Overview

Objectives

  • Deepen understanding of sexual violence dynamics, its root causes and contributing factors, and its impacts on individuals and communities
  • Conceive safe and ethical multi-sectoral interventions centered on victims/survivors’ rights, needs and wishes
  • Design activities contributing to sexual violence risk mitigation and prevention

Audience

This course is intended for:
- mid-level and senior humanitarian managers currently working directly
with victims/survivors of sexual violence or providing technical advice to or supervision of such programmes
- other participants with relevant experience and expertise may be accepted if space is available

Programme

  • Core concepts and introduction to a Survivor-Centred Approach
  • Survivors Voices and Networks
  • Ethics and Methods of Data Gathering
  • Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys
  • Medical Care
  • Pregnancy as a result of rape
  • Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
  • Access to Justice
  • Prevention and Risk Mitigation

Registration

Registration deadline

24 May 2026

Fees:

  • Full price: CHF 1’700 
  • Partner rate (MSF, ICRC): CHF 1’360 (20% discount) 
  • Special Rate: CHF 850 (50% discount). Available exclusively to nationals or staff from local/national NGOs, CBOs, government, INGOs, or IOs in low/middle-income countries (OECD DAC list) with salaries aligned to local living costs. Proof required.
  • Application form for partial tuition waivers
  • No scholarships are available.

Admission criteria

  • A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a Swiss or foreign university 
  • At least three years of relevant professional experience 
  • Excellent command of English* 

*Documents and language requirements for Executive Short Courses 

 

Number of participants

The number of participants is adapted to the chosen pedagogy

Application File

  • CV (Resume) 
  • Cover letter (explaining what is the reason why you apply for this course and how will the acquired skills help you in your career) 
  • Employer’s funding agreement, if applicable 
  • Partial tuition fee waiver form, if applicable 
  • Highest educational qualification obtained 
  • Work certificate or official document of your current job position 
  • Proof of English language competence to be dated less than 2 years (see details below) 
  • Portrait photo (ID format) 
  • Scanned copy of the passport 

More information about the application process is available on our admissions page.

Cancellation Policy

Please consult our cancellation policy.

Curriculum

Period

15 June 2026 - 17 July 2026

Credits

2 ECTS credits

Teaching hours

50 distance teaching hours
Sexual violence in Eastern Africa remains a pressing humanitarian challenge, deeply rooted in conflict and emergency settings. This Executive Short Course addresses the urgent need to equip mid- and senior-level humanitarian managers with advanced knowledge and skills to develop survivor-centred, multisectoral interventions. Held in Nairobi, the course integrates regional evidence and expert insights to foster contextually appropriate and ethical responses. At this critical moment, strengthening local and regional capacities is essential to enhance humanitarian effectiveness and uphold survivors’ rights.

Partnerships / Collaboration

Partnership

The course is delivered in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), Refugee Law Project (RLP), Utu Wetu Trust, UNHCR and in collaboration with local and regional expert organisations, survivor-led community organisations, and academic scholars.

Testimonial

“I was fortunate enough to be part of this course as we are setting up gender and sexual violence response and prevention activities in Borno state, Nigeria. This has meant that I could already feed in some of the learnings into the activity design.  As a result of the course, we will, for instance, be implementing more comprehensive support to survivors than previously planned to respond in a more tailor-made way to the needs of each survivor. This course has motivated me to continue seeking ways to improve and extend our programming to support survivors of sexual violence and prevent it from occurring where possible. Within my organisation, sexual violence programming is still marginal compared to other sectors. Still, I intend to advocate internally for increased resource allocation to this often underfunded area and strengthen our organisational capacity.”

Alexander Gnädinger, Programme Manager

Testimonial

The content and the course organisation, as well as the facilitation, were very impressive. Presenters addressed their topics in a pedagogical way tailored to adult training and learning needs. Sexual violence in conflict settings and emergencies and in times of peace should be seriously considered. It has several negative impacts on the lives of individuals, whether males or females and communities. It destroys the social fabric and cohesion of communities. As humanitarian workers, we need to be aware of that and anticipate that sexual violence might happen anywhere and anytime. I was very satisfied with the training. This is a key course that should be offered to all humanitarian actors, not only those working specifically on Sexual violence.

Marietou Dia, Sexual Violence Regional Advisor for Africa, ICRC

Testimonial

“Having facilitators who are experts in the field, not only in knowledge but also in practice, was key to my learning.”

Course participant

Testimonial

“The course was an eye-opener. I interacted with so many practitioners, which was important because we [researchers] make policy recommendations and
must interact meaningfully with those actors who interact routinely with survivors. We often do not have these engagements.
I would definitely recommend this course to researchers on sexual violence in humanitarian settings”.

Course participant

Testimonial

“The course reminded me of the importance of tackling the topic of sexual violence with no preconceptions about its prevalence in a given context, who it affects and what survivors need and want. Preconceived ideas can lead professionals to miss or misunderstand important elements. The course also reminded me of the importance of creating spaces for survivors to speak and of taking the time to listen to them to understand their experience and better address their needs.”                                                                                                                                                                             

Layla Clément, Human Rights Professional and Investigator

Testimonial

“Looking solely at a (potential) individual victim is fundamentally incomplete. There is a need to adopt a multi-survivor programming and consider the negative implications of those victimised, be they male or female, on their spouses, children and, in fact, communities.“

Anastasiia Doroshenko, Protection Delegate,  Danish Red Cross, Sudan

Testimonial

“Listening to the survivor leaders about their needs and wants, about what they think about the humanitarian aid and what we are providing also opened my eyes to several things: some support can only be provided by the community, and we could put more resources to facilitate this. The aid we provide sometimes doesn’t meet the needs and wants of the survivors, because it is based on what we think they need, and we can only understand this by listening to them.”

Course participant.

Director(s)

Prof. Karl BLANCHET, Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, University of Geneva

Coordinator(s)

Marta PAWLAK, Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, Geneva

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development

FAQ