MBBI At The Rotary Presidential Conference on Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, & Peace 

We are honored to announce that Todd Lopez, MBBI member of the Climate Change Policy Team and the Executive Director and Chief Operations Officer of SEED, represented MBBI at the Rotary Presidential Peacebuilding Conference on Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Peace. While visiting the Middle East for the first time, Lopez discovered Lebanon, connected with MBBI’s friends, and initiate conversations on collaborations on various possible partnerships that are looming in development.  

This is the second of six Rotary International Presidential Peacebuilding Conferences being held in 2018 globally and was attended by nearly 1,000 participants. The conference opened with a gala dinner and presentations by Michel Aoun, President of Lebanon, Rotary International President Ian Risley, and The Rotary Foundation Chair Paul Netzel.

The conference lasted for three days and addressed Water and Sanitation, one of Rotary International’s (RI) six focus areas. President Risley chose Beirut due to number of relevant factors including the presence of several RI Global Grant projects in the region. These projects focus on: improving water and sanitation; and addressing the escalating impact of climate change on fresh water resources in the Middle East which are already scarce and quickly becoming inadequate to meet regional demand. In the words of Dr. Costas Papanicolas, The Cyprus Institute nuclear and particle physicist, the Middle East and North Africa could soon become entirely uninhabitable due to increased temperatures and decreased rainfall.

The overarching theme was the exponentially increasing role of water in conflict regions and its exploitation as a political tool. This is due to pressures created by population increases and climate change. Initial presentations discussed the interdependence of Peace and “Hydrodiplomacy” / “Hydrohegemony,” whereby neighboring countries would work together to preserve international water basins while simultaneously satisfying domestic water needs, protecting food security, and enhancing economic systems. Specific examples of projects such as: the Nile Basin Initiative; the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project; and the United Nation’s Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential that is active in facilitating dialogues related to the management of transboundary water disputes. 

The conference also explored projects working to find solutions related to water crisis such as Hammoud Hospital, Eco Soap Bank, an incredible project that originated in Cambodia working to save, sanitize, and supply recycled hotel soap for the developing world, and RI’s “WASH in Schools” programs in addition to highlighting Patricia Shafer’s “Mothering Across Continents,” “NewGen Peacebuilders,” and NESTLE’s “water stewardship” projects.

Erica Gwynn, RI Water and Sanitation Focus Area Manager, gave a wonderful presentation on the Global Grants framework and keys to building a successful project and grant application. During a brief conversation between presentations, Gwynn stated that she was inspired by the heartening stories she had heard about MBBI from her Peace & Conflict Resolution Focus Area Manager counterpart, Rebecca Crall, and she seemed to clearly recognize the opportunities inherent in a formal partnership between MBBI and RI.   

The conference ended with a summary of the $4.3 Billion RI has raised in its 100-year history, its six areas of focus, the Peace Fellows program, and the framework for the Global Grants programs. The Rotary Foundation’s target of raising $2.025 Billion for its endowment by 2025 to make a $100 Million in annual investments possible. 

Thank you to MBBI for sharing the opportunity for this wonderful experience with me! I continue to grow ever more honored to be a part of this extraordinary organization.

Lisa Rose, Mediator and Training Consultant with  4Global based in Dublin and Belfast on the island of Ireland, was interviewed by Byron Wild, MBBI Writer, on February 7, 2017

She is responsible for the Council of Europe’s ROMED and ROMACT UK and Ireland programs. She is a member of Mediators Beyond Borders International and a current volunteer on the Kenya team. Originally from Northern Virginia, her route to living in Northern Ireland and being a mediator began very much by accident.

After studying French at George Mason University to work as the national marketing manager for a French food company, Lisa moved to Northern Ireland in 1993. She went to work at a vocational training center working with women who were returning to work after raising families as well as youth from tougher social realities. She later began assisting the Roma immigrants to Ireland as they attempted to navigate the new language, customs, and laws. “It’s difficult to find people who are willing to engage and work with this particular community due to considerable historical prejudice. But I loved the experience and it is where I first understood that I was often, without knowing it, mediating.” The human aspect of mediation compelled Lisa to receive mediation training and go on to make it her life’s work.

Lisa is more interested in people than in conflict. “Most people think mediation is about conflict, [but] mediation is about people, and conflict happens when people are together.” She has always been drawn to work with people who are ‘hard to reach’ or ‘marginalized’, though she doesn’t like any of those words. “Words such as ‘marginalized’ are distancing. We have to say these are community members full stop. Our language really matters.” She believes that it’s easy for a mediator to unintentionally promote separation despite the desire to help. “If you start with ‘harder to reach’ in your head, it instantly colors how you deal with any group.”

