The Justice Based Approach is the only holistic approach to development and humanitarian work that responds to an age of rising authoritarianism, plummeting funding, and lost trust in human rights. We need resilient organisations with preplaced resources, visionary leaders, and inspired teams that have the new skills to go beyond our current approaches. This celebrated interactive curriculum provides theory, practice, case studies, tools, and discussions with fellow participants and facilitators from around the world that will revolutionize the way you work on humanitarian, development, social change, and environmental justice initiatives in ways that will impact both your work and your life.
As we face a time of intense and rapid change, we must create space to step back and consider some of the most pressing issues facing the world. This course will explore new approaches, real life examples, tools, and perspectives that will re-energize you with new knowledge and skills, as well as renewed hope and direction.
THE ESSENTIALS
- Course length: 7 weeks
- Time commitment: 6-7 hours per week, except first week
- Week 1.
- Live session: 2 hours, for orientation
- Weeks 2 – 7.
- Live sessions: 6 hours per week, every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours each
- Self-guided: up to 1 hour per week
- Optional sessions: Monday for networking, Friday for reflection, plus additional Q&A
- Week 1.
- Subsidised Price: $595 USD per person
- Groups of 10+: $535 USD per person
- Language: English
- Delivery method: Live participatory online sessions | Interactive online learning tools | Small team discussions | Online forum | 1-2-1 with Facilitators | Self-led learning and reflection | Facilitator Q&As | 10+ optional group events such as networking, film screenings, weekly regional reflections, and panel discussions
- Next course dates: May 2 – June 12 or August 29 – 9 October, 2025
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THE COURSE
With a Justice Based Approach, we reflect on why — after 25 years of rights-based approaches — inequality, environmental destruction, oppression, and impunity are bigger challenges than ever before. We will critically challenge and explore many assumptions about methodology and practice in the following areas:
- All Five Pillars of the Justice Based Approach
- Power and oppression
- Strategic and personal leadership
- Effective programme design
- Development theory and history
- Evidence-based decision-making
- Participatory approaches
- System analysis
- Localization and decolonizing aid
- Rights-based programming
- Monitoring and evaluation for learning
- Ethical programming and accountability
- Climate and gender mainstreaming
We will also explore a number of innovative and exciting alternative approaches to social and environmental change that you can apply to your work. The course will challenge you, inspire you and give you the tools to support communities and partners to lead change that is truly transformative.
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THE APPROACH
Our style of online delivery creates genuine human connection, facilitates deeply reflective and thoughtful discussions, and leads to real impact and effectiveness.
The course uses mixed methodologies including participatory live sessions, interactive online tools, reflection, movement, games, small group discussions, an online forum, and self-led learning and reflection. Our facilitators run weekly Q&A sessions and you have the opportunity to book one-to-one calls with them throughout the course. We also send inspiring, short daily emails with additional resources for those that want more!
Each week we also offer a variety of optional sessions to dive deeper into some of the key themes of the course, to have fun and get to know each other better. Previous sessions have included panel discussions, regional meetups, hackathons, and film screenings.
Our Facilitators are joined by a global group of Team Leaders, all of whom have completed the course previously and are experts in their field. They support small groups during the course to explore the themes in more depth during team discussions.
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THE PARTICIPANTS
The course is for every humanitarian, development, social change, or environmental justice worker. It’s for organisations and individuals, governments, activists, businesses, unions, leaders, thinkers, doers – anyone working for change.
A highlight of the course for many participants is the opportunity to connect with and learn from people from across the world. Our last round of courses had participants from over 70 countries!
We welcome participants from all levels of organizations and from diverse departments to the course, which creates a rich mix of experience and perspectives. We encourage senior staff to join the course with their teams. The course will be conducted in English.
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ACCESS & INCLUSION
We take great care to create a safe and welcoming space for all of our course participants. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to ensure that anyone with an additional need is able to participate. If you have any additional needs or access requirements please let us know on your booking form.
How to Apply:
Register here as soon as possible to secure your place before it fills up: https://united-edge.typeform.com/to/DabuyH
If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch or email info@unitededge.net
