Protecting civilians from harm: How humanitarians can encourage armed actors to comply with norms.
Lead Research Organisation:
Global Public Policy Institute
Department Name: Director
Abstract
Research context: Protection has been systematically underfunded as an area of humanitarian action. One of the reasons for this is that humanitarian organizations have found it difficult to demonstrate the impact of their interventions. One problem is that the theories of change - that is, descriptions how activities lead to impact in a particular context - are often not made explicit. Achieving protection is a complex social change process. Rigid tools like classical log-frames are not well suited to planning and monitoring interventions in conflict contexts. The lack of more elaborate theories of change does not only make it harder to demonstrate the impact of protection interventions. It can also have negative effects on the design of protection interventions as it is harder to check assumptions, trace preconditions, and locate activities within a broader chain of results.
Research focus: The research project focuses on a particular type of protection intervention, namely efforts to encourage armed actors to comply with norms, referred to as restraint. The research starts by analysing and reconstructing the theories of change on which restraint activities are built. The research project then compares these theories of change with the perceptions of armed actors on what influences their behaviour towards civilians. It also establishes to what extent armed actors, protection actors, and conflict-affected communities perceive protection interventions as effective. The research will focus on Iraq.
Objectives: First, the reconstruction and development of theories of change is expected to make a direct contribution to how humanitarian organizations plan and implement protection interventions. Second, it will also contribute to the knowledge about evaluating impact of protection activities, an area where little research exists so far. Third, by focusing on Iraq, the project aims to inform the conceptual approach of protection research, moving away from only focusing on direct deaths and injuries, to also account for indirect mortality and injury caused by attacks on hospitals and other infrastructure.
Potential applications and benefits: The main intended academic audience for the results of this project includes the fields of military sociology, organisation studies, and area studies, as well as other research teams working on humanitarian protection. The proposed research project will contribute evidence about the relevance of protection interventions and their perceived effectiveness to the academic study of humanitarian protection and related fields. By developing explicit theories of change, it will also help to create a common conceptual framework that can make future research findings more comparable. In addition, it will shed light on the motivations and influencing factors affecting formal and informal armed groups and contribute to a better understanding of protection activities in the specific context of Iraq. In addition to this academic contribution, the project is expected to generate valuable results for protection practitioners and their supporters that will enable them, among others, to plan and implement more relevant and better targeted protection interventions.
Research focus: The research project focuses on a particular type of protection intervention, namely efforts to encourage armed actors to comply with norms, referred to as restraint. The research starts by analysing and reconstructing the theories of change on which restraint activities are built. The research project then compares these theories of change with the perceptions of armed actors on what influences their behaviour towards civilians. It also establishes to what extent armed actors, protection actors, and conflict-affected communities perceive protection interventions as effective. The research will focus on Iraq.
Objectives: First, the reconstruction and development of theories of change is expected to make a direct contribution to how humanitarian organizations plan and implement protection interventions. Second, it will also contribute to the knowledge about evaluating impact of protection activities, an area where little research exists so far. Third, by focusing on Iraq, the project aims to inform the conceptual approach of protection research, moving away from only focusing on direct deaths and injuries, to also account for indirect mortality and injury caused by attacks on hospitals and other infrastructure.
Potential applications and benefits: The main intended academic audience for the results of this project includes the fields of military sociology, organisation studies, and area studies, as well as other research teams working on humanitarian protection. The proposed research project will contribute evidence about the relevance of protection interventions and their perceived effectiveness to the academic study of humanitarian protection and related fields. By developing explicit theories of change, it will also help to create a common conceptual framework that can make future research findings more comparable. In addition, it will shed light on the motivations and influencing factors affecting formal and informal armed groups and contribute to a better understanding of protection activities in the specific context of Iraq. In addition to this academic contribution, the project is expected to generate valuable results for protection practitioners and their supporters that will enable them, among others, to plan and implement more relevant and better targeted protection interventions.
Planned Impact
1. Potential Practical Use of Research Results
In addition to making an academic contribution, the proposed research project seeks to generate knowledge, insights, and tools useful to protection practitioners and their supporters. The research team expects protection practitioners and donors to use research results in one or several of the following ways:
- Use information on the relevance and perceived effectiveness of protection activities to revise or fine-tune protection strategies and programs in Iraq and elsewhere.
- Apply the approach for consulting with and analysing armed actors when replicating the armed actor research in other contexts.
- Apply the theories of change for preventive protection activities directly in their work or build on these models to develop their own theory of change.
