Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate

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Strengthening the climate resilience of conflict-affected and vulnerable communities

17-19 July 2023

 

Entitled "Strengthening the climate resilience of conflict-affected and vulnerable communities", this year's edition of the Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate will convene a diverse group of practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and funders in Caux, Switzerland, from 17- 19 July 2023.

The Summer Academy will provide an opportunity to explore innovative solutions at the critical nexus of environmental degradation, climate change and conflict, and to build creative partnerships in the inspiring venue of the Caux Palace, with a more than 75-year track record of international trustbuilding.

The Summer Academy will take place concurrently with the Caux Forum 2023. The first Caux Forum conference Healing the Wounds of the Past (17 - 22 July 2023) aims to ‘create a new relationship with our natural environment’, and we are encouraging all our participants to engage and contribute fully with this inspiring event.

Please note that this event will be held in English (no translation).

 

Our Experts

 

 
Alan Channer square

ALAN CHANNER, Peacebuilding, Environment and Communications Specialist (France/UK)

Alan Channer is a project director, documentary film producer, writer and researcher on peacebuilding and the environment. He was a runner-up for the 2019 Bremen International Peace Prize; co-designer of a programme on 'pastoralist-farmer conflict transformation' in Nigeria which won a United Nations Intercultural Innovation Award in 2017; speaker at the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum; and producer of the award-winning film,The Imam and the Pastor, which premiered at the United Nations in 2006. Alan is a Senior Fellow of the Global EverGreening Alliance and on the Executive Committee of Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace. He began his career in tropical agricultural biology, carrying out research in China, Malawi, Tuvalu and Zimbabwe. He has worked on trustbuilding programmes in Cambodia, Chad, Kenya, Nigeria and UK, with UNDP, the US Institute of Peace, Initiatives of Change and other agencies.

 
 
Anna Brach

ANNA BRACH, Head of Human Security, Geneva Centre for Security Policy (Switzerland)

Anna Brach is Head of Human Security at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). Her work focuses on issues of environmental and health security with special emphasis on the climate change and security nexus. Her research interests include human security, human rights, environmental security, climate change, global public commons and resource management. She is responsible for developing and running the Human Security Cluster activities, including executive courses, workshops, and high-level conferences in Geneva and internationally. She is the Course Director for the European Security Course. Anna holds a Master's degree in Economy from the Warsaw School of Economics, a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and a Master’s degree in European Studies from the University of Geneva.  Prior to joining the GCSP, she worked for the private sector at the PR Department of Nestlé Poland in Warsaw and at Academy&Finance in Geneva. Her native language is Polish and she is fluent in English and French.
 
 
Louise Brown

LOUISE BROWN, Climate Finance Specialist (Namibia)

Louise Helen Brown is a climate finance expert based in Windhoek, Namibia. She is the recent founder of a small business, Triple Capital, which develops financial and economic solutions to environmental and social challenges. Previously, she coordinated the Africa Climate Change Fund, a grant-making fund for climate resilience at the African Development Bank. Prior to that she worked at the Green Climate Fund Secretariat supporting developing country institutions to access climate finance, at the World Resources Institute on climate change governance and finance, and at the Office of the President of Guyana as an environmental economist, through a fellowship with the Overseas Development Institute. 
 
 
 

What past participants said

I have sharpened my skills and knowledge around issues related to the nexus between land, security and climate. This enables me to add value to my work.

- Nkatha Kobia, Program Manager OikoDiplomatique -

 

Thank you so much for creating the safe space to think through the challenges of environmental security in our world today.

- NGO programme director, UK/Somalia -

 

A great exchange.

- FAO programme manager, Syria/Turkey -

 

A fantastic initiative; I am excited by where this is going and the potential to scale up and replicate solutions that have been tested at local level.

-  Africa Climate Change Fund Coordinator, African Development Bank -

 

I take these learnings very close to my heart in everything I do going forward.

- PhD student, Portugal -

 

The Summer Academy follows a decade-long series of Caux Dialogues on Environment and Security. The workshop is co-organised by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace and Triple Capital, in collaboration with the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.

 

Photo: Leela Channer

past conferences