|
Learning from Failure Despite the apparent organizational success of the Culture of Peace Action Programme, which I had originally called it, what I found over the next few years was disappointment. Symbolically, when the Programme was established on a formal basis in 1994, the word "action" was dropped from its title. Over the next few years, working in this programme, this became symbolic; UNESCO did not have the structural capacity or resources, either financial or human, to carry out major actions for a culture of peace. Our beautiful words could not be translated into reality. I will try here to analyse the failure of UNESCO's Culture of Peace Programme and the reasons behind this failure, not to cast blame, but to learn lessons for the future, so that in the future we can develop new institutions which can avoid these failures and successfully cultivate a culture of peace. While examples will be drawn mostly from UNESCO, the argument is informed by the experience of colleagues in other international organizations who have faced similar problems. Knowing from my discussions with UNESCO staff members that there would be these problems, I had not suggested in the very first formulation of the plan for the culture of peace programme in 1992 (149EX/28) that it should be run by UNESCO. Instead, the document proposed that the programme be run by a newly created Centre which would draw staff on a temporary basis from existing international organizations. And recognizing the problem of financial resources, the document 149 EX/28 called for the Centre to be financed by a 1% contribution of the funds used for UN peacekeeping operations. From the outset, when these proposals in document 149 EX/28 were bypassed, it should have been evident that the Culture of Peace Programme was destined for difficulty. Neither the Director-General of UNESCO, nor the member states sitting in the Executive Board, were prepared to go around the institutional bureaucracy that they already had in place. As a result, the culture of peace programme was entrusted with UNESCO itself. There was no choice but to work within the system, although I was warned by colleagues that it would be difficult, if not impossible. Even the Director-General himself looked at me strangely when I said that I would like to leave my University professorship and come to work full-time as a staff member to work on the Culture of Peace Programme "from the inside". He suggested that I continue to serve as a consultant instead. He even said that he would give me a prize - "what prize would you like?" to recognize the work I had done as a consultant. "No," I insisted, " I want to work inside the system." In the four year period from January 1993, when I arrived at UNESCO as a consultant, until January 1997, we attempted many dozen different culture of peace initiatives, including at least a dozen in which I was personally involved. As we go through these initiatives, which failed for the most part, the reader should be able to see a pattern emerge. |