- Use the theories of change and information about factors affecting armed actor behaviour in capacity building activities for (potential) protection actors.
- Use the theories of change and information about factors affecting armed actor behaviour when appraising protection proposals (e.g. by the protection cluster for the allocation of pooled funds or by donors).
2. Identification of Potential Users
The research team will use several channels to identify the most important potential users of the results of this project:
- As part of the preparation of this proposal, the research team engaged with several key protection actors. Two agreed to join the project formally as practitioner partners. Several others expressed their interest in participating more informally.
- The two formal practitioner partners of the project are recognised as key actors in protection. They will draw on their established networks with other protection actors to identify other potential users.
- The research team will engage closely with the protection cluster and its areas of responsibility, both at global level and in Iraq. Part of this engagement will aim at identifying potential users, including international actors and local organisations active in Iraq.
- The team will conduct an actor mapping exercise to complement the picture. The mapping exercise will cover the global level and Iraq and will aim in particular to identify also non-humanitarian protection actors, for example military, stabilisation, and peace-building organisations.
3. Engagement of and Dissemination to Potential Users
Engagement and consultation with key protection practitioners started long before this proposal was written. Members of the research team have been researching and working on issues related to protection over the past years. The lack of detailed theories of change and the difficulties of monitoring and evaluating protection activities were frequently mentioned as a serious concern during these processes. The research team is therefore confident that the proposed research project addresses issues that are highly relevant to protection practitioners.
As outlined in the Case for Support, the close engagement of protection practitioners is essential to the research process itself. The research requires access to documents that are often internal, as well as the opportunity to interview a broad range of staff members involved in protection activities. Key steps for engaging protection practitioners are therefore planned as integral parts of the research process (and reflected in the budget accordingly), rather than "just" dissemination efforts. Practitioner organizations will be involved in the research design phase, during the validation of emerging research findings, and in a series of workshops held in Iraq and Geneva. This approach, in addition to the team's commitment to impact, helps to ensure that practitioner engagement will be given high priority throughout the project.
In addition to making an academic contribution, the proposed research project seeks to generate knowledge, insights, and tools useful to protection practitioners and their supporters. The research team expects protection practitioners and donors to use research results in one or several of the following ways:
- Use information on the relevance and perceived effectiveness of protection activities to revise or fine-tune protection strategies and programs in Iraq and elsewhere.
- Apply the approach for consulting with and analysing armed actors when replicating the armed actor research in other contexts.
- Apply the theories of change for preventive protection activities directly in their work or build on these models to develop their own theory of change.
- Use the theories of change and information about factors affecting armed actor behaviour in capacity building activities for (potential) protection actors.
- Use the theories of change and information about factors affecting armed actor behaviour when appraising protection proposals (e.g. by the protection cluster for the allocation of pooled funds or by donors).
2. Identification of Potential Users
The research team will use several channels to identify the most important potential users of the results of this project:
- As part of the preparation of this proposal, the research team engaged with several key protection actors. Two agreed to join the project formally as practitioner partners. Several others expressed their interest in participating more informally.
- The two formal practitioner partners of the project are recognised as key actors in protection. They will draw on their established networks with other protection actors to identify other potential users.
- The research team will engage closely with the protection cluster and its areas of responsibility, both at global level and in Iraq. Part of this engagement will aim at identifying potential users, including international actors and local organisations active in Iraq.
- The team will conduct an actor mapping exercise to complement the picture. The mapping exercise will cover the global level and Iraq and will aim in particular to identify also non-humanitarian protection actors, for example military, stabilisation, and peace-building organisations.
3. Engagement of and Dissemination to Potential Users
Engagement and consultation with key protection practitioners started long before this proposal was written. Members of the research team have been researching and working on issues related to protection over the past years. The lack of detailed theories of change and the difficulties of monitoring and evaluating protection activities were frequently mentioned as a serious concern during these processes. The research team is therefore confident that the proposed research project addresses issues that are highly relevant to protection practitioners.
As outlined in the Case for Support, the close engagement of protection practitioners is essential to the research process itself. The research requires access to documents that are often internal, as well as the opportunity to interview a broad range of staff members involved in protection activities. Key steps for engaging protection practitioners are therefore planned as integral parts of the research process (and reflected in the budget accordingly), rather than "just" dissemination efforts. Practitioner organizations will be involved in the research design phase, during the validation of emerging research findings, and in a series of workshops held in Iraq and Geneva. This approach, in addition to the team's commitment to impact, helps to ensure that practitioner engagement will be given high priority throughout the project.
