Draft Culture of Peace Programme in Mozambique 47-50
PROJECT PROFILE 6.0
It is becoming generally recognized that the processes of peace and development must be integrated if either is to succeed. In the Agenda for Development, presented by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the United Nations General Assembly, it is stated that without an endogenous, sustainable human development, peace cannot be sustained, just as without peace, development cannot be sustained. This project is designed to ensure that such a linkage is obtained in practice.
Since the Rome Peace Accords, Mozambique has been inundated by a chaotic number of international development agencies and organizations. While they have unquestionably contributed to saving many lives and contributing valuable resources, both material and human, at the same time there have been serious drawbacks. In many cases development projects compete with each other, and very often they compete for scarce human resources with Mozambican agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. They are able to pay better wages in most cases and to attract some of the best talent in the country.
As a result there has been a tendency to produce a donor dependency in the Mozambican economy and social structure. In the face of this problem, it is essential that development programmes support the Mozambican infra-structure of development and that they initiate projects which are sustainable, both in terms of Mozambique's natural resources and in terms of its human resources.
In order to integrate peace with the development process and to strengthen the long-term sustainable infrastructure of Mozambican society, this Project emphasizes the in-service training in peace culture for development workers with an emphasis on Mozambican organizations and workers.
This Project emphasizes the in-service training in peace culture for community development workers with an emphasis on those employed by Mozambican governmental and non-governmental organizations. The training will be based on Mozambican traditions and experiences of conflict resolution and will be "elicitive" in its methodology, that is, it will be based primarily on an exchange of the skills and knowledge which the participants already bring to the in-service training.
Once they return to their regular work in development programmes at a grass-roots level, these "peace promoters" will use their conflict resolution skills to ensure that development work engages the participation and gives good results to all people regardless of their culture, ethnicity or religious or political beliefs.
These peace promoters will be linked up regionally and nationally in a network along with peace promoters from other Culture of Peace Programme projects. This network will not only support them in their work, but will also provide a source of learning for the Programme as a whole and a source of information for its media productions to disseminate the message of a culture of peace. The network will be linked by an advanced communication system.
Research will be supported for the study of the conflict resolution work done by these peace promoters and to make recommendations for future improvements and additional activities.
An exchange of experience will be arranged with similar peace promoters in the Culture of Peace Programmes in other countries.
Summary of Activities:
