Local Peace Committees: learning, developing, planing

Is there a difference between peacekeeping and peacebuilding? It turned out that  participants of the training have never thought about that before the first day of the training on "Local Peace Committees", which began on September 25 in the city of Dnipro.

The peculiarities of peacebuilding activities implementation require the necessary competencies, which can be further implemented locally, based on the "Do no harm" approach. Trainers Olena Nabokova and Inna Boiko continuously repeated it during three training days.

During the training, the organizers created conditions for the group to develop skills to implement activities based on the concept of "local peace committees" in their cities and communities.

Carefully selected simulation games helped to better reveal the challenges that participants face in the context of peacebuilding, as well as possible alternative ways to overcome them.

Numerous reflections helped to utilize new information more effectively. The topic of the training was so interesting for the participants that, even after the end of educational activities, they discussed the past sessions and shared their discoveries and achievements.

Each of the participants received specific tools on how to personally carry out peacebuilding activities at the local level with the help of peace committees, enlisted the support of like-minded people and gained experience in alternative ways of collective decision-making and conflict resolution.

The event was held in the frames of the "Peace Building and Conflict Resolution in Ukraine – Step Forward" project, implemented with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.