Introduction
Even though global challenges are more widespread than ever before, funding and support for international cooperation is under pressure.
How can you prepare your organization for this challenging future, and how can you integrate the latest (social) scientific advances into your policy and programming?
Practical information
- Start date
- Tuesday 1 Sep 2026
- Price
- Euro 2450
- Area of interest
- Education & Research Methods, Management & Entrepreneurship, Society, Culture & Philosophy, Sustainability & Transitions
- Micro Credential
- No
- Teaching mode
- Hybrid
Who is this for?
This executive hybrid course of 8 two-hour sessions, with a maximum group size of 15-20 people, is intended for:
- Managers, leaders, strategists, M&E specialists, business developers of aid agencies, donors, NGOs, consultancies, philanthropies and think tanks
- Those with at least 10 years of experience in development
- Directors, management team, and board members
For which types of organizations?
- Donor agencies
- International NGOs
- International think tanks
- Philanthropic foundations (e.g. company & family foundations)
- Consultancy organizations working on development
- International development banks
In 8 sessions, you will learn to strategize to increase the international impact of your organization.
The ISS Leadership Programme offers the latest evidence evidence and an appropriate learning environment for senior professionals and policy makers, working on issues as diverse as climate change, migration and humanitarian action.
You will be stimulated to drive change in your organization to make use of these insights. The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre is closely engaged in the design execution of the programme, to link together questions of relief and resilience, preparation and vulnerability, and development and risk.
Some practical information
- Preparation per session: approximately 2 hours
- Teaching material will be provided as part of the programme
- At the end you will receive a certificate of participation from the International Institute of Social Studies
- Participants get access to the ISS alumni network
- Participants can bring a colleague to one course session
Course materials
The training book for this Leadership Programme is Foreign Aid and its Unintended Consequences by Professor Dirk-Jan Koch, published in 2024 by Routledge.
The book is included in the course price - you do not need to buy it yourself. If accepted to the course, we will send you the book by post.
In addition, we have developed knowledge video clips that you can watch in your own time before the online sessions.
Sessions overview
Date: Tuesday 1 September
Time: 15:00-17:30
Location: Hybrid - participants based in NL expected to be present in-person
Key concepts of complexity and system-change thinking, such as interconnectivity, non-linearity feedback loops, alternative impact pathways and adaptive agents, will be explained.
The central questions are:
- How can complexity thinking strengthen the impact of your organization?
- Can you raise funds with system-change thinking, and if so: how?
We embrace this complexity & system-change thinking without being naive about how to make it practically possible within the tight reputational, financial and fiduciary organizational boundaries.
And which monitoring and evaluation systems actually embrace, instead of ignore, this complexity ?
Date: Tuesday 15 September
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: Online
International development, be it the humanitarian, peacebuilding or development field, is under attack, both financially and ideologically.
How to disentangle the long-term trends from the ephemeral events ? And how to position your organization, even your sector, in these challenging times?
Date: Tuesday 6 October
Time: 15:00-17:30
Location: Online
Donors and aid agencies are often surprised when local populations and leaders are critical about international development efforts.
This session focuses on the questions:
- What explains this mistrust towards inter-national development actors and what can organisations about it?
- Can ‘decolonizing development’ and ‘shifting the power’ address a legitimacy crisis?
Date: Tuesday 27 October
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: Hybrid - participants based in NL expected to be present in-person
The link between the risk of a destructive disaster, and the range of societal vulnerabilities, requires an interdisciplinary approach to building resilience in an organization, company or social grouping.
- Can future disasters, whether related to a changing climate, health outbreak or industrial safety, be mitigated in advance?
- How can we work to build the coping mechanisms of people, households, sectors and polities?
We’ll look at unintended consequences of developments, how (socio-economic) pressure builds and releases and how a whole-of-society approach can build better public safety, no matter the risk profile of a country or context.
Date: Tuesday 10 November
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: Online
Humanitarianism is undergoing multiple seismic shifts: deep budgetary cuts on the one hand and localization on the other , while at the same time the core concept of ‘neutrality’ is being rethought.
Internationally renowned Professor Hilhorst will guide you through the main dilemmas and help to you strategize the future of your organization and how societies manage, adapt to and build from crises.
Date: Tuesday 24 November
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: Online
While the United States is actively aiming to prevent a follow-up of the 2030 agenda, the Chinese government would like to further techocratize it and take out the last elements that refer to political openness.
How can the rest of the world help to counter these forces and ensure that a post-2030 Agenda is focused on just transitions, equity and better life outcomes for the majority?
Date: Tuesday 8 December
Time: 15:00-17:30
Location: Hybrid - participants based in NL expected to be present in-person
International development aims to set in motion the process of endogenous change to create ripple effects across space and time. Spillover effects can be geographic and thematic.
The key questions are:
- How can spillovers be simulated more by your organization and what is your role in this?
- How can private finance be mobilized without compromising on the mission of your organization?
Date: Thursday 10 September
Time: 15:00-17:30
Location: Hybrid - participants based in NL expected to be present in-person
For this session you will prepare one initiative (inspired by the ISS leadership sessions) that you would like to propose in your organisation.
We will jointly analyse the proposal and strengthen it.
Start date
The ISS Leadership Programme consists of 4 face-to-face workshops in the Hague (2.5 hours – digital participation also possible) and 4 online sessions (1.5 hours). Full remote participation is hence possible.
Testimonials
Instructors
Professor Dirk-Jan KochCourse leader
Dirk-Jan is Network Professor International Development Practices at the Institute of Social Studies. He is also the director of the Advisory Council of International Affairs of the Dutch government. He aims to bridge the gap between policy, academia and practice by balancing it himself.Email address
Professor Thea HilhorstExpert in development in areas affected by disaster, conflict or fragility, with a special focus on aid-society relations: the impact of humanitarian aid on society and the ways in which people and institutions shape the organisation of aid relations.Email address- Guest lecturersBased on the composition and requests of the group, three guest lecturers from the pool of researchers at ISS and the Humanitarian Studies Centre will also teach some sessions.
Contact
Jessica Pernozzoli
Course administrator
- Email address
- shortcourses@iss.nl
Facts & Figures
- Start date
- Tuesday 1 Sep 2026
- Price
- Euro 2450
There is a 10% discount for alumni of the International Institute of Social Studies.
- Tax
- Excluding 21% tax
- Micro Credential
- No
- Instruction language
- English
- Teaching mode
- Hybrid
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
- Programme provider
- International Institute of Social Studies