Her primary work within MBBI with the Kenya team is an ongoing effort to heal inter-tribal conflicts with the pastoralist society of rural Kenya. She described a tragic situation where, through the presence of guns, poverty, drought and interference from political and economic elites, the traditional cultural practices of the pastoral communities can spiral into killing, lethal retaliation, and deep rifts. For generations in these communities, young men proved their bravery and brought honor to their community by practicing cattle-raiding from neighboring communities, for the communities this was a way of life.  A balance was maintained, and people didn’t die. When weapons arrived many cattle raids became deadly, with community and family connections encouraging the young men to take acts of retaliation because of their grief.

As a key member of the Kenya team, Lisa works with the pastoralist community to help slow and interrupt the cycle of violence. The Kenya team delivered a United States Institute of Peace funded program called Warriors to Peace Guardians. Through deep dialogue, mapping, and historical reconciliation, the MBBI team sought to help the young warriors, including former warriors who became professionals in city centers, women, and elders transform how they engaged with the conflict. When the funding for the project ended, one of the  most essential tools to continue to support the Kenyan work has been “bearing witness” to the team members and communities experiences in Baringo County.  Thanks to technology, Lisa and others based outside of Kenya have maintained contact via video calls, phone calls, and Facebook.

Sometimes, someone just needs to say, ‘It’s not being covered on the news, but this really bad thing just happened.’ They just need to feel like they aren’t alone.

While MBBI’s efforts in Kenya did leave their local partners feeling empowered, like ‘marginalized’ or ‘hard to reach’, ‘empowered’ is another word that Lisa feels mediators need to be careful with. “It’s more like recognizing what’s already there. Empowerment still makes it sound like you’re giving somebody something when really it’s just helping people to recognize what they already have.”

In Kenya and beyond, Lisa’s engagement with indigenous cultures continues to show her the importance of equality between external organizations and their local partners. It is too easy for both sides to revert to the post-colonial dynamic that assumes Westerners will arrive with all the answers when most of the answers are already there. Overcoming this dynamic requires a mutual effort. For Westerners, it is incredibly important to arrive with a quality of service and humility. “We need to go out to learn from them. That will help us be better mediators and it will show our partners that what they are already doing is amazing, is valuable, and [it] works.”

The local partners need to approach an international partnership by asking ‘let us show you what we’re doing, what do you have that could complement it?’

Once the partnership can move past the post-colonial dynamic, what mutual learning is waiting? Lisa has seen time and again that indigenous peoples bring a strong sense of obligation and duty to their community, which stands in stark contrast to the higher degree of depersonalization in Western societies. “It becomes a great strength in their mediations. In general, they care more about the journey, about making the journey together towards solving the challenges rather than just solving the problem.”

A second important lesson we can learn is from the emphasis indigenous societies place on healing and reconciliation. Many Western models focus on solving the problem first, then circling back to the inner experience of conflict. “The experiences I’ve had,” she said, “are that [indigenous peoples] are dealing with the hurt first. They’re bravely staring into the pain people are carrying and not moving until they’ve got the community behind them.”What “Westerners” have is a wealth of analytic tools to map the complexity of political and economic modern-day conflicts. Offering these can help local partners see things from a new perspective and break through generational, entrenched conflicts, that is one area where our models and methods can compliment other structures.

Outside of MBBI Lisa also works with youth in Ireland and Northern Ireland to navigate the long-standing conflict on the island. Much of her work with young people includes giving them historical perspective on the conflict to promote empathy, understanding, and community within the next generation of Irish and British people on the island.

For anyone looking to work in peace-building, Lisa offers three pieces of advice:

* Be powerful. “Mediation is not for wimps. It is about power because power only backs up in the face of power. Power is part of it, and that’s not a bad thing.”

* Be humble. “Being open to learn something from every single person in a situation. Go in with an attitude of I’m going to learn.”

* Volunteer. But before looking for internships overseas, look in your own backyard. “Learn about people that are different than you. Don’t look for a conflict, just look for a community experiencing challenges. Wherever there are people there will be conflict.”

