Peacebuilding training course in the heart of Catalonia

“The programme offered us a lot of valuable new insights, thinking and understanding of other country contexts”. “The lessons from this course will help to set up the governance programme in my organization. The training’s timing could not have been better!”, according to enthusiastic participants of the two-week joint course on Peacebuilding, Decentralisation and Local Governance in Barcelona.

The course brought together 24 participants working for a wide range of organisations such as ILO Somalia, Ministry of Interior of Sierra Leone, UNAMA Afghanistan, UNDP Nicaragua, DANIDA South Sudan and USAID Kosovo, to share their experiences and learn from leading experts in this field, in order to be better equipped for the challenges they face in their daily work. This diversity led to an interesting exchange of perspectives and lively discussions.

The participants discussed issues such as the tensions between statebuilding and peacebuilding, the effect of decentralisation on the stability of states, how to support fiscal decentralisation in (post-)conflict situations, setting up basic service delivery in conflict-affected settings and stimulating local economic development in post-conflict countries. The visits to Girona city, Dali museum and “Poble Espanyol” open air museum brought a cultural touch to the training course. This was the second time that The Hague Academy has organised this unique course in cooperation with the Barcelona Peace Centre and it proved to be a real success. Therefore the course will be organised twice in 2012 from 21 May – 1 June in Barcelona (dates are still tentative) and from 5 - 16 November in The Hague.