International Alert and Transition International recently held an advanced course on reintegration of ex-combatants for a distinguished group of 25 professionals in Landgraaf, the Netherlands.
Participants included government representatives, national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) commission staff, local and international NGO staff, military personnel and academic experts from Afghanistan, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and several European countries.
The training increased participants’ knowledge and skills on the development and implementation of context-specific reintegration plans, based on experience and lessons learned from around the world and the challenges encountered in the field. The intense training provided an excellent space for professionals to explore and discuss the dilemmas and questions they face about reintegration, making for a rich collective learning experience.
As one of the participants concluded: ‘I thought my knowledge on DDR was actually enough, but I have learned so much in this training’.