“Peacebuilding in Our Region”
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On Thursday 19th April 2007, the Centre for International Mental Health (CIMH), University of Melbourne, hosted a one day workshop that presented peacebuilding approaches on our doorstep and bought together engaged local and international participants working across the broad areas of peacebuilding and development in our region. We are grateful to AusAID for their support with this seminar.
As we know, the Asia Pacific region is vast and diverse - in it's communities, socio-economic development, and unfortunately in its experiences of war and violent conflict. The seminar focused on presenting and sharing some of what is being done to build peace and to 'prevent' future conflicts from developing. We use the term peacebuilding to refer to activities that are sustained and multi-dimensional processes for addressing the wider social and political sources of conflict, and that try to reform and change the relationships that have been affected by the conflict. Peacebuilding initiatives are based on the belief that there should be transformation of the sources that give rise to conflict. There is extensive peacebuilding activity around us. We are often more aware of what conflicts are occurring and less about what is being done to build peace within our region. The importance of the seminar was that it highlighted positive actions that are being taken over an extended period of time.
The seminar provided an opportunity to learn of just some of the wonderful work being done to build peace, particularly in South East Asia. Our facilitators shared broad reaching experiences in working for peace in our region. The program included a series of presentations from our speakers with engaged discussion at the end of each presentation. We also had the opportunity to share and discuss experiences through more focused small group discussion where the questions where some of the key questions that bought us together were disucssed: How do people in Australia know what's going on at the grassroots level to build peace in our region? What can we do to build peace in our region across all levels of society?
What do the development and peacebuilding fields have in common?
How do we make connections with other peacebuilders in the region?
Below are the presentations for your perusal. Further information can be obtained from Tania Miletic (seminar organiser, CIMH): tmiletic@unimelb.edu.au
The facilitators, as individuals and representatives of their regional constituencies, have broad reaching experiences in working for peace in our region and shared these:
Steve Darvill is the Humanitarian / Peace-Conflict Adviser for the Australian Government Agency for International Development (AusAID)
View Steves’s presentation:
Soth Plai Ngarm is from Cambodia where he is Director of the Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), and is the Cambodian National Coordinator of the South East Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEASCN).
View Ngarm’s presentation:[PDF 4.05MB]
Emma Leslie is based in Cambodia where she is the Secretariat of ACTION Asia a regional peacebuilding network and is the Course Manager of the Asia Region Masters in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS).
View Emma’s presentation:[PDF 4.96MB]
Yayah Khisbiyah is a lecturer at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta and is also the founding-director of the Center for Cultural Studies and Social Change. Yayah also teaches in Peace and Conflict Resolution at Universitas Gadjah Mada, & is currently researching on religion and at the University of Melbourne.
View Yayah’s presentation:[PDF 75KB]
Diane Bretherton is Associate Professor with La Trobe University, within the Conflict Resolution Program & is the former Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne.
Di’s reflection and synthesise will be available shortly:
Below are the ‘program details’, ‘presenter details’ and a series of ‘Related links and resources’ contributed by participants that help develop and strengthen our network of students and practitioners:
Program:
| 8.30am – 9.00am | Registration |
| 9.00am – 9.05am | Welcome |
| 9.05am – 9.30am | Presentation by Steve Darvill (Peace-Conflict Advisor, AusAID) |
| 9.30am – 10.30 am |
Presentation by Soth Plai Ngarm, (Director, Alliance for Conflict Transformation, Cambodia) |
| 10.30am – 11.00am |
Morning Tea |
| 11.00am – 12.00am |
Presentation by Emma Leslie, (Secreteriat, ActionASIA) |
| 12.00pm – 1.00pm |
Presentation by Yayah Khisbiyah (Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia) |
| 1.00pm – 2.00pm |
Lunch |
| 2.00pm – 3.00pm | Small Group Discussions |
| 3.00pm – 4.00pm |
Synthesis (A/Prof Diane Bretherton, La Trobe Uni.) |
| 4.00pm |
Close |
Presenter Details:
Steve Darvill is the Humanitarian / Peace-Conflict Adviser for the Australian Government Agency for International Development (AusAID) in Canberra. Steve will provide an overview of AusAID’s work and approaches to peace, conflict and development and how an emerging paradigm for peace and development is impacting on Australia’s activities in international aid and development.
