The encounter within the project “South Asia – Western Balkan Peacebuilding Exchange” took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 26 March to 2 April 2022. Previously we published the text “Exchange with Friends from Asia” by our colleague Nedžad Novalić, and now a detailed documentation is available in English in PDF format.
The exchange included two parts: optional study trip in Mostar and the workshop held in Sarajevo.
The idea of an exchange between peacebuilding activists from these two far away regions came up due to the previous cooperation between United NGOs Mission Manipur (UNMM), Bread for the World and the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo-Belgrade (CNA).
The participants of this exchange programme came from India (Institute for Social Democracy), Manipur/India (UNMM and the Centre for Women and Girls), Bangladesh (Maleya Foundation), Germany (Bread for the World), North Macedonia (Peace Action and the Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution), Croatia (Serb National Council), Serbia (Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and part of CNA) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNA). The event was planned, organised and facilitated by CNA team. It’s staff is from various Balkan countries.
The need for exchange between peace workers and activists we consider obvious: peacebuilding work is hard and complex, involved issues of collective identities and conflicts arising around it are present in both regions, organisations usually do not have enough capacities to cover all complexities, there is never enough support, there is usually no support by the states where they are active, even when they do not have hostile attitude, the work often relays on enthusiasm of individuals, who are thus in high risk of burn-out, etc. The need for reflection and empowerment is crucial, but it is often considered as luxury and skipped easily.
We hope that others interested in peacebuilding work will find this documentation useful.