Fragile Lives 2025
About the conference
Fragile Lives 2025 is the second edition of an annual international expert conference focused on using rigorous, scientific evidence to inform policy interventions in fragile, conflict-affected, and underdeveloped settings. It will take place on 30 September and 1 October 2025 at Humboldt University in Berlin. This year’s central theme is:
Gender, Institutions, Fragility
We will review the role of gender and institutions in the formation, functioning and impacts of fragility, insecurity, conflict and emergency. Gender is a key lens to understand how heterogeneous such experiences can be while also recognizing that gender interacts with other identities, such as age, ability, displacement status, or ethnicity.
Conference Program
Fragile Lives 2025 will once again feature a range of presentations and discussions on cutting-edge research and pressing policy challenges. To this end, we are hosting presentations in cooperation with Households in Conflict Network (HiCN), thereby creating a space for academics studying the micro-level impacts of conflict and fragility to present and discuss their ongoing work. Beyond these academic sessions, we are partnering with a range of donor, policy, and practice organizations for research-to-practice sessions on some of the most pressing crises the world is facing.
Keynote Speakers
Deputy Director of the United Nations World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Multi-country Impact Evaluation Specialist at UNICEF
Amber Peterman is an impact evaluation specialist with a focus on gender, violence, harmful practices & adolescent wellbeing with UNICEF. She is also affiliated with the Transfer Project and the Cash Transfer and Intimate Partner Violence Research Collaborative, and is a Center for Global Development (CGD) non-resident Fellow and a J-PAL affiliate. Her research provides methodological and policy-relevant evidence linking gender and development in resource-poor settings.
Featured Speakers
Ghassan Baliki
Director, Welfare Research Program, ISDC - International Security and Development Center
Tilman Brück
Professor of Development Economics and Food Security, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Team Leader, Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ)
Director, ISDC - International Security and Development Center
Sita Conklin
Director, Syria Resilience Initiative
Aissatou Maisha Dicko
Head of the World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (JDC)
Hala Elamin
Research Analyst, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Neil Ferguson
Director, Peacebuilding Research Program, ISDC - International Security and Development Center
Alessandra Garbero
Lead Economist, International Fund for Agricultural Development
Clemens Gros
Senior Adviser, Monitoring and Evaluation, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Sudhanshu Handa
Professor, Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel hill
Melissa Hidrobo
Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research institute (IFPRI)
Jonas Heirman
Head of Impact Evaluation Unit, World food programme (WFP)
Kyle Jacques
Monitoring and Evaluation Officer (Impact), United Nations
Patricia Justino
Deputy Director, UNu-wider
Steve Killelea
Founder & Executive Chairman, Institute for economics & Peace
Julia Koch de Biolley
Head of Task Force for Equality, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Karla Kröner
Communications and Research Associate, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI)
Sheree Kullenberg
Director - Design, Innovation and Learning, International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Andrej Kveder
Head of Survey Team, The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
Noura Mahmoud
Research and Business Development Manager, Raagsan Consulting
Under-Secretary-General Pramilla Patten
United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict
Amber Peterman
Multi-country Impact Evaluation Specialist, UNICEF
Elizaveta Perova
Senior Economist, World Bank, Poverty and Equity Global Practice
Paulina Rebolledo
Researcher, Isdc - International Security and Development Center
Marc Schattenmann
Director-General of the Central Directorate-General, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Elena Serfilippi
Research Director, Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA)
Julia Steets
Director, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI)
Wolfgang Stojetz
Director, Behavior Research Program, ISDC - International Security and Development Center
Paul Thissen
Senior Evaluation and Communication Specialist, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
Lame Ungwang
Postdoctoral researcher, isdc - international security and development center
Philip Verwimp
Research leader, KU Leuven
Professor of Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles
Stella Voutta
Director, Peace and Strategic Partnerships, Global Issues, Robert Bosch Stiftung
Jennifer Waidler
Evaluation Officer, World Food Programme (WFP)
Natalia Winder Rossi
UNICEF Representative to the Arab Republic of Egypt
Rocco Zizzamia
Lecturer, University of Oxford
Organizing Partners
Fragile Lives is hosted by a cooperation between Humboldt University of Berlin and Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), with support from ISDC - International Security and Development Center.
