GCRF Development Award Creating Safer Space - Building Networks and Knowledge Bases for Civilian Protection
Lead Research Organisation:
Aberystwyth University
Department Name: International Politics
Abstract
The Development Award project "Creating Safer Space" works towards the vision of enhancing unarmed civilian protection practices, which create safer space for communities amidst violent conflict and help prevent displacement. According to United Nations Refugee Agency, there are now a record high of 68.5 million people forcibly displaced by violent conflict (UNHCR, 2019), and the majority of deaths in conflicts are among civilians, not armed actors. This makes the protection of civilians from physical harm in contexts of war a pressing issue of our time. While the international community has acknowledged the need for protection, the physical safety of civilians is still seen almost exclusively as a task of armed outside actors like UN blue helmets.
The originality of this project is its focus on protection provided by unarmed civilian actors and deployed at the local level of communities, be it by "outside" specialists, "insider/local" protection actors or the conflict-affected communities themselves. Specifically, the project supports the building and consolidation of equitable partnerships in the field of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) between researchers in the UK and researchers and practitioners in four Low and Middle Income countries (LMIC) in Latin America and Southeast Asia, which have witnessed long-term and/or large-scale violence and displacement of different types and have been home to a variety of local protection initiatives: Colombia, Mexico, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
The project's activities concentrate on five core objectives: (1) building and consolidating UCP partner networks that work equitably to enhance UCP work and knowledge; (2) scoping existing knowledge on UCP, including academic, non-academic and other sources (such as film, art or craft) and ways of knowing (such as indigenous knowledges and cosmologies); (3) enhancing research capacity and procedures by developing online training materials that enhance UK and partner country researchers' capacity to conduct safe, ethical and inclusive research; (4) creating communication channels for South-South learning by building a digital platfom that works across technological, lingusitic and cultural divides and enables a transnational sharing of experiences, and (5) facilitating advocacy and impact through stakeholder mapping.
Through these activities the project will leave a sustainable legacy by putting in place partnerships, capacities and procedures for equitable research and impact which are of benefit to partners in their UCP work and also lay the foundations for future collaboration between UK and/or LMIC colleagues and organisations in the field of UCP. Taken together, these activities will work towards increasing the number of people benefiting from civilian protection worldwide.
The originality of this project is its focus on protection provided by unarmed civilian actors and deployed at the local level of communities, be it by "outside" specialists, "insider/local" protection actors or the conflict-affected communities themselves. Specifically, the project supports the building and consolidation of equitable partnerships in the field of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) between researchers in the UK and researchers and practitioners in four Low and Middle Income countries (LMIC) in Latin America and Southeast Asia, which have witnessed long-term and/or large-scale violence and displacement of different types and have been home to a variety of local protection initiatives: Colombia, Mexico, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
The project's activities concentrate on five core objectives: (1) building and consolidating UCP partner networks that work equitably to enhance UCP work and knowledge; (2) scoping existing knowledge on UCP, including academic, non-academic and other sources (such as film, art or craft) and ways of knowing (such as indigenous knowledges and cosmologies); (3) enhancing research capacity and procedures by developing online training materials that enhance UK and partner country researchers' capacity to conduct safe, ethical and inclusive research; (4) creating communication channels for South-South learning by building a digital platfom that works across technological, lingusitic and cultural divides and enables a transnational sharing of experiences, and (5) facilitating advocacy and impact through stakeholder mapping.
Through these activities the project will leave a sustainable legacy by putting in place partnerships, capacities and procedures for equitable research and impact which are of benefit to partners in their UCP work and also lay the foundations for future collaboration between UK and/or LMIC colleagues and organisations in the field of UCP. Taken together, these activities will work towards increasing the number of people benefiting from civilian protection worldwide.
| Description | The project's work concentrated on five core objectives with regard to Unarmed Civilian Protection, each of which brought about some key activities and findings: (1) Building and consolidating UCP partner networks that work equitably to enhance UCP work and knowledge: This objective was achieved through workshops about UCP as well as participatory, creative and digital methods. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the workshops - which had originally been planned as in-person regional events bringing together partners in Latin America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia respectively - were held exclusively online, which enabled practitioners and researchers from different world regions to attend and thus create new networks across continents. (2) Scoping existing knowledge on UCP, including academic, non-academic and other sources (such as film, art or craft) and ways of knowing (such as indigenous knowledges and cosmologies): Four teams in Colombia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Kenya (covering South Sudan), together with a research assistant based in the UK, conducted an in-depth scoping of the forms of unarmed civilian protection and community self-protection present in each of the four countries, and of the literatures existing already about them. This scoping exercise brought to light very different results. Colombia clearly shows the highest levels of known activity in UCP and nonviolent self-protection, and has also been researched most of these cases, although research has concentrated on international UCP organisations or iconic cases of peace communities, while other initiatives have been less studied. In Myanmar, there are no local organisations that focus only on UCP, and only one international UCP organization (NP) is active there, but the local organisations showed a great deal of variety in the use of UCP strategies and methods. The scoping exercise here was done before the military coup of 2021, which may have changed some of the practices (and is subject of a subsequent N+ Creating Safer Space research project). Overall, there is very little written about UCP and self-protection practices in Myanmar. In the Philippines, there is a range of international, national and local UCP organisations with years of experience in nonviolent protection, and hence there is a lot of knowledge among practitioners and organisations; however, little of this has been formally recorded, or where this has been done it has not been analysed systematically. While there are a few studies written about UCP in Mindanao, overall there is still massive research potential. The same is true for the case of South Sudan, which hosts the biggest single international UCP mission worldwide (by NP) and where new forms of self-protection such as Women Protection Teams (WPTs) have been established; however, research has continued to focus on the top-down Protection of Civilians agenda by the United Nations and the international peacekeeping and peacebuilding interventions more generally (some notable exceptions of recent research work notwithstanding). Again, there is enormous scope for more in-depth research of UCP and self-protection in this case. (3) Enhancing research capacity and procedures by developing online training materials that enhance UK and partner country researchers' capacity to conduct safe, ethical and inclusive research: The project organised a series of online training and methods workshops, open to all network members and a wider interested professional community and focused on participatory, creative and digital methods, as well as on safe, ethical and inclusive research. The materials are available on the project website, with captions that can be auto-translated into other languages (https://creating-safer-space.com/research-methods-training/). (4) Creating communication channels for South-South learning by building a digital platform that works across technological, linguistic and cultural divides and enables a transnational sharing of experiences: The project worked with Colombian web developers to set up a one-stop shop website for the Network Plus Creating Safer Space, which features a language translation plug-in that makes the contents easily available in a wide range of languages. The website contains all training materials and other relevant information, making it easily accessible to stakeholders around the world (https://creating-safer-space.com). (5) Facilitating advocacy and impact through stakeholder mapping: The scoping exercise mentioned under (2) above also included stakeholder mapping, although this was easier in some cases than others. The exercise will be continued as part of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space, which this grant is connected to, and enable the N+ to design impactful engagements with stakeholders. |
| Exploitation Route | All training materials are available on the project website and free for others to use. This will be complemented by a working paper series to publish the outcomes of the scoping exercises in the four core project countries. This should help researchers and practitioners interested in furthering research on Unarmed Civilian Protection and community self-protection to identify research gaps as well as the most adequate ways of conducting research on nonviolent protection. |
| Sectors | Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | https://creating-safer-space.com |
| Description | The project has had non-academic impacts regarding its five major objectives: (1) Building and consolidating UCP partner networks that work equitably to enhance UCP work and knowledge: Network building across national and organisational boundaries has enabled non-academic partner organisations to engage in new types of joint activities, including e.g. unarmed civilian protection training for communities hitherto unaware of UCP strategies (e.g. women in Southern Thailand) as well as research collaborations between non-academic partners or with academic partners, which will enable UCP organisations to enhance and/or expand their practice through new insights. Growing the community of practice and knowledge on UCP is starting to show its benefits. (2) Scoping existing knowledge on UCP, including academic, non-academic and other sources (such as film, art or craft) and ways of knowing (such as indigenous knowledges and cosmologies): The knowledge scoping projects in the four core research countries Colombia, Myanmar, the Philippines and South Sudan were impactful as they constituted the first such attempts at capturing the state of the art of knowledge on UCP and community self-protection practices in each case. While certainly far from comprehensive, these scoping exercises give non-academic partners a very good idea of the publicly available/published, non-public/archived, and non-written knowledge about UCP experiences, highlighting important gaps in organisations' institutional memory and engagement with internal evaluation and learning processes. This will help partners to design better MEL infrastructures in future. (3) Enhancing research capacity and procedures by developing online training materials that enhance UK and partner country researchers' capacity to conduct safe, ethical and inclusive research: The project's methods and training workshops have had a considerable impact on the confidence of non-academic partners to engage in applied research to enhance and/or expand their protection practices, and has built the necessary capacity to deliver high-quality research. This will benefit non-academic partner organisations well beyond the duration of this project. (4) Creating communication channels for South-South learning by building a digital platform that works across technological, linguistic and cultural divides and enables a transnational sharing of experiences: This project objective turned out to be hugely important due to the (unforeseen) Covid-19 pandemic. A mixture of online meetings involving language interpreters (delivered via Zoom and MS Teams), a video channel to share trainings and learning (on YouTube, using captions and auto-translate functions) and a one-stop shop website which bundles information on all project activities and is linguistically accessible to many linguistic communities through an auto-translation plug-in (https://creating-safer-space.com) enabled South-South collaboration despite travel restrictions and will be a major legacy of this project in terms of lasting impact. (5) Facilitating advocacy and impact through stakeholder mapping: In all the project regions, stakeholder mapping has helped project partners in clarifying stakeholders to be engaged in future work, e.g. as part of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space. The opportunity to lay the groundwork for later active advocacy was taken up by the project's non-academic partners in South-East Asia, who used travel funds to foster stakeholder networks in the region, both among civil society organisations assisting local communities in the midst of violent conflict (e.g. in Southern Thailand and in Papua, Indonesia) as well as at the level of international organisations (ASEAN). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Creating Safer Space: Strengthening Civilian Protection Amidst Violent Conflict |
| Amount | £1,872,227 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/T008024/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | GRCF Network Plus 2022 Funding |
| Amount | £99,999 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/T008024/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2022 |
| End | 03/2025 |
| Title | UCPResearch Database on unarmed civilian protection and community self-protection |
| Description | Searchable annotated bibliography and document database collecting existing knowledge about unarmed civilian (self-)protection-including outside/local protection actors and communities' self-protection initiatives-, taking into account academic and grey literatures as well as other sources of information/knowledge and ways of knowing. Specific focus on the project core countries Colombia, Myanmar, the Philippines and South Sudan, but also mapping more conceptional/theoretical literatures as well as other cases of UCP and community self-protection. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | As the database was only recently published, there are no notable impacts to be reported yet. |
| URL | https://ucpresearch.resourcespace.com/ |
| Description | Good Practices in Unarmed Civilian Protection workshops |
| Organisation | Nonviolent Peaceforce |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Project PI Bliesemann de Guevara was involved in the co-design and co-facilitation of regional workshops with international, regional, national and local organisations providing unarmed civilian protection to civilians amidst violent conflict and displacement, as well as with beneficiaries of this work. Workshops were held in North America (Minnesota, 2019), Latin America (Bogota, 2020), Europe (online, 2021), and with United Nations staff and diplomatic missions (New York, 2019). The first Global Gathering of UCP organisations was held online in 2021, with the first global face-to-face meeting planned for October 2023 in Geneva. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Nonviolent Peaceforce was responsible for the initiation, design, organisation and implementation of the Good Practices in Unarmed Civilian Protection workshops (in-person and online). |
| Impact | This collaboration laid the groundwork for a major GCRF Network Plus application on the nonviolent protection of civilians in the context of violent conflict and displacement. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Arts-based approach to participatory action research: tribal education methodology (TEM) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Dr Sreenath Nair (College of Arts, University of Lincoln, UK) discussed an arts-based approach to participatory action research. The workshop was organised by project partner Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OneJuc17Tk |
| Description | Creative approach for unarmed civilian protection (UCP): the power of drawing and storyboard |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Dr Wee Chan Au (Monash University Malaysia) discussed drawing and storyboard as arts-based approaches to research. The workshop was organised by project partner Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/gv60O4nrJoQ |
| Description | Data Generation with Creative Research Methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop, Arafa Salim Baya (Bidii Yetu na Kazi Women Group, Kenya) discussed how we can use creative research methods for data generation in citizen science. This workshop was held on 10 June 2021 and was organized by the Strathmore University Business School (SBS) in Kenya on behalf of the AHRC-GCRF Network Plus Creating Safer Space. It was attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/wwaGJXf4V2A |
| Description | Giving the people the voice: active listening to the communities, promoting community-driven social change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop, Clinton Gwako, Vivian Suter and Selline Korir (Rural Women Peace Link) discussed active listening, steps in implementing a community scorecard, and how to generate data for trauma healing. This workshop was held on 17 June 2021 and was organized by the Strathmore University Business School (SBS) in Kenya on behalf of the AHRC-GCRF Network Plus Creating Safer Space. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/lv8e5A1RNVw |
| Description | Introduction to research writing skills |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop, Prof Joseph Ngala (United States International University) and Dr Ben Ngoye (Strathmore University Business School) discussed strategies of research and research proposal writing. This workshop was held on 24 June 2021 and was organized by the Strathmore University Business School (SBS) in Kenya on behalf of the AHRC-GCRF Network Plus Creating Safer Space. The workshop incentivised participants to think about turning their knowledge into academic outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/oRcKYPCu21w |
| Description | Networking activities for Network Plus Creating Safer Space in Indonesia |
| 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 | The director of the project partner organisation Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines, Dr Delsy Ronnie, conducted networking activities in Indonesia which helped amplify the reach of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space to countries in Southeast Asia beyond the core research countries Myanmar and the Philippines. Dr Ronnie's networking and collaboration activities have benefitted the Network Plus by bringing in new members and paving the pathways to later research finding impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://nonviolentpeaceforce.org/blog/blog-items/927-new-indonesian-partnerships |
| Description | Networking activities in Papua, Indonesia |
| 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 2021, director of project partner organisation Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines, Dr Delsy Ronnie, travelled to the Indonesian province of Papua, and area that is witnessing violent conflict, to make connections with local academics and civil society organisations. These new contacts have been invited to join the activities of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space, and new collaborations have resulted in subsequent research collaborations between non-academic partners as part of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space work packages, scoping existing UCP mechanism and possibilities for their enhancement in Papua. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Networking at ASEAN, Jakarta |
| 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 director of project partner organisation Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines, Dr Delsy Ronnie, travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia, to conduct networking and advocacy activities at ASEAN. These connections will be essential to the future dissemination activities of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| Description | New research method in elements and eco-system of information disorder |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Dr Pirongrong Ramasoota (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) discussed research through social media. The workshop was organised by project partner Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about online research on unarmed civilian protection using social media. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/eac-si77Ep0 |
| Description | Participatory Research Methods (part 1) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Dr Elias Opongo (Hekima University College, Kenya) discussed participatory research methods. The workshop was organised by project partner Strathmore University, Kenya, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection as well as other civil society groups. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/uttmXc6xJLE |
| Description | Participatory Research Methods (part 2) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this second part of a two-part online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Dr Elias Opongo (Hekima University College, Kenya) continued the discussion of participatory research methods. The workshop was organised by project partner Strathmore University, Kenya, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection as well as other civil society groups. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/8GxuU9OLZ1Y |
| Description | Participatory Research: Case Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Rehema Baya (Awareness Against Human Trafficking - HAART Kenya) discussed how we can design participatory research methods using case studies. This workshop was held on 20 May 2021 and was organized by the Strathmore University Business School (SBS) in Kenya. It was attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/wuEMCTjS6_w |
| Description | Participatory Research: Role Play |
| 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 | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, Rehema Baya (Awareness Against Human Trafficking - HAART Kenya) discussed how we can design participatory research methods using role play. This workshop was held on 20 May 2021 and was organized by the Strathmore University Business School (SBS) in Kenya. It was attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about research and community engagement methods which are attuned to UCP's core principle of the primacy of local actors and its general bottom-up approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/Ps2EUEnidQI |
| Description | Prepare South East Asian Women to Lead |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | To amplify the voices of women leaders in conflict affected areas, project partner Nonviolent Peaceforce gathered over 30 grassroot women from three countries (Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand) residing in areas affected by armed conflict with the purpose of creating opportunities for learning together and sharing their skills, and understanding of nonviolent methods that have increased peace and women protection in their communities. Although the Philippines women did not attend due to fears of coronavirus, the exchange visit was held in Patani, deep south Thailand, on the 28th and 29th January 2020. Women from Myanmar and Southern Thailand committed to work together to learn strategies which prevent violence against women and make a contribution to peace in their communities. The organising partners in Thailand, Prince Songkla University and Duajay Group, have since become associated partners of the Network Plus Creating Safer Space and are now leading on a research work package that explores local protection infrastructures and possibilities of enhancing civilian protection and self-protection in Southern Thailand. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Training Course on Unarmed Civilian Protection |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 25 participants from around the world participated in this training course, which offered an introduction to the objectives, principles, sources of guidance, and methods of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP), which relied on course materials developed by project partner Nonviolent Peaceforce and was facilitated Dr Ellen Furnari (USA) and Jane Wanjiru (Kenya). At completion, participants were able to successfully describe the key principles, objectives, and sources of guidance for UCP; analyse a conflict and identify vulnerable populations; demonstrate an understanding of the methods of UCP and how they can be adapted and applied to a conflict situation; and identify key features of an effective UCP implementation plan and exit strategy, with a view toward maximizing the security both of UCP staff and local civilians. The course helped to broaden the community of people holding in-depth knowledge about UCP, and at the same time provided interesting insights from around the world into existing local strategies of civilian protection, which can be integrated into future editions of the training materials. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://creating-safer-space.com/training-course-on-unarmed-civilian-protection-ucp/ |
| Description | Unarmed Civilian Protection: Why Research? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop, project PI Bliesemann de Guevara and Suzanne Thalia Klein Schaarsberg (UCP Research Database) discussed the state of UCP research and why it is beneficial for both academic and non-academic organisations to organise in more systematic learning about unarmed civilian protection and community self-protection. The workshop was held online and attended by an international audience, resulting in a number of requests for further involvement in the Network Plus Creating Safer Space. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/BV9JbHG4I1g |
| Description | Using Open Source Digital Mapping Software for Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this online workshop, organised by the project with the purpose of enhancing research capacity among unarmed civilian protection organisations, project Co-I Dr Nerve Macaspac (CUNY, USA) discussed the use of Open Source Digital Mapping Software for UCP research. The workshop was organised by project partner Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and attended by an international group of practitioners and researchers of unarmed civilian protection. The workshop incentivised participants to think about digital methods in research on nonviolent protection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/f7ZVeM6X3HM |
| Description | Workshop on Protection and Security for Researchers (in English and Spanish) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | With two workshops (in English and Spanish) delivered by the organisation Protection International, the project reacted to the observation that over the past few years, a growing number of incidents and events have highlighted both the need for researchers to reflect on their own security and protection, and for organisations to have responsible security practices and policies in place. Considering that conducting field research has become increasingly risky in some contexts, particularly in settings characterised by violent armed conflicts, or in countries where repressive regimes impose limits on what researchers can do, the workshops benefitted both academic and non-academic project partners and members of the wider communities of practice in the research regions in terms of better awareness of, and strategies to take, security risks when engaging with the topic of unarmed civilian protection in the midst of violent conflict. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://creating-safer-space.com/workshop-on-security/ |