Initiatives of Change - Highlights of 2006/2007

Highlights

Contents:
Peacemaking & reconciliation
Community-building & dialogue
Nation-building & transforming society
Global economy & sustainability
Capacity-building programmes

Journalism for Peace and Reconciliation, Côte d'Ivoire (Photo: Danielle Maillefer)

Peacemaking & reconciliation

Sierra Leone’s relatively peaceful 2007 elections were described by the Chairman of the UN Peacebuilding Commission as a ‘turning point’ for a country recovering from 10 years of civil war. Hope-Sierra Leone (H-SL), the Initiatives of Change NGO based in Freetown, played a significant role in the process, mounting a Clean Elections Campaign and establishing trust with political parties in the lead up to the August poll; and then working with those parties to defuse outbreaks of violence in the period of uncertainty following the Presidential election run-off. This peacemaking work was supported by the UNDP, and by local leaders trained by H-SL through Moral Foundations for Democracy courses created in 2005 to bring army, police and civil society together. Plans are in hand to extend these trust-building courses to members of parliament and civil servants. H-SL also continues its rice-growing project, bringing together ex-combatants and those who suffered from the war.

Other peacemaking initiatives included:

A team from IofC’s Creators of Peace programme led a five-day workshop for politicians and social activists in Juba, South Sudan and again in Khartoum, hosted by Angelina Teny, Minister of State for Petroleum and Energy. Earlier they introduced their Peace Circle process into South Africa and Kenya. This year Peace Circles have been run in Colombia, Australia, Lebanon, Rwanda, UK and USA.

In 2004, young Vietnamese and Cambodians initiated a series of dialogues to break through the inherited mistrust and prejudice between their nations. The third and fourth of these dialogues took place in Vietnam (2007) and in Cambodia (2008).

In Côte d’Ivoire a network of journalists committed to Journalism for Peace and Reconciliation was born after a workshop in March, jointly organized by IofC International and the InfoSud press agency. The previous October, IofC Côte d’Ivoire was awarded the ‘Prix du Merite’ for its work towards national reconciliation and peace.

Caux conferences in Switzerland on the theme Trust across the world’s divides? Dignity for all? were attended by about 1,500 people from all over the world, including many from conflict regions. Visiting Caux on 8 August, Kofi Annan told a packed plenary, ‘You don’t have to be Secretary-General of the UN’ to be a good global citizen. When something goes wrong in our societies, we should not just turn to governments, he suggested. ‘We should all ask ourselves what we can do.’ Earlier in the summer Ambassador Pierre Combernous, speaking for the Swiss government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saluted the ‘special relationship’ between Switzerland and IofC over 60 years. Referring to Caux’s contribution to recent peace negotiations for Burundi, to which the Swiss government has given financial support, he said this partnership was ‘in the spirit of Switzerland’s foreign policy (which) is marked by ideas of solidarity, universality and human values’.

Smoke Ceremony at Global Indigenous Dialogue (Photo: Altaf Mohammed Abid)

Community-building & dialogue

Initiatives of Change International is an active member of the Conference of International NGOs of the Council of Europe, and helped draft the Conference’s contribution to the Council’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue. Many IofC projects aim to promote understanding and reconciliation, particularly between Muslim and Western societies.

In France, for the last 10 years, the Initiative Dialogue programme has brought Muslim and non-Muslim residents into local circles to ‘bridge gaps between different worlds that ignore each other’.

Following the launch of The Imam and the Pastor, a production of IofC’s FLTfilms, this powerful message of reconciliation continues to be used in educational and interfaith settings all over the world – from Somalia and South Africa to Brazil, Ukraine and Norway. It was screened to over 1000 people at an event organized by the International Muslim Organization of Toronto.
The film tells the story of Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye, who led rival militias in communal clashes which caused thousands of deaths in Northern Nigeria. They now head the Muslim-Christian Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna.
The Imam and the Pastor won first prize in the short documentary section of the Africa World Documentary Film Festival, October 2007. A French version of the film was premiered in April 2008 in Switzerland and Quebec, with extensive media coverage. This was followed by the launch of the German version in Berlin in May.

