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Contact
Contact is a coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations created with the purpose of accumulating and disseminating knowledge on conflict and conflict transformation.
Description
The initiative started in 2004 with seventeen NGOs working in different areas of the country including Galle, Jaffna, Colombo, Kandy, Mannar, Nuwara Eliya, Puttlam Ratnapura and Trincomalee and is continuing today. The target group is individuals working in peace-building with local people at a community level.
The initiative sends field activists to conflict areas to study the root causes of that conflict, the factors affecting it, and the behaviour of the various actors directly before and after the conflict.
This research aims to identify patterns that can be studied and used to recognise emerging conflict situations and prevent them flaring up into full-scale conflict.
Aims / Objectives
The initiative aims to discern causes for the outbreak of conflict and the behaviour patterns of actors in conflict situations which may be observed from the perspective of field activists.
It accumulates and disseminates information learned from these situations in order to help prevent the violent escalation of future conflicts in other contexts.
Further, it aims to disseminate information about conflict transformation processes in other parts of the world with the intention of learning from, and applying them to the Sri Lankan context if possible.
How it is Articulated
The Contact coalition selection committee nominates between five and seven people from its member organisations to be sent to a conflict area, the committee takes into consideration all factors relevant to the area in question when nominating these individuals (such as location, ethnicity, religion, and language).
The nominated agents then personally visit the conflict area, staying in the community whilst studying the conflict to discern root causes, factors affecting it, and the behaviour of actors before and after the conflict.
This information helps the coalition to identify patterns in emerging conflicts which enables them to recognise and address conflicts in their early stages.
The information they collect is made available to organisations and people who work for conflict transformation through print media.
Achievements / Learning Points
Through this initiative we have been able to identify the real reasons behind conflicts. This is largely because the initiative takes a very much community-based approach: gathering data by being with the people in the community, and discussing the issues with them at their own level, in their own language.
This information is a support to organisations from other areas and countries that work in the conflict area, as the initiative provides them with information directly relating to the unique contexts of each conflict.
Our conclusions relating to the operation of the project thus far are that we can gather accurate information from people easily if we are open to listen to them. Further, we can solve problems if we have the commitment to work with them. Finally, we have learnt that – even when researching – it is important to make changes in our initial plan depending on developments in the context and situation on the ground.
Our more general thoughts on conflict are that ground level conflicts between people and ethnicities will cease to a major extent when the people involved develop to a satisfactory socio-economic level.
Funding Resources
'FLICT'- Facilitating Leadership Initiatives in Conflict Transformation
Organisations Involved
17 NGOs from all around the country