Conflict transformation
Poverty, injustice and inequality create social tensions which can lead to conflict. For development interventions to be successful, it is vital that communities co-exist peacefully.
Skillshare International’s programmes focus on building sustainable livelihoods, supporting people living with HIV and AIDS and working towards Gender Justice. Even in countries with no ongoing or recent violent conflict, this work has the potential to contribute to positive or negative conflict dynamics, for example, by favouring certain groups in society over others, or by challenging the established distribution of power and resources. Adopting a conflict sensitive approach to our programmes gives us a better understanding of the impact of our work on peace and conflict and how to maximise the positive effects.
Download our peace building policy.
Building Capacities for Peace
In July 2010, we placed development worker Katerina Kyrili in Kenya as an Advocacy and Research Officer with the Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA). In July 2011, Katerina and her colleagues at COPA ran a training event for 20 peace building, development, humanitarian aid and human rights practitioners working in conflict affected areas of Africa. The main aim of the training was to build the participants’ capacities in different peace building themes so that in turn they can be more effective resources within their own organisations and communities.
The training, which was held in Nairobi, focused on:
- Understanding conflict
- Conflict analysis
- Conflict early warning
- Third party skills in conflict resolution
- Gender mainstreaming in peace building
- Trauma healing in post conflict societies
- Conflict sensitive programming.
Find out more about COPA's work at www.copafrica.org/