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About the course
About the course
Focusing on urban spaces becomes increasingly important for the efficiency of humanitarian actions, but presents new challenges as humanitarian and development traditions are usually focused on 'open spaces' and rural environments. In urban conflicts, all lines are blurred and programming will need to take that into account. Conflicts particularly have an impact on the way people produce, understand and inhabit spaces and places. Rebuilding some social links and establishing communities in locations will become one of the key elements in conflict transformation and humanitarian programmes. Through action research methods, issues related to urban settings and specificities of humanitarian projects can be investigated.
This online course is offered for credit or on a non-credit basis and is delivered jointly by Oxford Brookes University's Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
A flexible and user-friendly online learning environment will enable you to learn from your workplace. During the course, you will have support from a team of academic experts, top-ranked practitioners, and field experts. As well as the unique opportunity to interact and learn with peers and expert facilitators across the world.
Your time will be split equally among four main activities:
Staff-led activities, such as webinars, tutorials and discussions
Self-led activities, including readings and independent exercises
Drawing on your past or current professional practice
Preparing your assignments (credit-rated course)
The credit-rated CPD module, equivalent to 20 postgraduate credits, requires learners to complete assessments and can be counted towards the distance-learning PG Cert/ Master's in Humanitarian Action and Peacebuilding. The non-credit-rated short course leads to a certificate of attendance.
Dates
Dates
Delivery dates: September - December 2026
This course is primarily self-paced, with a required one-hour weekly webinar. It's designed to be flexible for those with full-time jobs or for those studying from around the world.
Application deadlines: 4 September 2026 (Credit-rated course), 14 September 2026 (Non-credit-rated course)
Non-credit course: 8 weeks comprising of 6 interactive weeks plus 2 reading weeks
Credit-rated course: 11 weeks comprising of 6 interactive weeks, 2 reading weeks plus 3 assessment weeks
Course cost
Course cost
Credit-rated course is £1,145*
Non-credit-rated course: £600*
Course Content
Course Content
The online course is estimated to be 200 hours per module and includes 6 key sessions:
The urban social fabric and its relevance in a humanitarian crisis
Understanding urban conflict and violence
Conflict, shelter and home in the city
Peacebuilding in the urban setting
Forced migrants in the city
Recovery in the city
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
Monitor comprehensively urban environment sensitivity thoughout the project cycle management.
Demonstrate depth and systematic understanding of urban conflict and large range of concepts and approaches to vulnerabilities in urban environments.
Assess critically and create innovative tools and techniques to plan humanitarian and peacebuilding actions in urban settings.
Develop action research tools to assess physical, social, economic, political, cultural and symbolic dimensions of programming in urban conflicts.
Who is this module for?
Who is this module for?
This course is suitable for practitioners already working in the humanitarian, conflict transformation and peacebuilding fields and in related areas such as diplomacy and journalism, who wish to continue their professional development, and practitioners working in other fields interested in exploring opportunities in these areas.
Contact us
Contact us
If you have any enquiries about the course, please email us at hst-cpdadmissions@brookes.ac.uk
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*Cancellation policy
*Cancellation policy
If you cancel on or before the application deadline, you will receive a 50% refund. Cancellations made after this date are not eligible for a refund.
If the course is cancelled by Oxford Brookes University, all registered participants will get a full refund.
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