best practices on fostering economic, political and social (re)integration are shared by a pool of experienced trainers, and further explored and challenged by the participants. Several (re)integration, resilience, self-reliance and community security interventions usually occur in parallel, tend to create further divisions in the communities, and often do not create lasting results in terms of sustainable reintegration. Mostly, separate programmes are provided for children which, in
many cases, are not linked to the adults’ (re)integration programmes, reducing opportunities for the effective use of pooled resources, and having young people falling in the cracks. Further, programmes are often highly centralised and thereby do not adequately respond to local contexts, nor empower
local actors to plan, execute, and own the processes.

This course explores these dynamics and proposes different means to build bridges between the different approaches, programmes and its target groups. It explores needed interventions to foster durable solutions, working on the reintegration environment and absorption capacities, including through enhancing local security and stability, local economic and social development, increase in service delivery of the duty bearers, and support to the (re)integration of the different groups in their receiving communities.

The course further explores responding to new realities, new frameworks, approaches and practices, including on (re)integration and prevention in ongoing conflicts, disengagement and reintegration of people coming out of from extremist groups, applying the Humanitarian, Development and Peace triple
nexus to reintegration programming, conflict sensitivity, localisation, environmental security, conflict transformation etc. In short, the course explores with the participants, innovative approaches for more comprehensive, context and community driven (re)integration, resilience, and community security
programming.

For who is this course?

The course is designed to benefit government officials of locations where (re)integration programming is relevant, civil society and private sector actors of these countries, and staff from donor, UN, INGOs, research institutes supporting these processes.

Objectives of the course

The course will allow participants to assess specificities of different programming contexts, to develop informed and coherent programmatic responses, and to design context-driven socio-economic (re)integration support programmes. The overall objectives of the course are to:

• Create a common understanding of the existing frameworks and approaches to (re)integration of ex-combatants, children formally associated to armed forces and groups, returnees and resettled people, and other conflict affected people in need of reintegration assistance, and build bridges between the participants coming from these different entry fields.
• Share lessons learned and explore waysto provide effective integrated (re)integration support, working with communities, authorities, the private sector, civil society, international organisations and donors.
• Discuss the potential linkages of (re)integration to broader programming on the environment in which reintegration and prevention of further recruitment and forced displacement takes place, such as community security, local economic development, Child Protection systems strengthening, service delivery, political participation, conflict transformation etc.
• Obtain the tools to effectively assess local contexts and conflict dynamics, profiles of
  communities and people in need of reintegration assistance, and how to translate these into the design of conflict sensitive and locally-led reintegration support, while working within national or regional frameworks.
• Explore implementation modalities and practise with tools to design and implement context driven social, economic and political reintegration programming.
• Learn how to address cross-cutting issues, including natural resource management, gender, disability and age responsiveness and capacity development of local service providers.
• Share experiences and explore reintegration opportunities and challenges of people coming from groups listed as terrorist organisations.
• Explore and share lessons learned on Community Based (Re)integration and Security (CBRS): an integrated locally-led reintegration model that includes community security and information, counselling, and referral systems.

Training Approach

The course is explorative in nature. Participants will be encouraged to share experiences amongst themselves, in addition to learning from the pool of experienced trainers. Lessons from past and recent (re)integration experiences are constantly used to illustrate theory and standards. Practical hands-on
adult learning techniques are combined with more traditional transfer of knowledge. A wide variety of teaching methods are used including lectures, background readings, PowerPoint presentations, discussions, role-plays, a 1.5 day simulation exercise, cooperative learning, teamwork, etc. The course
is known to be intense.

Facilitators

TI puts great emphasis on delivering the course with a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team. The course will be led by Irma Specht, who brings over 25 years of experience on socio-economic (re)integration programmes. Senior trainers with experience of different programmatic areas will be brought in for particular sessions, to ensure a variety of approaches and perspectives. Guest trainers from international organisations will be brought in to share their experiences.

Dates and location

The course will be held from Sunday 9th July to Sunday 16th July 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. During the course there will be little free time, so participants are advised to arrive a few days earlier to discover and enjoy Barcelona, and get rested.

Language and cost

The course will be taught in English. The course duration is 8 days and the course fee is 2500 Euros. This fee includes daily refreshments, lunch and all course materials. It does not include accommodation, other meals or the cost of insurance and travelling to Barcelona. Help can be provided in acquiring low
to middle price accommodation, including in the venue. Unfortunately, this course has no scholarship scheme, but we can provide participants with letters and other types of support in obtaining a sponsorship from organisation in the participant’s country of residence or work. Cost reduction can be negotiated when more than 4 trainees are provided from the same organisation.

Application process

The application deadline is the 31st May 2023, but acceptance onto the course will be granted on a rolling basis. To apply for the course, please submit your current Curriculum Vitae and the completed application form to Eva Lopez, course coordinator at info@bcnpeacecenter.org, with copy to operations@transitioninternational.com. We can provide logistical assistance and letters in support of participants’ visa applications upon request and after receiving 50% of the fees (non-refundable). Payment arrangement information will be included in acceptance letters. Cancelation up until two weeks before the start of the course will be granted with a 50% reimbursement.
*Download the application form here.