The Institute’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, in collaboration with Future Generations Graduate School, has begun teaching peacebuilding to international development practitioners in courses that have been conducted online as well as in India and Kenya.

Nearly all of the students are working for community-based nongovernmental organizations and home government agencies in developing countries, and the addition of coursework designed and taught by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) will allow the 21 students of the class of 2013, who live in 12 countries, to earn an accredited master’s degree in Applied Community Change with a concentration in peacebuilding.

The Future Generations curriculum blends online education with in-class instruction at residential programs held twice a year for a month each. The first residential session was held in February and March in India in Mumbai and Sevagram, the site of Mohandas Gandhi’s ashram. Last month, the students met in Nairobi, Molo and Kisumu, Kenya. Next year they will reconvene in Haiti and later at USIP in Washington.

The new USIP role addresses an often unmet need: practical education in peacebuilding for people working in community development. “The Future Generations students are practitioners and are in a position to be peacebuilders back home. They are working in health clinics in Afghanistan, promoting sustainable agriculture in Uganda, working with refugees in Tanzania, rebuilding communities destroyed by the earthquake in Haiti or overseeing anti-poverty efforts in Bolivia,” said Jeffrey Helsing, the Academy’s dean of curriculum who taught an introductory course on peacebuilding in India. “The peacebuilding curriculum we contribute provides an analytical framework and skills that help them manage conflict. When they return to their communities, they are delivering constructive and lasting change.”

“This is a new generation of international peacebuilders who are community-grown—they’re there on the ground,” said Lauren Van Metre, the Academy’s dean of students. “Positioning the Academy to reach into these international peacebuilding communities is really important. Both online and in person, this arrangement allows us to bring our education program into the field to community leaders working and advocating for peace in very vulnerable places.”

Added Van Metre, “Through these classes, students from all over the world form cohorts with whom they can share their knowledge and experiences. You have Kenyans sharing with Afghans sharing with Haitians on what works at the community level.”

USIP’s partner is Future Generations Graduate School, an accredited program of higher education chartered in West Virginia. That is the educational arm of Future Generations, an international civil society organization promoting equitable, community-led development. The Kathryn Wasserman Davis Foundation is covering the tuition costs of the school’s class of 2013.

Van Metre said that the partnership is providing a framework both for expanding the reach of Academy instruction and for the development of online course curriculum. The collaboration also provides a venue for deeper USIP engagement with the international development community and an opportunity to draw on the insights of working peacebuilders in the developing world who have watched their communities contend with tensions in ways that lead either to violent conflict or to more peaceful resolution of disputes.

The reliance on online instruction means that the students can continue working in their communities through the two-year program. “Distance learning enables practitioners anywhere in the world to receive peacebuilding education and training,” said Dominic Kiraly, a senior program officer at the Academy who leads USIP’s distance-learning initiatives. “It’s a convenient learning vehicle for busy professionals to connect with other practitioners around the world, across borders and time zones.” Kiraly is also teaching Future Generations students about citizen journalism and civil resistance, including technical training to equip them to produce their own multimedia in their communities.

Alison Milofsky, a senior program officer at the Academy, said the Future Generations students bring an unusual zeal for practical application of their training in peacebuilding. Milofsky taught a course titled “Building Bridges through Intergroup Dialogue” at the Kenya residential session last month.

“They see that they can use intergroup dialogue in their work. During the course they actively translate the content into their own local contexts for work in some very challenging areas. It’s so relevant to them because it’s community-based,” said Milofsky. “It’s also a great way for us to take Academy courses on the road.”

The students in the class of 2013 say they see the value of their graduate coursework quickly. “I can attest that it’s not just something that’s written on a piece of paper,” said Brenda Engola, a Ugandan who is working with young humanitarian workers in an area of Uganda troubled by inter- and intra-clan conflicts. “I could apply what I’m learning, refine what I’m doing, have the opportunity to reflect and rethink a couple of things.”

The education in peacebuilding “is something new,” added Daniel Ortiz, a Bolivian working on community development and health projects for an organization named Andean Rural Health Care. “I can prevent conflicts and work closer with the community.”