Nick Adlington, an accredited mediator, a psychotherapist in training, and the founder of go-dialogue, was interviewed by Emma Bohman-Bryant, MBBI Writer, on January 9, 2018

For Nick, the entrance into peace-building, a word that gives him pause for thought, has been a journey. Growing up in a small town outside Coventry, in the middle of England, Nick explains that he has, “always had a passion for adventure and experience.” After leaving school at 18 years old he traveled for a year in different parts of the world, which he describes as “a challenge to the assumptions and judgement I had learnt.” He goes on to say, “I had no idea really, about how other people lived. We all initially grow-up in our home silo, and then somehow, we find out more as we grow older. For me, arriving in places such as New York and Bangkok, at 18 years old, by myself, was a shocking experience.”

This integration of other perspectives and norms into his life continued at university in the North of England, followed by a year of teacher training, and then two years as a VSO volunteer in rural Zimbabwe. At university Nick studied with people who he describes as having “very different perspectives to my own and the predominant culture which I grew up in,” and then describes how working in Zimbabwe was “a significant lesson in a different way of living.”

Nick emphasizes how these experiences have shaped his views of the world and the challenging task of living peacefully in it. After returning to the UK from Zimbabwe he went on to work for VSO in London, Canada, and Nepal over a six-year period. He talks about his secondment as Country Director in Nepal, “going to work in Nepal was a huge challenge. The VSO program was going through considerable change at the time, and the country was in the midst of civil conflict.”

Nick elaborates on the challenge when he says “what I learnt in Nepal is, that in times of conflict, it is difficult to plan for a future. On a personal level, people turn inwards, naturally focus on survival. Building something more cohesive and relationship based becomes difficult.” After Nepal, Nick returned to the UK and went through a period of significant personal and professional change.

“My experiences in Nepal, and great changes in my personal life around 2003, shaped me onto a whole new course,” he explains, “as I had previously been as a teacher, I wanted to become a practitioner again.” Therefore, Nick chartered a course that would lead him, via many years at Great Ormond Street Hospital, into training as a Gestalt psychotherapist. He explains these years as “challenging.” He goes on to describe life changing experiences of managing his own conflicts, “I think the most polarizing thing we can do in peacemaking, is neglect to talk about conflict. The most salutary lessons I have learnt, and continue to learn, are through managing my own inter-personal conflicts and the emotions that come with this.”

Perhaps then we get to the heart of what drives Nick. He talks about a world that is “more cohesive and understanding of itself, with people willing to go on a journey for themselves, looking at their own behaviors, ways of being, and responsibilities of how they exist with others around them.” This interest, particularly in individuals’ responsibilities, is at the core of his work as a Gestalt psychotherapist. He explains that, “Gestalt practice focuses on change through relationship,” and locates the heart of this change in the “here and now.”

Nick describes peacemaking as “something we can do in every moment of every day, both within ourselves, and when we meet others.” He describes every interaction with another human being as a potential act of peace.

Along the way Nick has embraced peacemaking as a grassroots activist. He talks about times over the past ten years when he stood on the streets of London offering out postcards with positive messages written the back such as “Have a great day,” and “You are Wonderful.” He elaborates “I set-up an organization called We are Human for a while which aimed to promote the good in human relationships.”

Nick’s central project going forward is “go-dialogue” his self-started enterprise focusing on dialogue as a mechanism of peace. His aim is to create forums for dialogue on a global level, that he hopes will enhance mutual understanding. “Contact is essential for a sense of mutual understanding. What I have learnt of value, I have learnt through contact with others.” Last year Nick experimented by setting up circles of chairs in central London locations and seeing what emerged as people sat down to talk. He talks about the experiment, named Meeting Point, with some hesitancy, “Umm, if I’m honest, I’m not quite sure what was learnt, I feel like the outcomes are still being digested. I think how such spaces are pitched to the public is key, so that people can feel comfortable to sit and talk. I worry that people might have thought I was going to try and sell them a vacuum cleaner!” Despite this, Nick thinks that “communication is a lot simpler than we make it sometimes”, and adds, “I can feel something new emerging. It’s a matter of refining the experiment and going again.”

Nick explains that for him, peacemaking needs to work on and at many different levels, including the levels of international policy-making and grassroots activism. However, Nick is cautious about the words ‘peace’ and ‘peacemaking.’ He believes that “sometimes, there can be a narrative that says ‘peace is good, conflict is bad’ which then tends to polarize.” He describes polarities as “central to almost every conflict.”

Instead, Nick posits that a wider and more nuanced meaning of the word ‘peace’ could be needed or at the very least a continued dialogue about what we mean individually and collectively by the term “peacebuilding.” This, he states, is like a ‘duty of care’ towards the subject of peace, something that we are all passionate about and that “brings us together under the MBBI banner.”

