GIZ – DAAD Summer School on “Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking in the Balkans”

German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) are going to organise a 3-week long Summer Course on the Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking on the Balkans  . Here are the details:

Open Call for applications

(deadline: 16^th of July, 17:00 CET)

GIZ – DAAD Summer School on the “Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking in the Balkans”

10^th of September until 28^th of September, 2012

Belgrade

 

Background and Description

The German International Cooperation (GIZ) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) are inviting PhD and/or MA students, junior researchers and junior professionals and experts from any disciplinary background working on the outlined topics to participate in a 3-week long Summer School on The Social Dimension of Human Trafficking on the Balkans from September 10th to 28th 2012 in Belgrade. After a fruitful and successful Forum in Skopje, Macedonia in November 2011, in 2012 the issues of human trafficking will be addressed within the context of social vulnerabilities trying to find out jointly causes and cures researching ongoing projects within the region.

Through its innovative learning approach, the GIZ-DAAD-Summer School ‘Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking on the Balkans’ aims at introducing participants from the Balkan and Germany to the current problematic, to state-of-the-art approaches and varying forms of implementation. This Summer School on the Balkans will be the ninth within this framework after Vietnam (2), Egypt, Brazil, Peru and India (3). It will focus on strengthening sustainable links between researchers, policy makers, development practitioners and businesspeople, as well as strengthening the scientific and institutional bonds throughout the region.

By introducing new teaching and educational methods based on peer-and action-learning and inter-disciplinary training for participants with different cultural and technical backgrounds, the Summer School meets the requirements of the current labour market and responds to the region’s needs for creative and decisive intellectuals, future decision-makers and representatives of their country within the increasingly international governance-framework.

Overall goal

The Summer School aims to contribute towards sustainable development on the Balkans by bridging the communication gap between research, policies and implementation in the field of combating Trafficking in Human Persons. Through improved communication and networking the mutual benefits could be achieved at different levels with relatively small efforts and can serve as examples for further policy-fields.

Some objectives and challenges for Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking on the Balkans

• To understand the vulnerable groups’ perspective of their life world
• To transcend life worlds of different classes and cultures by common action research
• To offer international experiences concerning the social dimensions of human trafficking
• To identify interfaces of security and social agendas and discuss possible co-operations
• To possibly elaborate a framework for further international and national co-operations after the end of the summer school

Benefits for the participants

• Understanding of the underlying concept of sustainable development within the field of international cooperation
• Insights on the social dimension of human trafficking within an international framework of practitioners and academics.
• Acquisition of new learning methods and soft skills (team work, intercultural communication, peer learning)
• Building of a professional network including the possibility to participate in an ongoing project on the social dimension of human trafficking on the Balkans

Expectations towards the participants

• High motivation to transcend the own academic and/or professional horizon and to deal with new perspectives on known issues
• Readiness to contribute to the common learning process with own experiences and knowledge
• Preparedness to work “after hours”
• Tolerance and openness towards “the other”
• Drafting of a group-report and preparation of a group presentation

Structure of the GIZ-DAAD-Summer School

The duration of the Summer School will be from September 10^th to 28^th 2012 and will take place at the University of Belgrade and it is jointly supported by GIZ, DAAD and the University of Belgrade.

e-learning to level and to complement the knowledge of the participants will take place from -the moment of the confirmation of participation

First week ‘State-of-the-art in Human Trafficking research’: In the first week, the political and juridical frameworks, state-of-the-art methods and peer-learning techniques will be presented to the participants by well selected resource persons. A first, topic-related excursion will take place. In the end of the week, group work regarding different research sites on the Balkans will be initiated; research questions will be elaborated.

Second week ‘Action research’: Participants will start to carry out well prepared action research on causes, forms and handling of human trafficking at their research-sites in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Macedonia under the guidance of regional partners of GIZ. By the end of the week the participants will discuss their results with local experts from the different fields and perspectives.

Third week ‘Learning Dialogs’: During the third and final week, learning-dialogues with leading scientists and practitioners from the Balkans and Germany will be held at Belgrade University. The learning process will be concluded by delivering a presentation of the results in a public symposium on the last day. Students are required to submit group-based research papers one month after the Summer School ends. Research papers will be disseminated to a large network of anti-trafficking actors in the Balkan region Europe, thereby, exposing Summer School students to the professional world.

Some learning-goals for the Summer School The Social Dimensions of Human Trafficking on the Balkans

• To understand the vulnerable groups’ perspective of their life world;
• To transcend life worlds of different classes and cultures by common action research;
• To offer international experiences (north-south-north & south-south) concerning the social dimensions of human trafficking;
• To identify interfaces of security and social agendas and discuss possible co-operations; and
• To possibly elaborate a framework for further international and national co-operations after the end of the summer school

The three-week program will introduce participants to anti-trafficking by first providing a broader overview of main theoretical frameworks applied in anti-trafficking research followed by global governance in anti-trafficking and finally narrowing down to more specific thematic areas:

1. Theoretical and juridical frameworks in anti-trafficking research: migration, human rights and security
2. Governance: Think globally, act locally: Introductory lecture will provide an overview of treaties, international instruments, main international institutions and regional bodies as well as mechanisms implemented at national and local level.
3. Thematic areas:

• Rethinking reintegration models aimed for trafficking survivors
• Empowerment of vulnerable groups and addressing socio-economic and cultural conditioning of HT
• Developing early warning system as a prevention tool for targeting potential victims
• Exploring connections between communication and anti-trafficking
• NGO-Government cooperation

Interested applicants should apply no later than 16^th of July, 2012 – CET 17.00h by either filling out the online form or if you encounter problems please download the application form here (www.htsocialprotection.org) and send all documents (CV and completed application form) to sppht@giz.de