ANNUAL REPORT 2009 - FPDL

participants were former high officials, like vice president, prime minister, department/cabinet ministers, and parliamentarians.Training objectivesThe training had three main objectives:• By the end of the training, participants are familiar with the main conceptsunderlying the field of Conflict Resolution, including: defining conflict,understanding the underlying causes of conflicts, tools for conflict analysis, stylesand strategies in solving conflicts;• Participants know how to use two foundational strategies to resolve conflicts:communication and interest-based negotiation; and• Participants have a deeper understanding of leadership as a concept.Program evaluationThe program was very well received by participants. Here after is the synthesis oftraining themes:• “What is Conflict” introduced several definitions of conflict, emphasizing thatconflicts are neither good nor bad and are just a natural part of life, making itvitally important to understand this complex topic.• The way we solve conflicts or the outcomes of conflicts can be good or bad. Wemay not be able to eliminate conflicts, but we should know how to have livelycontroversies instead of deadly quarrels, how to create constructive conflicts, notdestructive ones.• Various tools for analysis of different stages of a conflict, through the RPP[Reflexion sur la Pratique de la Paix] method and the case study of Liberia wereintroduced to the participants. The case study gave participants the opportunityfor group analysis of the elements of a successful conflict analysis, to improveknowledge. The elements of analysis included: Identification of forces for andagainst peace, and of the key actors involved (using the Three Boxes Tool),Identification of driving factors in the conflict, Analysis of the dynamics betweenthe forces involved in the conflict, Elaboration of key interventions for peace,Planning for intervention strategies (using RPP matrix, which allows reflections onthe strategies, to bring changes for peace. The RPP matrix proposes two parallelapproaches -- one is to work with as many people as possible and the other is towork with key persons in order to obtain individual and socio-political levelchanges for preserving the peace.)• Our personal Conflict Management Style often affects if a given conflict willdevelop into a constructive or destructive situation. There are five styles, whichare a combination of two variables: how much you fight for your interests andhow much you consider the other’s interests. We do not always use the sameConflict Management Style. Each style is effective in specific situations.• Conflicts have their own life cycle: they are born, they may arrive at full andintense expression and they die.• We can use Alternative Resolution Strategies to solve conflicts (as opposed tostandard litigation and confrontation), if parties are still willing to communicate,directly or via a third, neutral person. These strategies are DirectCommunication, Negotiation (structured communication), Mediation (facilitatednegotiation) and Facilitation of Problem-Solving processes (multi-partymediation).• Leadership: we all have the capacity to inspire and empower others, but wemust first be willing to devote ourselves to growth and development as leaders.Summary of trainings’ resultsThe results of the training are in both quantitative and qualitative formats, from theinterpretation of the training evaluations completed by the participants, as well from the29