Aims
The Creating Safer Space research network aims to:
- better understand, enhance and expand unarmed civilian protection (UCP) practices and self-protection efforts of conflict-affected communities.
- bring together the knowledge of local communities, national and international UCP organisations, academics, media specialists, artists and the wider international policy community to work together for unarmed protection.
- support research projects that enhance our understanding of UCP and self-protection as effective civilian-to-civilian protection strategies, and that study how these practices can be strengthened to create safer space for more people living in conflict.
- champion research that uses methods facilitating participatory research with affected communities, including creative and digital methods.
- provide a rich and robust body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of UCP and self-protection.
- develop comparative analysis of success factors across various regional civilian-to-civilian protection contexts.
- disseminate research findings to increase protection capacities through workshops, online training, artwork, media products, academic publications and activities, and this digital platform.
- support innovative protection initiatives.
Activities
Our Network carries out three strands of activities:
1. Making Connections and Developing Capacity
Activities include:
- Actor and stakeholder mapping
- Creating a research database
- Networking workshops
- Basic skills courses
- Methods courses
2. Stimulating Participatory, Innovative and Collaborative Research
We are working with our partner organisations around the world to undertake participatory, innovative and collaborative research to advance knowledge about Unarmed Civilian Protection.
3. Sharing Knowledge to Impact the Future
Network outputs to disseminate our findings on a local, national and international level, including:
- Academic and non-academic publications;
- Arts and media-based outputs (e.g., documentaries; podcasts; exhibitions)
- Reports and briefing papers
- A bespoke Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning approach
- Online research tools
- Dissemination activities through events