Steve is responsible for supporting AusAID programs to integrate conflict prevention and peace-building goals into activities as well as providing advice on humanitarian protection issues. He has been with AusAID for eleven years and previously worked as a Program Manager within the Humanitarian & Emergencies Section; as the Emergencies Officer in the East Timor Section during the 1999 ballot and ensuing crisis; and as AusAID Liaison Officer to the UN agencies in Amman (Jordan) and Larnaca (Cyprus) during the 2003 conflict in Iraq. His current geographic focii include Solomon Islands, southern Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal and Sudan. Prior to joining AusAID, Steve worked for NGOs in Africa and the Middle East for eight years, including Gabon, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Iraqi Kurdestan and Yemen.
Soth Plai Ngarm:
Soth Plai Ngarm is from Cambodia where he is Director of the Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), a network of Cambodian NGOs and individual activists working together to towards a goal of social peace and stability. For the last decade, he has been involved in peacebuilding and conflict resolution in Cambodia from local to national levels. His experience has been in the areas of training, research, issue-based capacity building, networking and direct interventions. Ngarm is also a peace educator and activist internationally and is the Cambodian National Coordinator of the South East Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN).
Emma Leslie:
Emma Leslie is an Australia woman who has been working in Asia for over the past 15 years. Emma is based in Cambodia where she is the Secretariat of ACTION Asia a regional peacebuilding network and I sthe Course Manager of the Asia Region Masters in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS). She works as a consultant, practitioner and trainer on conflict transformation and peacebuilding issues throughout Southeast Asia. Emma has also extensive experience through her independent consultancies such as with Responding to Conflict, UK (RTC)’s Working With Conflict courses and has conducted conflict analysis trainings in Eastern Europe, Africa and throughout Asia. More recently Emma has been active in advocacy campaigns about Burmaand has helped to develop a peace curriculum for Cambodian high school teachers.
Yayah Khisbiyah:
Yayah Khisbiyah has been a faculty member of Psychology Department at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta since 1995, where she is also the founding-director of the Center for Cultural Studies and Social Change. She also teaches at postgraduate program in Peace and Conflict Resolution at Universitas Gadjah Mada. She has been a consultant for the UN’s ILO, UNICEF and WHO on psychosocial issues of child labor and peacemaking in conflict-torn areas, particularly in Aceh and Ambon. She co-founded Sidra Foundation, an NGO committed to promoting social transformation through arts and cultural approach, mainly via its two programs: Solo Heritage Society (SHS) and peAce (Partner for Enlightenment and Cultural Empowerment). For 6 years (1998-2004), she was also a permanent columnist for a psychological consultation feature in Solopos, a daily newspaper in Central Java. Yayah is currently researching and working on religion and peace.
Associate Professor Diane Bretherton:
Diane Bretherton is Associate Professor with La Trobe University, within the Conflict Resolution Program. Diane is the former Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne. She has more than two decades of experience in conflict resolution as an educational psychologist. She was instrumental in the development of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace as the Manager of UNESCO's Culture of Peace News Network in Paris 1998-1999. Diane is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Nankai in China and in 2007 was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her contributions to psychology and to the community.
Related links and resources:
Action ASIA
The Alliance for Conflict Transformation, Cambodia
Initiatives of Change - Australian website:
Documentary: 'The Imam and the Pastor' - Australian
Distributor: Grosvenor Books, 226 Kooyong Rd, Toorak VIC 3142
Ph: (03) 9822 1218
Email: grosvenor.books@optusnet.com.au
Blurb: From vengeance and killing to healing and friendship... A moving story of grass-roots peace-building that gives hope to humanity.
Rotary World Peace Fellowship program:
http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/centers