Education and Training Center International (ETC/I) Program Officer Mary Hope Schwoebel taught the course “Practical Approaches to Peacebuilding and Development” at American University’s Summer Institute for Peacebuilding and Development (PDI) June 9-13, 2008.
Education and Training Center International (ETC/I) Program Officer Mary Hope Schwoebel taught the course “Practical Approaches to Peacebuilding and Development” at American University’s Summer Institute for Peacebuilding and Development (PDI) June 9-13, 2008. Participants hailed from Colombia, Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya, Balkans, and the United States. The class was a balanced mix of seasoned professionals, including senior civil servants, international organization personnel, scholars, and students.
The course covered the analysis-to-action programming cycle from the regional and/or country strategic level to the local project level. The instructor developed and employed an analytical framework to guide participants from analysis of the causes of conflict, causes of peace, conflict resources and peace resources, through stakeholder, gap, and organizational analysis to identification of strategic interventions based on the analyses. The course also covered peace- and conflict-sensitivity, peace and conflict mainstreaming, and peace and conflict impact analysis of both the programmatic and operational aspects of peacebuilding, development, governance, and humanitarian interventions. At the end of the course participants presented group projects that involved analyses and proposed strategic interventions for Colombia, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Lebanon. The participant presentations were of an exceptional quality. Participants succeeded in combining the knowledge and experience of group members with the conceptual, substantive, and practical components of the course.