Clingendael Academy is one of the world’s largest independent diplomatic academies. 2018 was the seventh year in a row that the Clingendael Academy grew: more training sessions, more projects and more staff members.
We see our success as a confirmation of our strategic choices, the quality of our programmes and our unique position: a professional training organisation dedicated to improving the performance of our participants internationally as well as in conflict-driven environments.
Facts and figures
Clingendael Academy trained around 660 diplomats from over 145 countries in 36 different projects in the Netherlands and abroad;
Clingendael trainers visited over 37 countries on all five continents to provide 138 training sessions abroad in the fields of diplomatic practice, personal effectiveness, (humanitarian) negotiations, capacity-building, security and conflict resolution;
In total, we trained over 3,250 professionals;
In the context of our international security programmes, we conducted two newly designed pre-deployment training programmes for civil experts, selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Our programmes for negotiation (conflict, mediation and humanitarian) reached a record number of 857 participants;
We trained diplomats from five incoming countries of the UN Security Council in New York;
We organised a China workshop for EU Member States for the first time;
We provided three Ethiopia Leadership trainings for Ethiopian regional governments;
Participants awarded our trainings an average score of 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Diplomatic practice
Diplomatic training is our core activity and builds on more than 25 years’ experience. Each of our diplomatic training programmes is unique and tailor-made to meet the specific needs of the participating countries, based on the recognised Clingendael Method™. Our training programmes are conceived as open learning spaces combined with a “learning-by-doing” approach.
The programmes implemented in 2018 include our long-term programmes for junior diplomats (from Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the MENA region, the Balkans and Turkey, Afghanistan and Central Asia and Mongolia), newer programmes for junior diplomats from Latin America, Southern Africa and Small Islands and Developing States, as well as programmes for mid-career and senior diplomats from West and East Africa, Indonesia, UN Missions in New York and representatives from regional organisations such as the African Union, ASEAN, the Sahel, ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC and EAC.
In addition, we also trained Dutch young diplomats (the ‘Klasje’) in 2018, preparing them for their new postings at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). We also conducted two open-enrolment courses, including our longest-running programme, the Course in International Relations.
2018 saw a number of training innovations, including:
Other tailor-made courses included: “How to cooperate with Brussels” for diplomats and civil servants from Tunisia; a training on the Law of the Sea for ASEAN; a programme on the Blue Economy for Sri Lanka and a course on ‘Agricultural Diplomacy’.
Negotiation and mediation in conflict resolution
With the support of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs we work with groups in conflict and with mediators. In these training programmes we train participants in peace processes to ripen minds, to empower people to take control of their process and to give them the instruments and tools to make conscious choices and understand the consequences. The ultimate goal is to help create new momentum in peace processes and make these processes more effective.
In 2018, we intensified our support for several negotiation teams and further expanded the total number of training programmes implemented. With a quarter of these training programmes taking place at Huys Clingendael, by far most of our training took place in the field.
Our work in 2018 in numbers:
We set up a number of new projects:
1. Nigeria Middle Belt Region: a new project with training in mediation for local community leaders working in the Middle Belt region in Nigeria on dialogues between the (Muslim) herders and (Christian) farmers.
2. Training of trainers for insider mediators: this new ToT programme is a next step in Clingendael Academy’s cooperation with the UNDP to institutionalise the Insider Mediation capacity of UNDP’s Insider Mediation projects.
3. Mediation support units: a programme for 11 regional organisations from around the world with institutional and active ‘mediation support structures’.
4. Horn of Africa women mediators: a training for young leaders seeking to strengthen their mediation skills and become advocates for young women in peace processes.
5. Philippines Bangsamoro peace process: a new step in our ongoing support for a stable and peaceful Bangsamoro.
6. Somalia’s Galkayo Peace Committee: training community leaders from Puntland and Galmudug to solve the conflict over the divided regional capital of Galkayo.
In 2018, we trained negotiators in/from:
International Security
Clingendael Academy offered its successful open-enrolment Course on International Security (“CIV”) during the spring and in the fall. What is going on in the Middle East? Which (growing) roles do energy politics and cyber threats play? What does the future hold for European defence cooperation? Participants from various ministries, NGOs and the private sector delved into these and other security-related topics that are high on the international agenda, together with renowned experts and practitioners from the field. We also implemented tailor-made Courses on International Security for various ministries, including the Ministry of Defence and the Security and Defence Policy Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Our continued cooperation with the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) resulted in another successful two-week training for the Advanced Staff and Command Course. With the Netherlands National Police Academy (PA) we again delivered the year-long Columbus International Orientation programme for high-level national police personnel. 2018 also saw another successful implementation of the two annual UNTSO/UNDOF/USSC training courses, which prepare Dutch military personnel for deployment to the UN missions in the Golan Heights.
Having been commissioned to develop a new extensive pre-deployment training programme for civilian experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clingendael Academy successfully executed two four-day pre-deployment training courses in 2018. We also continued our cooperation in the ENTRi framework.
