The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) was excited to participate in an innovative training program on forced migration issues. The week-long program opened Monday, 26 August, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Regional Forced Migration Training participants in Nairobi, Kenya on the first day of the course
Organized by the Peace Institute at Moi University, under the seasoned leadership of the Institute’s Director, Dulo Nyaoro, the Regional Forced Migration Training offered a week-long intensive introduction to refugee and forced displacement issues to a select group of scholars, practitioners and policy makers from Kenya and beyond.
Dulo Nyaoro (2nd right) and some of the students that helped organize the week’s program
The training program was developed in cooperation with Kenya’s Refugee Affairs Secretariat, the Africa Migration and Development Policy Centre (AMADPOC), the Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) and LERRN, with generous support from Partnership Grant program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
While the training program was built on a long tradition of offering foundations in refugee and forced migration issues for practitioners, policy-makers and journalists, this year’s program was truly unique and innovative as it included participants not only from Kenya but also from LERRN’s Working Groups in Tanzania, Lebanon and Jordan.
In this way, the course represented an exceptional opportunity for civil society actors from major refugee-hosting states in the global South to share experiences and develop more effective responses.
While more than 80% of the world’s refugee are hosted by states in the global South, most training opportunities on refugee issues are based in the global North. This creates significant barriers to participation for civil society actors so closely involved with responses to refugees as the cost of travel and access to visas for travel can be significant barriers.
The need to host a collaborative and comprehensive training program in the global South was identified by LERRN partners at the launch of the seven-year initiative in September 2018.
Members of LERRN’s Kenya Working Group, Nairobi, October 2018
LERRN is committed to understanding and enhancing the role of civil society to help realize meaningful protection and durable solutions with and for refugees.
For more details on the training program in Kenya, contact: LERRN@carleton.ca