As we enter a new year of the Development Policies & Practices—Conflict and Fragility Management (CFM) Programme at the end of the month, we say goodbye to Margaux Pinaud, who has served as Academic Coordinator since 2021. Margaux brought her wealth of experience and expertise to the programme and has guided many participants through graduation. She also played a key role in the successful transition of the CFM Programme from Bishkek to Doha, in partnership with Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She will be greatly missed!

This year, we are pleased to continue our collaboration with the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) and to welcome our new Academic Coordinator, Sirine El Halabi. A former Rotary Peace Research Fellow, Sirine brings over 10 years of experience in the humanitarian–peacebuilding–development nexus, with a background in diplomacy, programme coordination, and academic leadership. She is currently writing her PhD with the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, on the role of higher education in shaping women’s experience of empowerment in post-conflict settings in the Levant region.

In the coming months, participants will benefit from her commitment to fostering collaborative learning environments and building on the strong foundation established in recent years.

Get to know Sirine through our short interview below.

Could you share a bit about your personal and professional journey, and how it aligns with the mission of the Conflict and Fragility Management (CFM) programme?

Growing up in Lebanon, a country marked by conflict, fragmentation, and deep-rooted inequalities, shaped my worldview and my life’s purpose. I come from a family that experienced the harsh realities of war firsthand, where education was not just valued but fiercely fought for. This has instilled in me a sense of duty to use every opportunity to contribute to a more just and peaceful world.

This commitment has driven my academic and professional journey. I studied at the American University of Beirut, pursued a Rotary Peace Research Fellowship in Tokyo, and am now working on my PhD focused on gender, higher education, and post-conflict empowerment. I’ve also spent over eight years working in the humanitarian and development sector across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia-Pacific, leading programmes that support marginalised communities, evaluate impact, and strengthen resilience in fragile settings.

The mission of the Conflict and Fragility Management (CFM) programme resonates deeply with me, and this role feels like a natural extension of my work and research. It is an opportunity to contribute to a global conversation on building more responsive, equitable, and resilient societies.

What motivated you to take on the role of Academic Coordinator for the CFM programme, and which aspects of the programme are you most excited to work on this year?

The Academic Coordinator role felt like a very unique opportunity to work at the intersection of research, education, and practice within spaces that are actively engaging in global approaches to conflict and fragility. I strongly believe in the potential of academic spaces to serve as catalysts for more just and inclusive systems.

What excites me most this year is being part of a programme that brings together such a diverse and experienced cohort of professionals. I’m especially looking forward to curating learning experiences that are not only academically rigorous but also deeply grounded in the lived realities of those working in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit of the programme offers immense potential for creative thinking, cross-regional, and cross-sectoral dialogue, something I find both inspiring and urgently needed in today’s world.

What kind of learning environment or educational approach do you hope to foster for CFM participants?

Beyond delivering content, my goal is to create space for critical dialogue, mutual learning, and knowledge exchange that challenges assumptions and deepens understanding. I also believe in the power of co-creation, where participants are not just learners, but contributors shaping the direction and relevance of the programme.

Ultimately, I want this programme and educational experience to be more than just an intellectually engaging academic milestone for the participants. I hope it becomes a personally and professionally transformative journey for each one of them.

In your view, what role can executive education play within the humanitarian–development–peacebuilding nexus?

Executive education can play a quiet but powerful role within the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding nexus. When done right, it creates space for critical reflection away from the urgency of the field, space to pause, reimagine, and recalibrate. For professionals navigating complex, often overwhelming realities, this kind of learning can help connect the dots between policy and practice, global frameworks and local lived experience.

For me, it’s not just about transferring or receiving knowledge, it’s about cultivating a shared ability to ask deeper questions, challenge prevailing narratives, and co-create systems that are more inclusive, responsive, and aligned with the needs of today’s world. In that sense, executive education becomes not just a tool for skill-building but a space for rethinking how we show up as practitioners, as leaders, and as allies in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

I still carry with me moments from my time as a Rotary Peace Fellow in Tokyo: seminar rooms filled with practitioners from every corner of the world, each of us coming from vastly different conflict realities, yet united by the same urgency to make sense of the systems we work within. What struck me most in these moments wasn’t a particular theory or reading, but the pause — the rare opportunity to step back from the rush of deadlines and crises, and to listen, really listen, to one another’s lived experiences. That space, reflective, honest, and a bit uncomfortable at times, shifted how I understood my role in the field. It reminded me that real learning doesn’t always give us neat and straightforward answers, but gives us sharper questions and the courage to ask them. That, to me, is the quiet power of executive education, which is why I believe so deeply in creating space for it.

---

More information about the Conflict and Fragility Management programme on executive.graduateinstitute.ch/conflict