After a 10-year hiatus, in May this year we launched a new round of Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding. We had not organised this programme since 2004 because we believed other activities were more urgent, including our efforts to help people who had undergone the training to find ways of putting their knowledge and skills to use in peacebuilding activities. Thus, a large number of previous participants in the training programme worked with us on activities of peacebuilding education and promotion. However, interest for the training did not wane, and we realised that it would also be useful for us to renew our capacities and the capacities of our closest associates by investing in new people. Going through basic training in peacebuilding provided by us or another organisation that shares our values is the precondition for participation in the TfT. Since we had conducted nineteen Basic Trainings from the time of our last TfT, we realised that we were in a position to form quite a strong group of participants.
Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding (2014)
Needs Assessment
Still, before committing to the organisation of this programme, we conducted a small-scale analysis in three phases:
1) We contacted a dozen or so persons from across the region that had participated in this programme ten years ago and that were still very active in peacebuilding or human rights and asked them to give us their assessment of how much and why a programme of this kind is needed in the areas where they live and/or work and whether it is a worthwhile investment. We also asked them to tell us whether their organisation would benefit if more of their colleagues were to undergo the training programme. We received almost unanimous support to re-embark on this adventure, and some of them even sent us names of co-workers whose participation in the training would benefit their organisations.
2) We then prepared an anonymous online survey for some twenty people we believed to be good potential candidates for trainers. The survey consisted of three questions to assess the need for a TfT programme, their personal level of interest in participating and their availability to commit to the programme over a six-month period. We received clear feedback that the TfT should be organised.[1] All but one expressed an interest to personally participate in the programme, and 16 persons confirmed their availability.
3) We then sent the same questions to potential participants in the programme, that is, all those who had undergone our Basic Training in the past 10 years and whose e-mail addresses were still valid. They were also directed to an anonymous online survey. 94% of the respondents stated that the TfT should be organised.[2]
Encouraged by these findings, in mid-February we published a call for applications for participation in the programme. We received 96 applications for eighteen spots, mostly from people that had gone through CNA’s Basic Training.[3] It was difficult to select eighteen candidates, especially given the fact that this is perhaps the last time that we will be organising this type of programme, so we decided to accept 22 applications, that is, to expand the group to include four more people.
Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding (2014)
About the Programme
The programme is intended for people from ex-Yugoslav countries (except Slovenia) who have gone through basic training in peacebuilding and who are expected to show a high level of motivation and be prepared for working hard on peacebuilding and dealing with the past.
The programme is made up of four phases to be conducted over a period of six months, from May to November 2014. The first phase is a ten-day training that delves deeper into basic training issues and introduces new topics such as the role of the trainer and approach to training. Also, during this first phase, topics are selected for the next training and teams of participants are formed to prepare workshops on these topics to be conducted at the next training. The second phase consists of follow-up meetings during one or two days. These meetings allow the formed team to meet and prepare the workshop on the selected topic and to receive support, suggestions and advice from two persons among the team of trainers. The third phase is another ten-day training. In the first part of this training, the teams of participants conduct the workshops they prepared and have an opportunity to receive feedback from the team of trainers. The second part of the training is intended to tackle matters such as difficulties in working, motivation and other relevant issues for working as a trainer. The final, fourth phase is a five-day training where we will evaluate the programme, make projections for the future and deal with topics that are identified as having priority.
We see this programme as a beginning, the first step towards independent work as a trainer, including elements from the workshops into peacebuilding activities with young people, adults, children, etc. We recommend that at the beginning the participants work in a team with more experienced persons because we cannot expect all the participants to be prepared to independently conduct longer trainings right after they complete the programme.
Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding (2014)
First Phase: Training in Dojran
Knowing the group of people that it would bring together, we could hardly wait for the programme to begin. This is no wonder since it is truly a special privilege to work with a highly motivated group.