Publications
Mac Skelton
(2022)
The Tikrit Rules: Politics and Consequences of 'Civilian Protection' in Iraq
Steets J
(2023)
Three key lessons from efforts to strengthen community protection in Iraq
in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine
| Title | Living with armed groups in Iraq |
| Description | The video is available on YouTube. It uses footage from different places in Iraq and anonymized statements (each a composite of a variety of civilians interviewed in Iraq) that describe what it means for different types of persons to live in areas that are dominated by armed groups in Norther Iraq. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This product makes a complex reality accessible to a broader, non-academic public. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE6WqJCDv0w |
| Description | The research aims to recommend ways that protection actors can implement and monitor their interventions to reduce harm that armed actors cause on civilians. In respect of this objective, the following findings can so far be reported. a. Organizations can implement protection activities through four main approaches that can be used to reduce civilian harm. The approaches are: (i) Naming and Shaming (ii) Mobilizing Influencers (iii) Capacitating Communities (iv) Training Armed Actors. Each approach has a specific logic and outlines a causal path to the outcome of reducing civilian harm. b. To know whether their interventions are having an impact or not, protection organizations must use monitoring and evaluation methods that enable them to collect data from staff, affected communities, influencers, and armed actors. While implementing a monitoring and evaluation plan, protection actors must track indicators and test their theories of change along each phase of the intervention. |
| Exploitation Route | We hope that our research results will help different organizations working to promote the protection of civilians by armed actors to: - Guide the context analysis they conduct before designing their protection intervention - Inform their choice of intervention modality - Encourage more exchange and collaboration across different types of protection actors (e.g. humanitarian, human rights, peacebuilding, military) to make greater use of possible synergies and avoid trade-offs - Inform the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems for preventive protection |
| Sectors | Security and Diplomacy |
| Description | During the research period, a key NGO in the field was developing a theory of change for its protection activities. According to the NGO, this theory of change was informed by and reflects many of the components of the logic models for preventive protection developed by our project. Following the publication of first results of our research, we have heard from another leading international organization in the field of protection that they have received results actively and are using them when planning and reflecting on their protection activities. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Curriculum on "Civilian Protection in the Iraqi Context" |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Title | Mapping of Protection Actors |
| Description | The main data generated from the research so far is the list of 80 protection actors that we identified through the mapping exercise. Rather than limiting ourselves to Iraq from the outset, we did a global mapping of actors that carry out protection and protection-related activities. Entries include humanitarian organisations, academic and policy research institutes, human rights organisations, individual scholars, NGOs in various issue areas, and military actors. With a few exceptions like individual scholars, information collected on each actor include their name, headquarters, mandate, underlying logic of protection, geographical reach, protection issues targeted, and contact of focal person. It was from this list that participants were selected for the first round of interviews. We estimate that beyond the duration of the project, the list of mapped organisations can be shared with other parties that are interested in foundational information on protection actors. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | So far, the impact of this tool has been internal to the project. The mapping exercise provided the team with initial insights into the issues that different protection organisations focus on, as well as background to their mandates and ways of approaching protection. The team used the mapping exercise to identify interview partners. |
| Title | Models of Underlying Logics |
| Description | Another outcome from the project are initial sketches of the "Underlying Logics" of protection activities. These are diagrams that depict the team's first attempt to explain how the selected protection actors conceptualise their operations. So far, we have four main models that cover the following aspects of protection (a) Communities Influencing Armed Actors' Behaviour, (b) Mobilising Influencers, (c) Public Criticism of Armed Actor Behaviour, and (d) Support on Policy, Training, and Awareness creation. The team is currently using visual sketches of the models to conduct phase II interviews with selected protection organisations. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The impact of the models has also been primarily internal. The team has used them as interactive tools to organise our informed thoughts on how protection actors and armed actors interact to produce a reduction in violations, synthesizing complex information in simplified visual representations. The models have also helped the team facilitate discussions with protection actors on the different protection approaches they employ, the underlying logics of these approaches and the assumptions they are based on. |
| URL | https://www.gppi.net/project/protecting-civilians-from-harm |
| Title | Updated Logic Model |
| Description | The project aims to come up approaches that protection actors can use to implement their activities. In 2021, we reported on the first versions of the models that we were developing. What we are reporting this year are the revised logic models we developed after we engaged with protection actors over the past year. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | No impact yet |
| Description | Collaboration with Geneva call |
