• The Interface of Human Rights and Humanitarian Action
• The Economic Dimensions of Violence
• Strengthening Local Communities
• The Diplomatic Dimension: Search for Coherence

• 4 practitioners currently/recently working in the DRC
• 1 practitioner currently/recently working with the issue in another country (preferably Somalia)
• 1 scholarly expert on the issue
• 1 scholarly expert specialized in the location (DRC)
• 2 moderators from Fletcher/Tufts with knowledge of the issue

On Day 1 of the Conference, participants will give a short public presentation: they will respond to and elaborate on a discussion paper prepared by the organizers of the conference, which summarizes the key issues and policies.

On day 2, participants will work behind closed doors, seeking to produce realistic, scientifically grounded, policy proposals. They also will organize the public presentation of the results of these discussions on the last day of the conference (Student assistance will be available to assist with photocopying, transparencies, Powerpoint presentations, etc.)

On the final day of the conference, a selected audience of policymakers will be invited to assist at a public presentation of the results of the discussions of the previous days, and to in turn discuss these results. We will target senior people in the relevant agencies –bilateral agencies (Development Cooperation + State departments, desks dealing with refugees, human rights, the DRC or the Great Lakes region), UN (UNDP, UNHCR, OCHA, and others), and NGOs. Because of proximity, we expect to get more people located in the US and Canada, but we will invite people from Europe as well.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	Practitioner preparation time	Practitioner preparation time	Public presentation sessions - theme 1 - theme 2	Breakout groups for all 4 themes	"Augmented" public sessions - theme 1 - theme 2
Afternoon	Practitioner preparation time	Practitioner preparation time Evening: Opening Talk + Reception	Public presentation sessions - theme 3 - theme 4	Breakout groups for all 4 themes	"Augmented" public sessions - theme 3 - theme 4

To ensure that the Conference achieves its objectives, the organizers will:

• Prepare a short discussion paper for each of the four workshops, outlining the major questions to be addressed. This will also include a set of documents of relevance to each theme. This will be sent to participants at least one month before the conference, allowing them time to begin thinking about their contribution to the workshop.
• Invite the practitioners to come to Fletcher 2 days earlier and provide them with time to work on these matters beforehand, as well as arrange a few person-to-person or group preparatory discussion meetings. This should ensure that the practitioners participate in these discussions at a high level and on equal footing with the scholars, who may have had more time to prepare their presentations.
• Provide them with a personal research assistant throughout the duration of the conference (an MA student at either the Fletcher School or the Nutrition School)