Capacity Development and Organisational Change in Support of Conflict Sensitive Education

Kelsey Shanks
University of Exeter, UK

Education was once considered a neutral, technical activity;yet, over the past decade, the international education agenda has shifted in line with the wider ‘do no harm’ debate to recognize education’s potential influence over spheres of security, governance and economics. With 1in3 of the world’s 121 million out-of-school children living in fragile or conflict-affected situations (GPE,2016), the relationship between education and conflict has received targeted efforts. Yet, despite academic and practitioner focus, Reisman and Janke (2015) stress that conflict-sensitivity still needs to be “better understood and adopted by all partners.” This paper explores the necessary processes required to ‘institutionalise’ conflict-sensitive practices within education-focused humanitarian organisations, highlighting key obstacles and opportunities.

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