IPF 2015: Understanding non-violent conflict transformation

Day three of the International Peace-Builders’ Forum (IPF) opened this morning with three workshops. Ajsa Hadzibegovig’s workshop focused on understanding the disempowering factors that prevent the participation of young people in peace-building activism. Simon Fisher led a workshop in which he asked participants to reflect on the question: do we see ourselves more as technicians, doing a professional job, or as transformers, aiming to bring about deep change, or neither? Jean Brown and Shoshana Faire’s workshop encouraged participants to examine their own hearts to understand the stories that they are transforming and passing on to future generations.

In the afternoon, Tanja Mirabile led participants in an exercise to better understand effective dialogue as a tool for non-violent conflict transformation and the role of the moderator. One participant took initiative to lead a workshop about dignity as a form of Gandhian “power of goodness.”

Jonathan Dudding concluded the afternoon with a group exercise making sense of the work over the course of the forum thus far.  He asked participants to discuss two questions in small groups: What are the key insights you have had so far? How can we best apply these insights in our practice?