SFCG is a finalist for World Vision Peacebuilding Award
Search for Common Ground is a finalist for the 2010 World Vision Peacebuilding Award. The award is given “to an agency or organisation that excels at integrating peacebuilding into relief, development or advocacy activities and mobilising communities to build a durable peace.”
from World Vision International
Over the next month (until June 4th), World Vision is looking for comments from the public on the finalists. If you’re excited by the work we’re doing or have a story to share about how our programs may have effected you, follow this link and click “contribute”! You’ll be asked to login.
World Bank Innovation Fair on Conflict and Fragility
By Sydney Smith
The World Bank’s very first Innovation Fair took place in Cape Town two weeks ago. The fair was the result of an online competition to find innovations and innovators in the field of conflict and fragility. Proposal were voted on by “crowd vote” and later narrowed down by an expert panel.
SFCG submitted five of its projects and all made the final selection: CG News, Radio for Peacbuilding Nepal, Generation Grand Lacs, Tosalel’ango and Accountability Now in Sierra Leone which was a joint venture between SFCG and the Independent Radio Network (IRN). Africa Program Manager, Rebecca Besant represented SFCG for the first four projects and Ransford Wright of IRN attended on behalf of Accountability Now. Ransford was invited to sit on the Innovators Panel on Communications for service delivery and governance and Rebecca on the Innovators Panel on Conflict and Violence Preventions.
Rebecca on the Innovators Panel on Conflict and Violence Preventions
Ransford interviewed by eNews, South Africa's 1st 24-hour news network
Technology was a big focus of the fair. Many projects took advantage of the high rates of mobile phone usage in many developing countries. Others sought to bridge the digital divide by bringing new technologies to rural areas. The Reconstructed Living Lab (RLab), a local organization that teaches new media skills to at-risk youth from the rough Cape Flat neighborhood, was the Bank’s Social Media Partner for the fair. Its participants engaged in the fair by blogging and tweeting about the panels and discussions.
In her own words
Rebecca:
There were 30 representatives of different projects there, including someone from the magazine Hibr in Lebanon, someone doing crowd-source mapping of Nairobi’s Kibera slum, a group using sports for reconciliation in South Africa, early warning work in northern Ghana, an MIT professor doing conflict transformation work with Palestinian youth in Gaza, and a number of projects from India.
It was interesting to hear about the different types of technologies, what different people are doing, and what might be possible in the coming months and years. One conversation that I had, was with a South African man who is piloting mobile books, where chapters are sent out over your mobile phone. He has just started this in South Africa, and received 2,000 comments on the first installment. The service that he is using is launching in the next few weeks in Kenya.
- Searchers at the Fair
The Fair is just the beginning and there was recognition that innovation is more than use of new technologies. One of the immediate outcomes was that people from all around the globe were able to engage in discussions about how to problem solve with the resources available. Additionally the World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report will also focus on conflict, security and development and the fair opened up that conversation to voices outside of the Bank.
Finally we can report that Rebecca was lucky enough to get the first flight out of Nairobi following her conference and wasn’t left stranded by Iceland’s volcano eruption!
To see RLab posts on the Innovation Fair, click here.
Filming "The Team" in Kenya
A Boston Globe article speaks to the use of soap operas around the world for “edutainment” –using the popularity of entertainment media to provide information and change attitudes. SFCG is mentioned for its work to alleviate conflict and change minds through its soap opera series, The Team:
“To mitigate ethnic tension and fight corruption in Africa, the conflict-resolution organization Search for Common Ground has created a soap opera franchise called ”The Team” about the trials of an ethnically and religiously diverse professional soccer club. Locally produced versions in Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, and Morocco have proved popular — nearly a quarter of Moroccans watch it.”
Read the full article here.
By Sydney Smith
Walls of Balkh from www.hazara.no
Earlier this year Afghanistan’s National Stability and Reconciliation Law effectively granted amnesty to warlords and other armed factions for all acts of violence committed in the era of war before the fall of the Taliban. But for many it is a reconciliation in name only, empty of forgiveness and unable to erase the hurt and trauma of years of bloodshed. It’s supporters argue that prosecuting perpetrators of war crimes and human rights violations would risk civil war. Others say, letting them go unpunished in the eyes of their victims, however, may only continue the cycle of retribution.
Read Anna Badkhen’s article in Foreign Policy Magazine about the repercussions of this reconciliation.
This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.
Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed – or were killed – on this ground
hollowed by the neglect of an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.
by William Stafford
USA (1914-1993)
Building Bridges in Macedonia
TransConflict has singled out Search for Common Ground projects in Macedonia for their contributions in this article about grassroots diplomacy in the Balkans. The article speaks to the limitations of diplomacy through governments and politicians and highlights efforts to create “diplomacy from below.” Our Bridges for the New Balkans and Mozaik projects are addressed in the article for their success in reaching individuals and communities.
SFCG’s has worked in Macedonia since 1994 to help facilitate better relations between ethnic groups.
Bridges for the New Balkans: Regional Media Project is an initiative which brings journalists, academics and other professional from different area in the region to foster dialogue and cooperation.
Moazaik: Model for Multicultural Pre-school Education is a model for bilingual and multicultural learning in Macedonia kindergartens which are normally segregated by ethno-linguistic criteria. The project attempts to overcome stereotypes and prejudices at a young age.
Read the TransConflict article here.
Check here for more information on SFCG’s Macedonia programmes.
