DISCURSOS - Rotary International

You may ask what differences the Rotary Peace Fellowship program is making and the potential it
has for the future.
It is not controversial today that education is a key tool for accelerating development, and the correlation
between justice, peace, and development has been widely accepted. The sheer scale of the
devastating effects that violence and large-scale conflict have on development was recently emphasized
by the World Bank in its landmark 2011 World Development Report. According to this report, a
civil war costs, on average, as much as three decades of GDP growth in a medium-size developing
economy. Two decades are usually needed to restore trade levels after major outbreaks of violence.
Conflict has a devastating impact on the world. It is estimated that 1 billion people, including about
340 million of the world’s extreme poor, live in fragile states, in extreme poverty, and without reliable
and stable basic governance and security.
Without proper and timely handling, conflict can easily destabilize an entire region. Its global impacts
are quickly seen, thanks to information technology and globalization. There is an ongoing need
for intervention, mitigation, transformation, and resolution plans that are well thought-out and coordinated.
I believe that the resolve of Rotarians to establish research and education centers at leading
academic institutions across the globe is truly an innovative response to the global need.
These centers are unique in many ways: They are different in their academic culture, method of
instruction, geographic location, and diverse excellence. Despite their differences, all serve one purpose:
serving humanity to cherish peace through knowledge. In other words, all centers, having admitted
interested and competent applicants from all over the world through a rigorous competitive
process, train and equip them with tools for conflict prevention, management, transformation, and
resolution. More so, these graduates of the Rotary Peace Fellowship are functioning and collaborating
with one another, either in well-organized or informal ways, through their global networks.
Peace fellows come to the centers with rich experience in the field and an extensive knowledge
base to be shared with the scholars and students of the university community. Their exposure to
global culture and the experiences of their colleagues is supplemented by lectures, readings, conflict
analysis tools, deep and complex theoretical frameworks, campuswide and off-campus seminars,
and various other RI-led global and regional functions. I cannot think of any other program in
this field that parallels the Rotary Peace Centers experience.
By drawing on my personal experience, I can note here some of the valuable contributions of the
Rotary Peace Centers:
1. My Rotary Peace Fellowship at Berkeley exposed me to an unforgettable global culture
of peace, tolerance, mutualism, and respect for diversity.
2. This fellowship helped me become an independent thinker who can develop innovative
solutions to conflict.
3. The fellowship gave me an opportunity to reach out to amazing global networks of peace.
4. My association with a leading research university and Rotary Peace Center earned
me immediate recognition as a scholar, practitioner, and executive coach in the field
of conflict resolution. To mention just one example, I was nominated to join the World
Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Rule of Law thanks to recognition of the
Rotary center at Berkeley.
5. Rotary Peace Centers established for the world’s benefit one common roster of peace
fellows who are linked in spirit and action to the ideals of Rotary International. Scholars
and graduates of these centers are highly respected because they are known to have
been trained at prestigious universities.
6. Last but not least, the Rotary Peace Fellowship offers those of us from unrepresented
parts of the world, such as Africa, opportunities that we would never have otherwise.
International Assembly Speeches 2013 31