In 2018 we actively strengthened our training capacity and training output in cyber governance and cyber security. As part of this, and in cooperation with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, we continued the multi-year project providing training for high-level Indonesian officials in cyber governance.
European Affairs
With issues such as Brexit and migration dominating the news cycles, the European Affairs trainers of Clingendael Academy, which offer specialised training programmes on policymaking in the European context, had a busy year. We expanded our Orientation on the European Union Course to four editions, ensuring that Dutch government officials working on EU-related issues are ready for the challenges ahead. This year Brexit and the shifting coalitions in Brussels played a very prominent role during the courses, which are constantly adapted to reflect changing EU dynamics.
We also expanded our portfolio of trainings on effective influencing in Brussels, providing tailor-made trainings for regional leaders from Ethiopia, civil servants in Sarajevo and semi-public parties such as Rabobank, among others. We also conducted another edition of our open-enrolment course Advocacy and Lobbying in the European Union.
In 2018, we wrapped up our EU capacity-building programme in Bulgaria.
Humanitarian negotiations
In 2016, Clingendael Academy started to offer negotiation skills training to humanitarian aid workers with support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The programme’s main objective is to increase the negotiation capacity of humanitarian organisations by providing skills training as well as wider organisational support.
Humanitarian aid workers are among the first parties to respond to the consequences of conflict. In their effort to alleviate suffering, they will often find themselves negotiating access to conflict zones, which may have been sealed off for weeks on end. Besides negotiating access and safe passage, humanitarian organisations usually operate alongside each other in the same field, in which they have to negotiate with each other.
In 2018, we saw our programme in humanitarian negotiations really take off within the sector with ever increasing numbers of applications for our training courses and requests for further collaboration. We organised 14 training programmes (four at Clingendael, others in the field). Our 206 participants came from 36 countries and 51 organisations. Highlights include the delivery of the first newly designed Advanced Course and the delivery of our first French humanitarian negotiation training course, in Senegal.
But the biggest highlight is the appreciation of our training sessions by our participants.
Personal effectiveness
We provided hundreds of personal effectiveness trainings throughout all Academy projects such as negotiation, intercultural communication, presentation skills and effective influencing.
Clingendael Academy staff also provided standalone training sessions focusing specifically on one or two skills, including successful editions of our open-enrolment courses on negotiation, mediation and consensus building and intercultural communication. Other highlights included the negotiation training conducted within the European Diplomatic Programme (EDP), intercultural communication for the European External Action Service and two training sessions for DT&V (one with IOM). We also conducted tailor-made trainings for EUMM, ACER, UNMISS and Deutsche Bundesbank.
Strategic thinking
Clingendael Academy offers training in strategic planning tools – allowing professionals to anticipate international developments as much as possible. We provide standalone trainings and incorporate tools in different types of programmes.
In 2018, we designed a new training programme for international policy advisors of the five largest cities in the Netherlands (“G5”), which was specifically devoted to strategic policy planning. In this training, we guided the participants through all the policy instruments and allowed them to draft and strengthen their strategic plans. We also conducted another strategic planning for senior strategic policy planners from Afghanistan.
Economic and sustainable development
Clingendael continues to deliver its skills training in the nexus between economic development and sustainability. As more countries seek to increase their competitiveness in a sustainable way, there is an increasing need for civil servants with the right mindset and skills to promote their countries abroad. Our trainers provided sessions on FDI promotion for the Small Island Development States, how to organise trade missions and negotiate trade deals for MENA countries in the Shiraka Training Programme and how to coordinate economic diplomacy at the intraministerial level in training missions to both Nigeria and the Palestinian Territories.
Institutional development
Clingendael Academy continued to invest in the development of partner training institutes, from the strategic to the practical level.
For Georgia’s Defence Institution Building School (DIBS), we interviewed institutional stakeholders on added value and shared goals. We supported their course package by co-delivering skill-based and substantive workshops on the EU and NATO as security actors. We supported staff development, worked on curriculum design and training of trainers and delivered a self-reflection tool on knowledge management and organisational learning to help DIBS sustain its successful institutional growth.
Continuing the partnership from previous years, Vietnam requested Clingendael to support its ambition to deliver training to a very large group of police and civil servants in preventing violations of international obligations against torture (UNCAT). Clingendael shared best practices on defining training audiences and needs, and designing effective curricula, supplying its partners with the tools to design effective training.
Clingendael supported many other worldwide partners in diplomatic training. We celebrated the 15th year of cooperation with the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute, which we helped establish in 2003. We also continued working with our strategic partners in Jakarta, the CET and the Diplomatic Academy in South Africa as well as with other established partners such as the IDFE in Tunis (negotiation training). We also worked with newer, developing or new partners of Clingendael – in Ramallah, Panama and Cuba, for Ukraine’s newly reformed Diplomatic Academy (curriculum development) and for the IDRI in Algiers (digital diplomacy and communication skills). Finally, support for Ethiopia’s Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute (EFRSSI) was broadened to include important partners, with trainings on security policy reporting and conflict analysis as well as other subjects.