The SDG’s and Choppy Seas, Member Spotlight: Tobi Dress-Germain, J.D.
“Conflict is inevitable, ever-present, and universal. It can be complex and mercurial, but need not be intractable. Early and artful use of the right tools, venues, and methodologies for principled intervention – in tandem with good faith and social and political will – can resolve conflict and pave the way to meaningful discourse and solutions.”
Tobi Dress-Germain is an attorney, mediator, and lecturer on peacebuilding and human security, as well as a consultant/adviser for United Nations (UN) agencies and international organizations, on conflict prevention, governance, and rule of law. She has made extraordinary contributions to peacebuilding and conflict prevention as a public interest lawyer, mediation trainer, mediation program designer, and as co-founder and former Director of Mediation Programs for the Commission on Human Rights for the City of New York. She has worked extensively with NGOs, in academia, and for the UN in New York, Geneva, and the field. She has also created several mediation programs for government agencies and lectures on the creation of mediation programs for government departments and ministries.
While at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, she authored a volume on conflict prevention, “Designing A Peacebuilding Infrastructure: Taking a Systems Approach to the Prevention of Deadly Conflict,” launched at UNHQ-NY in 2005. It was widely disseminated and has been used as a guide in war-torn and transitional countries. She has lectured in universities, graduate programs, and law schools in the U.S. and overseas, and has published in national and international journals and the academic press on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Tobi is a strong advocate for collaborative problem-solving and dialogic processes, which she believes are “… deeply effective methodologies for bolstering resilience and strengthening human security through inclusion of diverse constituencies and voices.”
In the current national and international landscape, with civic space shrinking and authoritarianism increasing, the needs of many population sectors are unheard and unrecognized. Tobi believes that collaborative dialogic processes that deepen discourse within communities, both horizontal and vertical, are geostrategically wise and necessary, and are a crucial tool for expanding civic space so that people can take more control of their own decision-making, futures planning, and the destinies of their communities. In her view, facilitated discussions are more than spoken words; they are catalysts for change.
“Mediation is an extraordinary – and compassionate – tool.”
Tobi has always been deeply connected to social justice issues. She majored in anthropology as an undergraduate and studied racial justice, poverty law, and civil rights in law school. During law school, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House, worked with several civil rights groups, and joined Amnesty International as a volunteer. She then became a federal litigator prosecuting consumer fraud.
However, she later learned about mediation and enrolled in courses through the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, where she studied all forms of collaborative problem-solving. She transitioned to mediating complex, multi-party disputes, which allowed her to develop keen mediative and collaborative problem-solving skills. She also began creating mediation programs for government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private clients and served as an External Administrative Judge for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
She expanded her mediation practice to include human rights and identity-based disputes and joined the Human Rights Commission for NYC. In a system characterized by an enormous backlog and multi-year waiting periods, Tobi developed extensive mediation initiatives and trained private lawyers to mediate as volunteers to improve access to, and quality of, justice. The Commission observed remarkable success with these programs; the backlog was reduced from many years to a few months and participant satisfaction was extraordinary.
“Mediation is a remarkable tool,” particularly in human rights and identity-based cases, Tobi notes. “Time and again, you watch rage, indifference, and distrust dissolve into unexpected awakenings, apologies, and new perceptions, [together with appropriate remedies]. It’s a transformative experience to see indignities and humiliation melt away, to see the relief in the faces, a burden off the shoulders, a sense of being heard, and recognized… powerful interactions to witness.”
Tobi became convinced that mediation should be utilized “… more frequently and much earlier within the international public sector, where volatile inter-group disputes so often become armed and violent.” To that end, she decided to dedicate time and energy to raising awareness within the international community about mediative and collaborative peacebuilding processes and the benefits of early mediation.
“Mediation can serve as a form of early warning, intervention, prevention, trust-building, and development of community cohesion, and though it’s used much more now than it was 20 years ago, it’s still not used widely enough and early enough.”
However, Tobi cautions that, along with the need for greater use of mediated dialogue, third-party neutrals serving as mediators and facilitators must be well-trained, vetted, highly principled, and without conflicts of interest. “If there are conflicts they must disclose them or be recused. This is not simple or comfortable, but it is essential if a process is to be trusted and effective. When it is trusted it works. And when words work, they obviate weapons.”
“… Reflection, rethinking, and reimagining outcomes”
Following her work as a human rights mediator, Tobi began working with the UN on projects related to rule of law, governance, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding. She also practiced law in one of the UN’s law offices, working closely with the Ombuds Office. She also began lecturing widely and giving presentations at universities and law schools, including Loyola Law School, Harvard Law School, Pepperdine Law School, SOAS-London, Ewha University-Seoul, Yale, University of Southern California, and Sciences-Po-Paris. In Geneva, she worked with a number of UN agencies on conflict and violence prevention, including UNDP, HCR, WHO, NGLS, UNRISD, and the ILO, and worked at UNESCO in Paris. She also served with other multilateral organizations, and with INGOs such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. She has also been on mission and training missions to Romania, Moldova, Istanbul, Moscow, China, London, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Denmark, Oxford, and Berlin.
