Inclusive Societies, Conflict Prevention, Reconciliation, and Sustainable Peace Workshop

Program Overview

Throughout the last few decades, a number of countries have experienced substantial human development. Extreme Poverty has been cut in half on a global scale. The frequency of interstate armed conflicts has been declining while the democratic style of governance has been on the rise.

Although the above is true, alongside extraordinary progress in economic growth, novel transnational threats and challenges have been originating, resulting in an increasingly fragile world. Climate Change, Pandemic Diseases, Increased Disparities in Wealth, Urbanization, Empowered Extremism, and Social unrest have fostered other forms of instability. The gap between governments’ institutional capabilities and citizens’ expectations have long been widening, threatening the world’s hard-earned development gains and relative stability.

Both the history and recent events suggest that fragility can affect any country or state regardless of their background. Locally confined tensions can become regionalized or even globalized. Thus, the boundaries between conflict and non-conflict countries are getting more and more blurry, calling for a different approach to building sustainable peace and inclusive societies.

This 5-days’ workshop is based on a thorough understanding of renewed relationships and changing landscapes as well as the role of mutual respect and dialogue in conflict prevention and long-term peacekeeping. Risalat Strives to equip program participants with detailed apprehension of Sustainable Peace and its pillars as well as essential skills for establishing lasting relations between civil society, the private sector, and the governments at local, national, and international levels.

Target Audience

This program is the best suit for:

• Governmental Officials
• Members of NGOs and Development Agencies
• Development Project Team Members
• Sustainability Consultants
• Public Servants
• Conflict Management Professionals
• Anybody interested in sustainable peacebuilding.

Program Objectives

Upon the successful completion of this extensive workshop, the participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed understanding of conflict prevention, transformation, and sustainable peacebuilding
• Perform conflict analysis and apply corresponding tools and techniques
• Comprehend the complexity of violent conflicts and employ appropriate methods to approach them
• Appreciate the importance of social inclusion in peacebuilding and understand the barriers to inclusive peace
• Bridge the gap between the communities and formal processes
• Understand social cohesion and its relevancy to reconciliation initiatives.

Program Contents

First Day

• The history and the foundations of Justice and Peacebuilding
• Changing Landscape – Peace in the Modern World
• Understanding Conflicts
• The stages of Conflicts
• Conflict Analysis, Its key elements, and tools
• Identifying Conflict Sources, actors, and their interests.

Second Day

• Conflict Transformation
• Visioning Peace and Peacebuilding
• Peace and Dialogue Architectures
• The complexity of Violent Conflicts
• Peacemaking and Peace Agreements
• Civil Society and Inclusive Peace
• Barriers and Challenges to Inclusive Peace (Structural, Process, Internal).

Third Day

• Effective Inclusion Strategies
• Bridging Between communities and formal processes
• Creating an enabling environment for inclusion
• Peacebuilding responses
• Conflict Responding Methods
• Social Cohesion and Peacebuilding.

Fourth Day

• Reconciliation and its pillars
• Reconciliation and Social Cohesion Initiatives
• Uptake of conflict analysis
• Conflict-Sensitive Peacebuilding
• Integrating Justice and Peacebuilding
• Peacebuilding program design and the theories of change
• Measuring Peacebuilding: frameworks, indicators, and challenges
• Peacebuilding action plan.

Fifth Day

Full-Day Study and Exposure Tour in the Host Country – Studying the Peacebuilding Strategy and Practices of Ethiopia.

The Exposure Includes:

• Overview of Peacebuilding History and Practices in Ethiopia
• Introduction to Current Challenges for Sustainable Peacebuilding in Ethiopia
• Overview of Governmental and Non-state Actors that contribute to Inclusive Societies and Peacebuilding Processes in Ethiopia
• Meetings with the Representatives of Governments and NGOs who participate in peacekeeping processes and policy setting.

Briefly About Ethiopia and Its Path towards Sustainable Peacebuilding

Ethiopia is one of those African countries that have recorded impressive economic growth over the last couple of decades. The state is among the fastest movers of human development. Along with economic flourishment, Ethiopia has been placing significant emphasis on reorienting its trajectory and promoting more equitable and inclusive growth with consistent efforts towards ensuring peace and security. The country has been avoiding and preventing several sporadic conflicts in the selected parts of its territory while facing multiple complex and multidimensional triggers.

Ethiopia is an island of relative peace in a troubled neighborhood, that often spills crisis and instability into the peripheral parts of the country. The causes of unrest come in the face of regional border conflicts, ethnic clashes, religious, and natural resource conflicts. Although Ethiopia still has a long way to go towards creating fully sustainable peacekeeping practices, the country has a lot to share and teach to those with similar challenges. Institutions both on governmental and non-state levels have accumulated valuable knowledge and practices while progressing towards forming inclusive societies and reconciliation techniques.

Program Methodology

Inclusive Societies, Conflict Prevention, Reconciliation and, Sustainable Peace Workshop in Inclusive Societies, Conflict Prevention, Reconciliation, and Sustainable Peace Workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has a strategic focus on the practical appliance of the material discussed. The presenter will lead an open presentation and suggest ideas for group discussion. The delegates will go through multiple case studies and individual assignments, allowing them to test out their capacity for sustainable peacebuilding, conflict management, and promoting inclusive societies. Video Demonstrations will supplement each session. By the end of the program, a study tour will be arranged for the participants providing an enhanced understanding of the topics covered. The delegates will get to share the experience of the members of governmental, intergovernmental, and non-state agencies that are actively involved in conflict prevention and peacekeeping processes as well as policy making.