Summer Institute in Peacebuilding builds Kroc-CRS relationship

From Sunday July 22 through Wednesday August 1, 2001 the Kroc Institute, in conjunction with the peacebuilding team of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), hosted and co-directed a Summer Institute in Peacebuilding (SIP). The Institute was designed to provide participants with both a focused environment for increasing their skills and perspectives in peacebuilding, and an opportunity for critical engagement of new thinking in three related areas: Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding, Catholic Social Teaching, and New Issues in Economic Development.

The SIP had several specific goals:

— to increase the peacebuilding capacity of CRS as an institution by training staff and partners, in conflict transformation and peacebuilding methods and skills;

— to provide a setting for CRS staff and partners in which they could share information, make connections across their programs and regions, and establish a long-term network;

— to provide a forum for interaction of CRS staff and partners with Kroc faculty experts in Catholic Social Thinking and other topics such as Youth and Peacebuilding, and Gender Issues in Conflict;

— to provide the Kroc Institute with an opportunity to listen to the needs and agenda of peacebuilders in the field in order to serve CRS better in the future.

Each of the three major themes was developed in longer sessions under the direction of a single expert facilitator. In the first, John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute, conducted two days of small and large group exercises in progressive peacebuilding. Lederach challenged the participants to apply the general principles that were being demonstrated to their local conditions.

Following Lederach, independent development specialist Kim Maynard, who had worked extensively with Mercy Corps International, led a one day session. Maynard provided a number of situational exercises which incorporated both economic and managerial concerns with the Lederach framework.

Kroc Fellow and Associate Professor of Theology Todd Whitmore led the third thematic session on Catholic Social Teaching. Whitmore examined the concepts and themes which have formed the cornerstone of Catholic Social Teaching since Pope Leo XIII. Among these were the preferential option for the poor and the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity.

Interspersed throughout the ten days were sessions conducted by various Kroc faculty with expertise in themes particularly relevant to the SIP. Among those sessions were George Lopez on mediation, Cynthia Mahmood on gender issues in conflict and development, Hal Culbertson on programming implications of gender and peacemaking in Bangladesh and Siobhan McEvoy-Levy on youth as sources of violence and/or peacemaking. Particularly popular throughout the Institute were the sessions offered by Scott Appleby, the Regan Director of the Kroc Institute, on religion as a source of violence and a source of peacebuilding.

Jaco Cilliers, Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution for Catholic Relief Services, convened discussions of regional issues and coordinated the development of both a statement of purpose and concrete application of the meanings of peace-building. Through his leadership, the participants were able to define peacebuilding as:

— a process of changing unjust structures into right-relationships

— which transforms the way people, communities and societies live, heal and structure their relationships to promote justice and peace

— and creates a space in which mutual trust, respect and interdependence is fostered.

The groups then undertook the difficult task of identifying the kind of changes that need to take place in each of their sites to operationalize this definition in their daily work. These were expressed as indicators of peacebuilding and have both a transformative dimension and a monitoring function. The resulting eleven indicators will serve as the basis of future CRS peacebuilding programs in various sites but will also serve as the basis for departure thematically for next year's SIP.

In the midst of their hard work, the participants also took time to enjoy one another’s company by participating in various recreational activities in and around campus. They jogged the lakes of Notre Dame or enjoyed beach volleyball. A number of the CRS staff from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia witnessed their first live baseball game as the group took an excursion to Chicago to see the Cubs major league baseball team play, followed by free time at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Some participants were able to take advantage of the Shakespeare summer theatre performance on Notre Dame campus as well.

Assessments from participants and the SIP faculty and staff indicate that the SIP generally met its goals. But there also was substantial learning in unexpected ways. Participants noted that their difficulties in developing effective peacebuilding programs differed depending on whether the program aimed to meet short-term needs or long-term challenges. This will be a focal point of future SIP work, as will continued refinement of CRS working principles of peacebuilding which were forged by this year’s CRS participants.

Both CRS and Kroc participants appreciated the mixture of sessions and co-curricular activities which permitted time for CRSers and those from Kroc to build relationships. The second SIP is scheduled for late June of 2002.

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