For Nick, this is one of the reasons why organizations like MBBI are so important. Having been to a conference in October at MBBI, he notes that “it was inspiring to meet lots of other people who are interested in the same sorts of thing. It provides a meeting point for people who have similar interests to come together and support each other in the work that they are trying to do.” He describes how he has at times felt isolated in his life. “The paradox is that I don’t always find relationships easy, and my default is to withdraw. However, what I’ve learnt is that co-operation is essential to achieving a greater goal. MBBI is essential as a meeting point for people who wish to co-operate with each other on peace and conflict.”

For those who are just coming into a journey of their own, Nick would “encourage people to experiment and find out what part of the peace-building jigsaw they are excited about. If they are not sure how or how they want to fit, give it a go.” Nick was inspired at the conference by Ken Cloke’s description of what makes a good peace builder – audacity and humility.

“It takes quite a lot to live both of those, it takes bravery…If we want to create a world that is more peaceful, we need to take risks and be creative, create the conditions for blameless experiment; and understand that we will never know even the half of it!”

Scott Martin (SM), Mediator and Conflict Coach, was interviewed by Atreyi Bhattacharjee (AB), MBBI Writer, October 2017

Scott Martin, a landscape architect-turned-peacebuilder, is a former chapter president of MBBI-LA and former co-leader of MBBI’s Rwanda project. Scott has been engaged with MBBI for about a decade, and here’s his story:

AB:      Scott, let’s dive right in, shall we? Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SM:      I’m a landscape architect by trade, and I got into mediation about ten years ago. I started off by doing voluntary, community-based mediation, and eventually transitioned into volunteering with MBBI as a founding member. My first big role was working on the Rwanda project, and currently I’m involved with the Cambodian project.

AB:      I can’t imagine peacebuilding is a fundamental feature of landscape architecture. I’m sure the readers would be interested to know how you made the shift from architecture to mediation? What was your motivation?

SM:      As part of my education, I was offered a scholarship to spend a year studying architecture in Japan. I found that I was more interested in the social system aspect of the experience, as opposed to the design. If you have ever been to Japan, you would know that it’s …different place. As a 19 year-old, I found it fascinating. Meanwhile, in my senior year, I studied in Italy, which was on the opposite side of the spectrum. I was there when 9/11 happened. I was caught off-guard by my reaction to the tragedy was empathy for all the victims- including the people who had hijacked the planes and took their own lives to prove a point. I found myself in a unique position as an American. I saw people who felt gravely unheard and the lengths to which they were willing to go just to be heard. The idea that you would pass those people off as “crazy” or simply label them “terrorists” seems more dangerous than trying to understand where they were coming from.

The winter, I found myself on boats and trains through Sarajevo and the Balkans all the way to Turkey. I was in Istanbul during Ramazan and had the opportunity to engage local Muslims in dialogue on what had occurred. The whole cycle was an extremely transformative time for me. When I came back to the States, I still opened an office in design, however, I had a bifurcated career. I joined a school-board and became involved in mediation alongside architecture. Most recently, I was offered the 2017 Rotary Peace Fellowship to study peace and conflict resolution in Bangkok for three months and decided that I was finally going to close my design office and take up peacebuilding and mediation full time.

AB:      So, how long have you been a member of MBBI, and what do you enjoy most about being part of it?

SM:      I first signed up in 2007, I had heard about it at a conference from the founder, Ken Cloke, and I thought it was the perfect mix of international, multi-cultural, and the work I wanted to do. The following year, my design practice took me to Dubai, but I stayed in contact and continued to develop my skills.   There is nothing like working with inspiring colleagues on teams with like-minded people- I love the community that MBBI creates.

AB:      I understand that you started off with working on the Rwanda Project with MBBI, could you tell us a little bit about that experience? When did you start working on the project?

SM:      I believe it was around 2010-2012. What was great about the Rwanda Team was bringing a trauma-informed lens to transformative mediation. Combining the two elements felt meaningful then and has become essential to me now. I continue to apply the lessons I learned from that team. For instance, are we modeling the work on our team that are training people in? So now within our teams, we emphasize trauma-awareness and facilitation. I believe that’s an important piece, moving forward, for how MBBI develops as well. Tying into the Cambodian Project, one of the unique aspects of that project is looking at the sustainability of mediation. We are not only training trainers of mediation in the country, but we are also assisting in the development of their own sustainable model of mediation. How do we support a market and an environment for meditative practices rather than conducting one-off trainings and then disappearing? Though moving slowly, we are looking to support the creation of long-term, sustainable mediation practices.