She was invited to co-author a book chapter on peacebuilding and UN reform for the International Peace Institute, which led to being commissioned to write the “Development Dossier” on conflict prevention, Designing A Peacebuilding Infrastructure. In this volume, Tobi demonstrates that mediative methodologies, when properly practiced, have the capacity to elevate the peacebuilding process and deepen it, turning it into “… a very productive enterprise, with parties and representatives listening to each other with less skepticism, and more genuinely acknowledging and understanding each others’ interests and those of their constituencies. It works at a level that promotes reflection, rethinking, reimagining outcomes, and sometimes in volatile circumstances, actually diffuses residual tensions and aids parties in reimagining collective futures. Ultimately, this deeper understanding can pave a path toward resilience and sustainable peace.”
“Steering, sailing, and rowing in the direction of justice and sustainable peace…”
Fast forward to the present day, and Tobi’s work serves as an inspiration to continue pressing forward on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 agenda and not be derailed by world events, however difficult. “If ever there was a need for governments to engage in collaborative thinking, and if ever there was a time to be training and developing mediators in every country, every city, every remote village, and every crowded barrio, this is the time. But governments alone cannot achieve the SDGs. These goals are meant to advance human security, and civil society must be engaged and raise its collective voice.”
In her view, “The SDGs are, in effect, the UN’s‘ action plan for civilization.” Launched in 2015 and intended to be achieved by 2030, they represent a comprehensive framework for the UN’s collective body of work. They distill the normative and operational objectives for over 190 Member-states into 17 goals and serve as a “…blueprint to achieve a higher-quality, more resilient and more sustainable future.”
However, considering the obstacles blocking progress on so many of the goals, Tobi asserts that “There should be standby teams of process experts in mediation, facilitation, and all aspects of collaborative problem-solving to assist in-country officials, civil society organizations, and subject-matter experts to work, plan, envision, and together achieve the SDGs – not an easy task, but an essential one.”
Amidst the current global climate, characterized by “…the trend towards a reductive form of leadership, a growing sense of authoritarianism, and shrinking civic space, the inclusion of Goal 16, to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies is a substantial step forward for conflict prevention and expanded access to justice.”
In fact, the SDGs cover everything from climate change, land use, clean water, oceans, and clean energy, to reducing poverty and hunger; improving global health and nutrition; expanding quality education; reducing inequality and achieving greater diversity and gender equity in all aspects of policymaking, and countless additional elements to improve quality of life globally. “But for the SDGs to be attained by all Member-states, there needs to be cooperation in planning, thought, and effort, with multiple constituencies in every country, on every issue, proactively engaged,” Tobi notes.
“The collaborative engagement and planning needed to accelerate the SDGs is a tall order. And this is where MBBI enters the frame. It is what MBBI was created to do and does so well – working with civil society, governments, and disparate constituencies as a conduit to bridge ideas, reconcile differences, and achieve goals.”
Tobi emphasizes that “…often in such instances the goal of the process is, in effect, to mediate amongst ideas rather than between parties.” She is working with MBBI to develop an ‘SDG Solutions Platform’ that will be able to offer all levels of mediative and dialogic support to Member-states when they are confronted with barriers and impediments to any of the SDGs. MBBI is partnering with other peacebuilding agencies, NGOs, and academic programs in order to optimize capacity, and a climate change team is already available.
“We are currently functioning amidst multi-tiered global crises – – a pandemic has claimed many of us and weakened economies and communities, democracy has been badly bruised over the last few years, and the world order is chaotic and frayed. Geopolitical seas are unusually choppy.
Yet for national populations to be healthier, properly nourished, and attain better education and employment, with increasingly green technologies, Member-states would be well-served to partner with process experts to help navigate the SDG process as smoothly as possible, help them reconcile positions where needed, conserve time and energy, and take some of the burdens off their own shoulders.”
In closing, Tobi says: “As a small girl, I saw a newscast about a ship docking in ports worldwide offering medical treatment to low-income communities. It was more than a vessel; it was a symbol projecting hope, dedication, and obstacles overcome for the common good. Now, the SDGs, peacebuilding and development agencies, and NGOs of all types – grassroots to global – serve as a collective conveyance of hope and possibility. While often overwhelmed and under-resourced, they are nonetheless steering, sailing, and rowing in the direction of access to justice, sustainable peace, and human security. They share the goal of reducing hunger, poverty, war, and fear, while supporting the dignity, health, and well-being of every nation, every neighborhood, and every community on this fragile but hopeful planet.”
Article by Juliana Heffern, MBBI Writer