During the 200th anniversary of the end of the trans-Atlantic slavetrade, groups connected with IofC’s Hope in the Cities (HIC) programme have continued working to overcome that bitter legacy. A delegation from Richmond, Virginia, USA, led by the Vice-President of the City Council, joined the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, UK, at a ceremony symbolically laying to rest, in the African tradition, the souls of the slaves who had perished.
In Richmond, where racial and economic inequality still impacts the school system, 450 attended Metropolitan Richmond Day in November 2007 to support HIC’s commitment to equal education.

In Australia the first act of the newly-elected Parliament in February was to say ‘sorry’ to the ‘stolen generations’ – indigenous Australians who were forcibly taken from their families to be raised in white institutions under racial policies up until the 1970s. John Bond, for many years the Secretary of the National Sorry Day Committee, has been among IofC activists who with other groups have campaigned over a decade for this historic apology and have brought spokespersons of the movement to Caux.
In August, the Global Indigenous Dialogue in Caux, Switzerland, highlighted indigenous issues with contributions from North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia.

East Europeans in teambuilding exercise

Nation-building & transforming society

In response to ethnic violence that rocked their nation after the December 2007 elections, young Kenyans associated with IofC launched Kenya I Care, using story sharing, skits and songs to empower school children to help break the chain of tribal hate. ‘Corruption and tribalism are the two big issues raised as major concerns of students,’ writes facilitator Ann Njeri.

The Foundations for Freedom programme (F4F), now headquartered in Ukraine, ran 10 courses – mostly in Russian – for young leaders in civil society and politics, including activists of youth NGOs and members of student parliaments. ‘Training for trainers’ events were also held to expand the pool of young East Europeans facilitating these courses, which examine the moral and spiritual qualities underlying free societies.

In France, the IofC Education for Peace programme works with schools, teaching students how to manage conflict without violence. Over 500 children took part in an art competition, in which children had to imagine a conflict scenario and tell the story of its peaceful resolution in pictorial form. Responding to a growing demand for these courses, two ‘training for trainers’ programmes were held.

A three-day Imbizo (consultation) brought representatives of 12 African nations to South Africa in May 2007, renewing their vision and shaping future directions for the work of reconciliation and tackling corruption. An African Youth Forum in Ghana gave training in effective leadership to 26 from the region.

Asian executives gather in India (Photo: Altaf Mohammed Abid)

Global economy & sustainability

Seeking a ‘new leadership model’ which injects ‘trust and integrity’ into Asia’s rapidly-growing but unequal economy, 22 Japanese joined government and corporate executives from 16 nations, in November 2007, for the second Caux Initiatives for Business conference at Asia Plateau, IofC’s Asian centre in India.

Inspired by what they found at Asia Plateau’s programmes on Ethics in Public Governance, two officers from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) developed a plan to use IofC-based training to reach a ‘critical mass’ among 4,000 officers in the Karnataka State Secretariat. Their aim is not only to increase efficiency, but to provide governance with a responsive ‘human face’. Workshops have begun in Bangalore and at Asia Plateau, where monthly programmes for managers and employees in public and private sectors have run for over three decades.

The 10th International Farmers’ Dialogue brought 100 farmers from five continents to France during November. Facing the increasing challenge of world hunger, these dialogues link farmers to learn from each other’s experience and renew their calling to feed the world.

240 participants from 52 countries took part in the Caux conference Building trust and integrity in the global economy in July, sharing personal stories of transformation leading to new workplace initiatives, promoting value-based business practices, accountability in the media and resolving economic conflicts.

Caux Scholars at the UN (Photo: Danielle Maillefer)

Capacity-building programmes

IofC training programmes aim to build ethical capacity, developing and nurturing qualities of visionary, inclusive and transformative leadership. The new IofC International Office of Training Services (established in January 2008) will build on over 40 training programmes that have been developed in all continents over the past 30 years. Among courses offered:

The month-long Caux Scholars Program, in July-August, took a class of 20 international students through strategic peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

Tools for Change, also in Caux, Switzerland, involved 380 participants from 70 countries in learning the skills and attitudes needed to be an effective ‘change-maker’.

Life Matters courses at the IofC centre in Melbourne, Australia, explore themes such as identity, transforming conflict, and aim to help participants find a path and purpose for life.