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Peacebuilding Groups Gather From Around the World

(L. to r.): Elizabeth Nsarkoh from Wast Africa Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI); Manjrika Sewak (partially hidden) and Ameet Dhakal, both from the Asian-Pacific partnership for Peace; and Emmanuel Bombande, also of WAPI, take part in a discussion at the week-long regional Peacebuilding Institute gathering at Eastern Mennonite University. Sewak, Dhakal and Bombande are all graduates of EMU's Conflict Transformation Program.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Fifteen leaders of regional peace-building groups gathered for the first time during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU.

Their May 30-June 4 conference launched a network between existing institutes in Zambia, Ghana, the Philippines and the United States and groups planning peacebuilding institutes in South Asia, the South Pacific and Jamaica. Funding came from a United States Institute of Peace grant written by SPI co-director Pat Spaulding.

"The peer relationship is important," said Jon Rudy, who works with the Philippines' Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute. The Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU, at 10 years, is the oldest among these nonhierarchical, nonviolence-based institutes, having 1,500 alumni around the world, but MPI has graduated 650 in its five years, while several hundred have completed the newer Philippine and African institutes.

Conference topics included fundraising, burnout, organizational evaluation, theory in relationship to practice, and generalized versus regional skills, noted facilitator Bill Goldberg, a special projects assistant with EMU’s Conflict Transformation Program, under whose auspices SPI and the regional conference was organized.

Elizabeth Nsarkoh, an administrator with the West African Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI), especially liked a session, "Sustaining the Peacebuilder." At home in Ghana, she said, "We usually just think about work, work, work."

That workshop’s facilitator, CTP faculty member Ron Kraybill, also confessed to overwork as he planned to take a backpacking get-away. When he asked "Who’s tired?" half the conferees raised hands.

Following short meditation, they discussed reasons – positive, negative and mixed – for taking on too many tasks. One person had felt driven to resolve conflicts since growing up in a troubled family. CTP faculty member Barry Hart suggested a practice of "Saying 'I can’t do it, but I know this other person who can.'"

Though burnout causes some to abandon their vocation, Rudy noted others emerge renewed. Participants said conflict is frequent when a pioneer who started a project becomes frustrated after losing control.

"Peacebuilders are like artists. We are passionate," said Babu Ayindo, a theater director and consultant/facilitator with the African Peacebuilding Institute (API) of Zambia. API is becoming overwhelmed by requests for help – a situation Kraybill says requires defining goals. "We’re just in the process of determining what can we get involved in and what we should not touch," said Ayindo.

Pat Hostetter Martin, co-director of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU, leads a "where to from here" discussion at a meeting of leaders representing peacebuilding institutes from other countries.
Photo by Jim Bishop

SPI co-director Pat Hostetter Martin requested the network’s advice on an inquiry from a Gaza colleague about establishing a conflict-resolution program there. "Help decide whether we should join hands with them," she asked. Conferees cited relationships built with Palestinians at SPI, versus concerns including biases between nationalities. They said lack of intimate knowledge of the Middle East could be either a plus or minus.

Each group has a unique history. Asian and Pacific Island graduates of the Conflict Transformation Program formed the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Peace after completing CTP together.

In Fiji, ECREA (Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy) copes with the aftermath of a 2000 coup. "The greatest shock was Fijians shooting Fijians. A lot of people suffered," said Larry Thomas, of ECREA, who sees politics, not race, as the source of conflict.

The group sings a song of peace as part of a closing ceremony at their weeklong gathering on the EMU campus during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute.
Photo by Jim Bishop

In northern Ghana, Nsarkoh and Emmanuel Bombande are mediating in strife sparked by a 2000 national election. Conflict between two branches of a large family – loyal to opposing national political parties – caused a regional king’s assassination. Bombande said WAPI persuaded officials to relax curfews that had increased conflict. He added, "We go on TV to calm things down."

The conference concluded with a "Way Forward" (in African parlance, discussion of what comes next). Ayindo suggested and promised to conduct research on a fundraising arm for the network. Others mentioned regional fundraising. The network hopes to meet again in Nepal in two years.

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg.

— article by: Chris Edwards; posted June 9, 2004