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Conflict management and federalism – workshop series
This initiative works to reduce conflict within communities by educating their leadership figures in methods for obtaining peace through awareness, negotiation and reconciliation. The community leaders are taken on a field tour and take part in a training and workshop programme to educate them on methods they could employ to keep conflict at bay within their own villages.
Description
The funded period of the initiative started in 2005 August and ended in December the same year. This initiative focused on providing in-depth knowledge on conflict identifying, managing, transforming, power sharing and federalism to people in leadership positions in different areas through residential programs and facilitating them to apply this knowledge in conflict areas through field trips.
Aims / Objectives
The initiative aimed to give people in society leadership positions theoretical and practical knowledge on identifying a conflict to its successful transformation. Being in leadership roles of the community, the participants of the initiative play the role of an opinion maker in their communities. Therefore the skills they receive through this initiative, and their attitude changes, about positive methods of conflict transformation have a positive impact upon the community. Further, they are often approached by community to solve their problems and this knowledge can be used in such circumstances.
How it is Articulated
The initiative consists of a workshop series and a field experience tour. Participants for the initiative are key persons from the three districts of Ratnapura, Monaragala and Hambantota, who are in community leadership roles, such as being religious clergy, teachers, provincial council leaders, labour union and student union leaders and women’s group leaders. Altogether 300 people were selected for the initiative. Three day residential programs were conducted to each group to give them more awareness on conflict transformation with the participation of lecturers from universities and peace building activists. For the field component, 60 people from these groups were selected as a representatives from different areas and were taken to taken to Trincomalee, a war affected area to gain practical exposure to conflict situations.
Achievements / Learning Points
This was the first time the participants were introduced to alternative non-violent strategies of solving conflicts. Therefore this was a completely new and mind-opening experience to them. Further, they got the opportunity to apply the concepts they learnt in their own situations. This enabled them to have more awareness on how they behave in their personal life in responding to conflicts. This awareness and sensitivity enabled them to understand the patterns of the conflict in the country, thereby motivating them to find solutions for it and ways of contributing to transform the conflict. This group of people are working with us even today and stand up for a federal solution to the ethnic conflict in their communities, stating that openly and encouraging more people to study about federalism.
Through this initiative we have learnt that the impact made by workshops last longer among community leaders than politicians or other groups since they are more likely to apply what they learn to their practical life. Therefore it is beneficial to conduct awareness programs on topics on possible solutions to the ethnic conflict such as different types of federalism in rural areas, since these people’s vote plays a major role in deciding the outcome of the conflict. The initiative would have been even more effective if the participants could have had more training to develop them as peace advocates, who can independently initiate peace building initiatives in their communities. If the organisation has sufficient funds they would be able to bring in people to train future peace advocates.
Geographical Area of Operation
Ratnapura, Monaragala and Hambanthota districts
Funding Resources
USAID
Stories
In the workshop, some participants were very much against the concept that Tamils face problems in Sri Lanka. For the exposure program, we selected the people who were most passionate about this, hoping that seeing the actual situations in which Tamils in the war affected areas live might help them to be more open and understanding. When we visited the refugee camps, these people were so moved by the state in which the refugees have been living for the past 10-15 years. A participant who objected most during the workshop used all the money he had with him at that moment to buy biscuits for the Tamil children in the refugee camp.
Further, during this journey, they happened to meet an Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam youth in his early 20’s who talked about the reasons he joined LTTE, his passion for the vision it gives him and showed them the cyanide capsule he has around his neck, stating his willingness to sacrifice his life any moment for the furthering of that vision if the need arises. These incidents increased the sensitivity of the participants very much and moved them towards understanding the ethnic conflict from another perspective.