The team of trainers set off for Macedonia a day ahead to prepare for the first meeting in the small town of Dojran. However, it soon turned out that the training was being brought into question because of extreme weather conditions (heavy rain and floods) that had affected a sizeable part of Bosnia, and then also Serbia, leading to most of the roads being closed or impassable. For nine people from BiH, it was quite clear that they would not be able to travel to Macedonia at all, so we decided to postpone the start of the programme for a day, hoping they would still be able to make it. Six of them did, and by going trough various ordeals, with the journey lasting some 24 hours. Two people from Bijeljina managed to join us half-way through the training, and one person from Doboj could not get out of the city at all, and finally having managed to do this had to take care of affected family members.
This natural disaster had quite an impact on the course of the training and the atmosphere, but due to the high level of motivation of all the participants, we managed to do a lot of work and remain focused.
Postponing the start of the programme meant we would have one day less to work. An additional difficulty was the rather large group (21 persons) in which everyone had something to say and no opinion was left unvoiced. Even though we tried to plan our time as flexibly as possible, the workshops regularly ran over the planned three and a half hours, which lead to fatigue. The working day lasted from 9:30 in the morning until the evening. After dinner, we would hold an “open team meeting” – an evaluation of the day by the team of trainers and three to four participants. After that, the team of trainers would revise or draft the workshops for the next day. This programme requires a lot of energy, but it is absolutely worth it because all the invested energy is returned through the pleasure of working with people that truly care about effecting social change.
During the training, we tried to combine in-depth analysis of relevant topics and experiential exercises with thinking about the ethics of peacebuilding and the role of the trainer, and we believe we managed to strike a good balance between learning needs in terms of “working as a trainer” and the necessary in-depth knowledge and experience that form the basis of peace education. We are glad that we came up with many new exercises, that we did not succumb to the usual inertia of “repeating a tried and tested recipe”, and we are satisfied with the outcome of the exercises that opened up possibilities for insights that are hard to come by without experiential components.
Apart from being exceptionally active and motivated, the group of participants was also remarkable in their preparedness to take on the responsibility for the whole process of joint work. It was phenomenal how the participants divided themselves into teams for preparing and conducting workshops, the combinations they came up with were utterly unpredictable. By and large, the participants took our advice: to use this opportunity and be in a team with someone who lives far away because this is one time when they do not have to worry about travel expenses, accommodation, etc.; and to try to be in a team with someone they find challenging to work with, and not just with people they communicate with fairly easily. In fact, the only thing we found lacking from time to time was a bit more confrontation in certain situations and less holding back in addressing potential conflicts at the expense of the sometimes noticeable, pure political correctness.
Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding (2014)
As for the composition of the group, we are most deficient in people from Kosovo because we have only one person from Mitrovica. We bridged this gap partially by inviting a guest from Kosovo to join us during the first day when we were presenting the socio-political contexts of the region relevant to peacebuilding and dealing with the past. There is also a slight lack of gender balance since there are 9 men and 11 women (there will be 12 at the next training), but, naturally, we did not map this as a problem. Nine participants are from BiH, three from Croatia, one from Kosovo, three from Macedonia, and six from Serbia. We could have achieved a better regional balance in selecting from the pool of applications, but our leading principle was the level of motivation of the applicants.
Follow-up meetings are currently under way, and they are going quite well. In this phase of the programme, we are joined by the person from Doboj who could not make it to Macedonia due to the disastrous floods.
And now we can hardly wait for the workshops that the teams of participants are preparing.
Photo gallery
[1] When answering a question on the need for a TfT programme, out of the 20 respondents, no one selected “no need to organise”, 19 selected “should be organised”, and one person selected “should be organised, but there are more urgent needs”.
[2]Out of one hundred responses, 94 were that “it should be organised”, 5 were “it should be organised, but there are more urgent needs”, and 1 was “it is not necessary”. 90 people responded to the question of whether they were interested in participating in the programme, and 86 stated they were.
[3] It was also interesting that the document with the invitation for the training was downloaded from our website 1776 times.