AB:      Could you tell us what the reception to MBBI intervention has been like in Rwanda and now, in Cambodia? Do you think that – I’m sure it does to an extent – the rather grizzly history of the Rwandan genocide played a part in the positive or negative reception to mediation in the region? Conversely, is it any different in Cambodia, or do you find that reception is basically the same?

SM:      Yes, definitely, in both contexts they have suffered tremendously. Both Rwanda and Cambodia have grizzly pasts marred with genocide. In Rwanda, however, I perceived there was a bit more openness to the idea of mediation- both because of historical tradition and the Gacaca- locally run community courts who tried perpetrators and because their government has officially adopted mediation and reconciliation as a practice. That has not been the case necessarily in Cambodia. Our partners have been strong advocates for mediation, but it has not been adopted or accepted across the board. There have been overtures from the government to support the idea, but not at the same wholesale level found in Rwanda.

AB:      Are there any best practices to mediation that you’d like to share with the readers?

SM:      I would impress upon the need to sustain peace through mediation- migrating from a one-off training model. What can participants undergoing training with us do moving forward? How can they carry on mediating and building a peaceable future independently of outside aid? Travelling to a third world country to deliver a training may feel good, but it goes away without an effective forethought or an effective monitoring and evaluation plan follow-up. Fortunately, it is occurring. Sustainability is a big focus for MBBI and the shift is already positive.  The strictly volunteer practitioner dependent on donations model is not sustainable, neither for the people we are working with nor MBBI professionals. We must create value for all sides and monetize that value effectively.

AB:      Turning back to your own journey, you mentioned earlier that you received the Rotary Peace Fellowship. What was the defining moment when you determined that you were going to leave landscape architecture and go into peacebuilding full time?

SM:      Well, the first was simply being at the ACR [Association for Conflict Resolution] Conference in Baltimore with a few colleagues from MBBI. The rich opportunities to have meaningful discussions about where we could be taking mediation as a field and applying it on a community level- make my heart sing. The very next day, I sat through a planning commission hearing.  Spending my time getting a project approved, rebutting petty issues, arguing over the placement of palm trees… just didn’t feel like a good use of my gifts any longer. I hit a wall and I knew my previous design work would not fulfill me in the same way just one weekend with my MBBI colleagues did. The Fellowship and spending three months away, gave me an excuse to tell my clients that I would be pursuing this full time now. I told my employees that we would be transitioning out over the next three months. We closed the office and it allowed me to dive fully into the work. Being in Thailand gave me the head space to ask myself difficult questions and challenge myself on a personal level to figure out what steps to take next.

AB:      I’m sure that will encourage many of the readers to follow their passions. What do you think are some of the key characteristics of effective mediators?

SM:      I think most crucially, the ability to be present, to listen on a deeper level, and come from a place of curiosity and questions that people have been dying to be asked their whole life.  Essentially, to know that mediation is not about coming from a place of intellect and methodic interrogation. It is about listening and assisting others to hear.

AB:         How do you think peacebuilding has evolved over the past decade?

SM:         Speaking for myself, I’ve seen a value towards trauma awareness and self-care. Originally, I thought being a diplomat or a peacebuilder meant you came into the situation dutifully to help others. I was not as aware of what effects of working in vulnerable environments might have on you or the people you are working with.  Instead of coming with answers, I have learned that being in service means asking questions.  I have greater sense of responsibility amongst teams to practice self-care and be aware of the trauma that you are experiencing.

AB:      How do the people on the ground receive you? As you said, trauma awareness was given less importance which tells us that is has been built up and developed. For instance, when you started with the Rwanda Project, what were people’s reactions towards you, a “Western” man?

SM:         The important part to know is that […]we don’t do mediation in foreign countries, we only train the trainers. But, to your point, we were received warmly- like family. It exciting having a Western organization coming in and giving their organization clout. Any sort of international exposure is welcome. The danger is that they agree to just about anything you offer. If you suggest trauma-informed training, they say yes. If you want to spend the time learning soccer together, they say yes. This is why asking the right questions and having those questions come from them, is essential. That only comes from meeting them, sitting with them, hearing the questions they ask first, and get to a meaningful discussion about needs.

AB:      Finally, who do you think should join MBBI, and why?

SM:      I would like to see a greater range of professions identifying themselves as mediators. I would like to see doctors, teachers, engineers, architects like myself, and many others. In reality, you are mediating all the time- regardless of your field.  To the extent that MBBI can invite non-traditional professions to move towards mediation through dialogue, facilitation, I strongly believe that MBBI and positive peace can grow exponentially rather than incrementally.