Asia
09.07.2018

Peace and Conflict Consultants Kyrgyzstan

In June, 26 Kyrgyz participants started their training to become Peace and Conflict Consultants.

CRISP was in Kyrgyzstan from June 19th to 25th for the initial training of a new project „Peace and Conflict Consultants Kyrgyzstan“ funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. In this project, 26 Kyrgyz participants will be trained as peace and conflict consultants who will be able to identify, analyze and mitigate conflicts in their local communities.

The first part of the 7-day training focused on principles and theories of conflict including the terms peace, conflict and violence. The group exchanged ideas about their intepretations of the terms and participated in interactive activities designed to get them thinking deeper about conflict.

During the second part of the training, the participants were introduced to several methods of conflict analysis including the problem tree, actors mapping, conflict timeline and the PIN (Positions-Interests-Needs) method. By using group and individual examples, the participants were able to practice the tools in an educational environment and prepare to implement them at home. The participants were also introduced to the concept of conflict transformation, a way of thinking about conflict beyond simple resolution, through interactive measures.

In the final stage of the training, the participants were given tools to gather local knowledge for using in conflict analysis. These included interviewing skills and an introduction to priority ranking.

It was week full of a lot of information, practice and also some serious fun with talent shows, quizzes and swimming!

We are looking forward to returning to Kyrgyzstan in September and to guiding the participants in developing peacebuilding initiatives based upon their conflict analyses.