| Organisation | Geneva Call |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | In this collaboration, the GPPI team continued our leadership in the development of the protection Logic Models. Since the last report in March 2021, we have continued to engage with Geneva Call to receive feedback both off and on the field about how protection can be better designed based on the models we have been developing. One of the highlights of the year came in September 2021 when the GPPI team went to Iraq for fieldwork. Here, we organized a joint learning experience session with Geneva Call. We shared our expectations of our field work while Geneva Call also shared their experiences as protection actors and gave us pointers on what we can expect to learn from the field. They also helped connect with other actors. Since then, we have used data from these exchanges to further refine the Logic Models. We expect that the final rounds of workshops will involve Geneva Call in attendance. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Geneva Call has been another policy sounding board for the project. In addition to providing feedback throughout last year through bilateral meetings and general workshops, Geneva Call continued to share correspondence, send us relevant material, and help us contact other protection actors. A highlight of the partnership was in September 2021 when during fieldwork in Iraq, the GPPI team jointly held a learning workshop with Geneva Call. While we shared our expectations and impressions, Geneva Call shared their field experience and their own lessons which helped us in the finalization of the protection Logic Models. Geneva Call is scheduled to participate in the final rounds of workshops that GPPI will be organizing to translate our findings into actionable policy outputs. |
| Impact | Final versions of the Logic Models |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council |
| Organisation | Norwegian Refugee Council |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | In this collaboration, GPPI's role has been to lead and give general direction to the project. More specifically, we have led the development of the protection models, which is one of the key objectives of the project. Since 2021, we have led the process to finalize four protection models that protection organizations can draw on for their activities. The models were built through reviews of scholarly and grey literature as well as interviews that we conducted with protection officials from several organizations and scholars who study and research civilians in conflict and protection issues. Since 2021, we have held meetings and organized workshops in which the Norwegian Refugee Council has participated and given their continuous feedback on how the models can be polished for protection organizations in the field. As in previous cases, the GPPI team has been the coordinator of these workshops and other events with the Norwegian Refugee Council. Together with the Norwegian Refugee Council, we have planned a larger workshop at which we will engage other protection actors to translate our research findings into usable organizational policies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Since 2020, the Norwegian Refugee council has served as a policy sounding board for the project. They have helped us to constantly assess the policy relevance of our findings. They have done this bilaterally with us, and through participating in a workshop that we organized for a larger group of protection actors in March 2021. At this two-day workshop, the Officer from the Norwegian Refugee Council was one of the most active participants who gave their inputs on the models that the GPPI team had been developing since 2020. More recently, the GPPI and the Norwegian Refugee Council have finalized plans to hold a workshop in April 2022 to present our findings to a broad audience that can help us turn findings to policy relevant recommendations. |
| Impact | Final versions of the Logic Models |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Briefing provided by IRIS to FCDO |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the briefing was to improve UK policymakers' understanding of security and protection dynamics across the 5 post-ISIS territories in order to inform UK humanitarian, develop and security policy. The meeting reached approximately 25 UK diplomats and was particularly successful in shaping the policy framework towards protection challenges in Salah al-din and Anbar provinces. The meeting was organised by the MENA research lead of FCDO. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Briefing provided by IRIS to US Department of State / CSO Bureau |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the briefing was to inform the Research arm of the US Department of State around the unique protection dynamics in Kirkuk province, one of the most complex areas of the country due to ethno-sectarian tensions. The meeting reached 15 US diplomats and development specialists, and was particularly successful in addressing the enduring protection challenges facing Sunni Arab communities in Kirkuk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Briefing provided to the UK Consulate-Erbil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the briefing was to inform the newly appointed Consul General (CG) and his top advisors regarding protection and security challenges with the Kurdistan region and the disputed territories. The meeting, held in-person at IRIS' offices in Sulaymaniyah, reached 5 UK diplomats. The meeting was especially successful in helping the Consul General understand the drivers of the recent deterioration of security and resulting protection challenges within Sulaymaniyah province, an area that until recently has been very stable. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Capacity Building Fieldtrip to Erbil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Participants in the Protection Capacity Building program (20 students from the American University of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah) visited Erbil to meet with protection actors at UNHCR, Peace Paradigms and the UK Consulate. The meetings gave the students the opportunity to see first-hand how the theoretical material they have learned in the programme plays out in the daily work of protection actors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Discussions with Protection Actors |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As noted already, one of our intentions is to make the projects findings and outputs as relevant to protection actors as possible. To that end, the research team explored the expectations of protection organisations when the project started. We held a total of 28 such exploratory conversations with organisations that had been identified and selected through a mapping exercise and came from diverse fields including human rights, humanitarian, military actors, and UN agencies, including organisations based or operating in Iraq. After the initial discussions, we have developed models of "Underlying Logics" which we have so far used to engage a select number of protection organisations. Six of these organizations have already been engaged through bilateral discussions. A workshop with a selected number of protection actors to further discuss preventive protection approaches and their underlying logics is planned for late April 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | GPPI Presentations at the International Humanitarian Studies Association |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | In November 2021, one team member members of GPPI presented a paper at the conference of the International Humanitarian Studies Association in Paris. This conference was important because it was the first time the project and preliminary findings were presented to a combined audience of academic, practitioners, and students. Another team members networked with potential collaborators and answered questions about the project, and how partnerships may be sought. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | GPPI-Protection Actors Logic Models Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | One of the aims of the project is to develop logic models that protection actors can use to guide the design and implementation of their interventions. However, these models will be useful only if protection officials can relate to them and find them relevant to their projects. The aims of this workshop which occurred on 18th and 19th April, 2021, was therefore to present our first versions of the logic models to a larger group of protection actors to receive their feedback. It was the first time we met a group of protection actors together after we engaged our policy partners Geneva Call and the Norwegian Refugee Council. Eighteen (18) protection officials participated in the workshop over two days. We presented each of the four logic models to them, after which we received comments and suggestions for improvement. Participants told us about which parts of the models they found to be practicable based on their context of operations, and which were not. The feedback we received from this workshop helped us refine the logic models. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Launch event video and discussion in Berlin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We convened Berlin-based policy makers and practitioners for a screening of the short video and a discussion about civilian protection with two of the Iraq-based researchers involved in the project. The discussion demonstrated a lot of interest in the specific context in the post-ISIS territories in Northern Iraq and sparked discussions on what it means for protection actors to operate in such areas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | NRC workshops on research results |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our project partner NRC organised two internal workshops with NRC colleagues working in different regions in order to discuss the research results and reflect on implications for the organisation and its activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | PAX Protection of Civilians Conference 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | During the 2021 PAX Conference on Protection of Civilians, the Principal Investigator presented preliminary findings of the project to a group of 24 experts and 42 participants from various sectors related to protection. The presentation focused on our research objective, approach to the project, expected policy and scholarly input, the status of the project as well a preliminary findings from various stages of the project, including from the field work in Iraq. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Participation in Ninewa Protection Sub-cluster meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In order to make our findings as relevant to protection policy and practice as possible, we have also participated in a meeting of the Ninewa Protection Sub-cluster in December 2020, which brings together a variety of actors working on protection in this area. During this meeting, GPPi introduced the project to participants. Because Ninewa is one of the focus provinces where we will be conducting fieldwork, participation in this meeting was crucial because it helped us generate an initial overview of the protection stakeholders that operate on the ground and the possible steps we need to take before travelling to Ninewa. Subsequent to the meeting, we have followed up with some of the organisations and experts to get more insight to their operations and also feedback on how they can potentially benefit from our research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Protection Capacity Building Programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | UNHCR, Peace Paradigms (peacebuilding CSO) and the UK Consulate Erbil all collaborated on the Protection Capacity Building program. They participated in both virtual (February 2021) and in-person (March 2022) knowledge-sharing sessions in which the participants in the program, which are Iraqi university students from the American University of Iraq, learned about protection approaches from the perspective of each organization, and likewise the organizations learned about the complexity of protection challenges in specific local areas where the students are conducting research projects. The relationships built during these sessions have given the university access to ongoing learning opportunities with these organizations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Public Learning Event in Iraq |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Our project also is designed to communicate knowledge among academics, students, and the general public. Some of our engagements have therefore focused on these objectives. One we can report at this stage is a Public Learning Event in the form of a virtual roundtable discussion with the UNHCR Sub-National Protection Cluster Coordinator for Central and Southern Iraq who spoke about protection experiences in the pre and post-ISIS conflict environment since 2016. The session entitled "Humanitarian Perspectives on Protection Challenges," was open to the Capacity Building Programme students as well as other students from the American University of Iraq Sulaimani, the Sulaimani University, civil activists, and the Iraq Leadership Programme Fellows. Participants listened, and later actively participated in a Q&A session on the presentation by the Coordinator. Students who participated in this under the Capacity Building component of the project subsequently integrated some of the information they received into the essays they wrote. Our intention is to keep engagement with policymakers and practitioners active so that our findings and outputs can readily be communicated and potentially translated into policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |