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.