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About the course
About the course
This online course equips participants with essential leadership, team management and self-management skills necessary in humanitarian action and peacebuilding fields, where adaptive response to dynamic environments is crucial.
Emphasising leadership theory, team dynamics, decision-making in unpredictable contexts and stress management, this course will prepare you to lead and collaborate effectively under challenging conditions.
This 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 6 interactive weeks plus 2 reading weeks
Credit-rated course: 11 weeks comprising 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 covers five essential themes:
Introduction to Leadership in Complex Environments: Examining leadership theories and their application to humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts.
Leading Organisational Change: Focusing on change management theories and strategies within volatile environments.
Decision-Making in Unpredictable Contexts: Exploring techniques for intuitive and rational decision-making under challenging conditions.
Team Management in Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Contexts: Introducing tools for building and managing effective teams, emphasising collaboration and communication.
Stress and Stress-Management: Providing insights into types of stress, reactions, and resilience techniques over two weeks.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
This course encourages application-oriented learning, enhancing leadership and management skills for humanitarian professionals.
Evaluate and apply a range of leadership concepts within complex settings.
Identify and analyse organisational change needs, developing strategies for improvement.
Make strategic decisions independently in unpredictable environments.
Use digital tools effectively for diverse team management.
Develop strategies for personal and team resilience, identifying signs of traumatic stress.
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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