Interpeace’s Peace Responsiveness Online Training blends self-paced learning with virtual trainer sessions. It is the first course of its kind to focus specifically on articulating peace contributions by humanitarian, development, and multi-mandate actors, applying a whole-of-organization and whole-of-system approach to sustaining peace.

About the course

This course equips humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding professionals with substantive knowledge and skills to maximise the peace contributions of technical initiatives – such as food security, WASH, or health initiatives – in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. The course also covers the types of personal agency and organizational environment needed to overcome barriers and catalyse change towards peace-responsive approaches in international assistance. In doing so, the course supports the operationalisation of the UN Sustaining Peace Agenda and the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus.

Participants join structured cohorts and complete training modules at their own pace within a timeframe of three months. During this period, they participate in three live virtual sessions with facilitators and fellow participants to exchange ideas, discuss content, and ask questions. The course features a specially developed fictional case study, various assessments, and a learning journal, ensuring an interactive and practical learning experience.

What will you learn?

After taking the course, participants will have more tools at hand to:

  • Meaningfully contribute to sustaining peace, thereby increasing societal resilience to conflict and violence and paving the way for progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
  • Leverage the potential for peace effectiveness of humanitarian and development initiatives and, in so doing, increase the programmatic effectiveness of such initiatives;
  • Act as change agents to catalyse and propel peace responsiveness within their own organizations and the broader international aid system.

Testimonials

  • "The course is very practical and encouraging. Even as an individual, there are many things we can achieve [with regard to sustaining peace]. Small daily practices can be so incredibly powerful!"

  • "The course has clearly showcased how different approaches can be integrated for more impactful interventions. I hope to carry this over in my work."

    "The trainer-led live sessions were crucial to reflect on how the material can be extrapolated to reflect on real-life experiences."

  • "I work in Syria, a country that is experiencing a long-term crisis and that suffers from various conflicts. Social ills that have emerged in a multi-component society, in addition to loss of livelihoods, migration, displacement, destruction, weak performance of local authorities, and other factors that undermine peacebuilding – all this needs a methodology and mechanisms like the one we learned in the course."

    "This knowledge will help me in programming of interventions to ensure they are responsive to peace. I will also support in conflict sensitive analysis. I will also advance the triple nexus approach in our programming."

Next course: 2 June – 31 August 2025

Registration for the next course edition is open from 1 – 21 May 2025. For your information, the trainer-led group sessions are going to take place on the following dates:
  • Session 1 – 6 June, 15:00-16:30 CET
  • Session 2 – Group A: 2 July, 15:00-17:00 CET
  • Session 2 – Group B: 4 July, 15:00-17:00 CET
  • Session 3 – Group A: 28 July, 14:30-17:00 CET
  • Session 3 – Group B: 30 July, 14:30-17:00 CET
Please note that participants are required to attend and actively engage in all live sessions. As spots per cohort are limited, we kindly ask you to ensure your availability on the dates and times indicated above.

More information and how to apply

For more information on the course itself, the registration procedure, and the training team, please refer to the course brochure:

Still have more questions?

Please contact the course coordinator, Ms. Valérie Künzler, at peaceresponsiveness@interpeace.org.