Dear Friends,
We are pleased to send you the first electronic newsletter of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, Inc. We hope to use this bi-annual newsletter to share new program directions, discuss growing trends in peacebuilding, and update you on new Karuna Center programs. In this first edition, we have highlighted two program directions in our work and the field of peacebuilding: promoting conflict sensitive development and fostering civic engagement in post-conflict societies. We hope you will enjoy learning about these new programs.
In this issue:
- Promoting Conflict Sensitive Development in Mindinao, Philippines
- Citizens Leading the Way in Post-Conflict Societies
- 10th Anniversary of the CONTACT Program
Promoting Conflict Sensitive Development in Mindinao, Philippines
Promoting conflict sensitivity among development personnel in violence prone regions is a rising trend among peacebuilders, who have come to see the importance of frontline development workers with their direct access to local communities. Karuna Center considers this a critical aspect of conflict prevention and resolution and one that is likely to become more relevant as societies
gradually grow more aware of the earth's limited natural resources. Recently, KCP partnered with the Department of Agrarian Reform of the Philippine government in the violence-prone region of Mindanao to deliver a ten-day conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding training.
Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, is the ancestral home to the country's Muslim or Moro populations. Following decades-long land grab schemes and the subsequent influx of settlers to the region, the majority of Mindanao's population is now predominantly Christian, a regional issue that fuels the anger of poor and displaced Mindanaoan Muslims. Today, Mindanao also faces an additional challenge: growing pressure to develop, extract, and tap into the island's abundant natural resources is creating tensions and competition across ethnic boundaries.
The training emphasized the role of development personnel in promoting peaceful coexistence among groups in conflict and in managing the agro-business interests that threaten the well-being and livelihoods of the larger community. Participants were provided with methods to surface and manage conflict without violence and revenge. Karuna Center will continue to encourage their use of peacebuilding tools in the service of sustainable, equitable, and nonviolent development in Mindinao.
To read more about this program, please go to www.karunacenter.org/reports/philippinesjan06.pdf.
Citizens Leading the Way in Post-Conflict Societies
In places all over the world, citizens are playing large roles in the post-conflict development of their countries. Countries making a transition from autocratic or non-functioning governments into democratic systems are often vulnerable to conflict at this critical juncture. In 2006, Karuna Center has had the opportunity to work with civic leaders and representatives from non-governmental organizations as they develop the capacity and skills to foster civic engagement in the democratic process.
In April, Karuna Center led a seminar in conflict transformation for human rights activists in Kathmandu, Nepal. The seminar took place as an alliance of the seven political parties and the Maoists made preparations for a general strike that would effectively shut down the country in protest against the increasingly autocratic rule of Nepali King Gyanendra. The seminar quickly became a living laboratory for participants who shuttled between the seminar and the streets, developing strategies to maintain a peaceful protest and applying theory to immediate needs. The citizens of Nepal remained on the streets in protest until a compromise could be brokered to allow the parliament to be reinstated.
Today, Nepal is about to embark on a constitutional reform process that includes the election of a constituent assembly tasked with revising the country's constitution. In late August, Karuna Center will again travel to Nepal to lead a workshop for peacebuilders on the best practices for constituent assemblies based on the experience of other countries (including South Africa, Bolivia, and Rwanda) in their constitutional reform efforts.
A strong, independent civil society is essential to the development of healthy democracies, and this is especially true in Palestine where the challenges to fledging democratic institutions are immense. In July, Karuna Center provided a seminar on social change and youth leadership for its partner, the Ma'an Development Center and other NGO representatives. Our participants were especially interested in the challenge of developing more collaborative styles of leadership within Palestinian society and utilizing more horizontal forms of power, recognizing that both in traditional Palestinian family structures and under past political leadership decision making has tended to be very top-down. They also saw the constructive engagement of youth as absolutely critical to a peaceful future.
Our time in Ramallah coincided with the events that sparked the recent escalation of violence in the Middle East, the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier followed by the bombing and disabling of Gaza's only power plant, the incursion of Israeli tanks, and the arrest of Hamas parliamentarians and officials in government ministries. We were deeply impressed that despite these conditions our participants were not at all consumed by frustration or bitterness. Instead, they seemed very focused on what they can do to build a more vibrant, proactive and transparent civil society in Palestine, knowing how important that is to creating the conditions in which peace and democracy can succeed.
To read more about Karuna's recent trip to Nepal, please go to www.karunacenter.org/reports/nepalapril06.pdf and to read more about Karuna Center's recent trip to Palestine, please go to: www.karunacenter.org/reports/palestinejul06.pdf.
10th Anniversary of the CONTACT Program
In late May, more than 60 people representing 30 nations gathered for the 10th Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (CONTACT) program run by the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, VT. CONTACT Founder and Karuna Center Executive Director, Paula Green, was pleased to welcome the newest class of students, saying "Now more than ever, we are called as citizen activists from all parts of the world to build webs of understanding, tolerance and compassion, counteracting the stereotypes that incite violence, increase fear and undermine efforts toward peace."
The CONTACT program was founded in 1997 to train peacebuilders who will carry out the work of conflict prevention and resolution in the next generation. Karuna Center staff also serve as faculty members of the CONTACT program and certificate program. For more information on the CONTACT program at the School for International Training, please go to: http://sit.edu/contact
The Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, Inc. is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. Founded in 1994 to address the growing global challenge of ethnic, religious, and political conflict, Karuna Center today has conducted programs in more than twenty countries around the world. To learn more about the Karuna Center, please visit our website at: www.karunacenter.org.
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