Background

For the past decade, addressing the root causes of conflict and irregular migration through ’’bottom up’’ civil society engagement and fragile states has been a priority for Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The Addressing Root Causes fund(ARC fund-2016-2021) has been the latest centrally managed tender program that the MFA’s department for Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid (DSH) has launched and managed to this effect.

Beyond implementation, the ARC program had the ambition to build a community of practice in which members take collective responsibility for learning, reflect on common challenges, encourage innovation and develop a repertoire of collective resources (experiences, stories, tools etc.). Building from lessons learned as part of ARC implementation and learning related endeavors, regional learning symposiums have been organized by ARC partners in May 2022, in order to capitalize on experience from peace, security and justice programs through collaborative learning and knowledge sharing, to establish shared understanding on lessons learned and best practice, as well as analyze challenges and opportunities on dealing with addressing root causes of conflict and insecurity in the Great Lakes Region, Horn of Africa and Sahel Region.

Building from the said regional events, a global closing event will be organized in The Hague on December 7^th and 8^th, 2022 by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ), the Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law (KPSRL) and ARC partners. The global event will offer space to discuss common lessons which can be learned across programs and how they could be fed into portfolio reflection for future programming and policy.

Click here to download the full Concept Note.

When

The event will take place over two days, on December 7^th and 8^th, 2022. 

Where

On December 7^th, sessions will be held online from 9:00AM to 1:15PM Hague Time.

On December 8^th,  sessions will be held in-person in The Hague at Beeld en Geluid from 9:00AM to 5:00PM; with the possibility to participate remotely.

On Thursday, November 18th, KPSRL facilitates a roundtable where a group of experts on Afghanistan will step into dialogue with policy makers from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Given the recent turnover of power in Afghanistan, the aim is to identify which long-term implications should be further investigated - both for Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) in Afghanistan and its implications for the SRoL sector more broadly.

If you have any questions or interest in this event, please email Christian Kuitert (c.kuitert@kpsrl.org).

For the past decade, addressing root causes of conflict and irregular migration through “bottom up” civil society engagement in fragile states has been a priority for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The Addressing Root Causes, or “ARC” fund (2016-2021) is the latest centrally-managed tender program that the MFA’s department for Stabilisation and Humanitarian Aid (DSH) has launched to this effect.

The ARC program is implemented by 21 consortia comprised of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local civil society organizations (CSOs)  in 12 fragile and conflict-affected countries, namely Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria. In these countries, ARC-funded projects contribute to 1) Human Security; 2) Rule of Law; 3) Peace processes and Political Governance; and 4) Social and Economic Reconstruction.

In 2020, a Mid-Term Review (MTR) focusing on the extent to which the ARC program is on the right track to achieve its intended objectives, has been conducted.

The ARC MTR session will discuss key findings and recommendations of the review, and will highlight best practices, challenges, and lessons learned during ARC implementation.

Objectives

The aim of the session is to:

• Exchange on key findings and recommendations of the review (from diverse relevant perspectives: donor, implementing actors including local partners, embassies…)
• Highlight lessons learned, challenges encountered, and possible solutions when developing and implementing approaches for centrally managed programs such as ARC (in order to inform future programming)
• Discuss the ARC learning agenda (structure, resources, process..)

Speakers

• Rens Twijnstra & Marije Balt, Ecorys

Expert panel:

• George Monsanto, Dutch MFA – ARC
• Rens Willems, Dutch MFA – IOB
• Madeline Church, Saferworld
• Messina Laurette Manirakiza, KPSRL

Registration

Please note that this is a closed door event. If you are interested in learning more, you may contact the Dutch MFA (Erin Kuipers: erin.kuipers@minbuza.nl) or KPSRL Secretariat (Messina Laurette MANIRAKIZA: M.Manirakiza@kpsrl.org)

On June 11th, Strategic Research Fund 3 (SRF-3) researchers call on ‘Comprehensive Approaches To Security’ and MFA policy makers will step into dialogue. The researchers will share their findings and wider expertise, which will form the basis for a discussion on positioning Community Security within a wider range of development efforts to support security.

This symposium offers opportunities for the researchers and policy makers to exchange expertise on both a practical, case-oriented level, as well as a conceptual, strategic level.

The researche(r)s themselves are already a source for a useful, more hands-on exchange on their specific findings on Human Security processes, with cases in various regions (a.o. MENA, Horn of Africa, Sahel).

However, to add a deeper layer to the discussion, this symposium will also specifically address how these researchers perceived community-level dynamics (e.g. granting legitimacy and people’s perceptions of security). Besides from exploring such Community Security dynamics, a central question is positioning this community-perspective of security vis á vis other development cooperation efforts: how does the perspective of communities fit into Human Security, or what does paying attention to Human Security imply for conventional policies on Security Sector Reform and Preventing Violent Extremism?

After a general introduction four subgroups explore the following topics, of which participants can pick two:

1.1 Legitimacy on community level

1.2 Perceptions of security

2.1 Human Security and PVE

2.2 Embedding Human Security

To confirm your participation, please register using the button below. Please note that this event is closed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands) and the SRF-3 researchers. If you would like to learn more or have a particular interest in this event, please e-mail Christian Kuitert (c.kuitert@kpsrl.org) for more information.