GPC-3: Framing Conflict
Analyzing the Future of Conflict (FOC) is essential to forward thinking, innovative and impactful peacemaking with a focus on prevention at the personal, community, regional to international level. Conflict analysis processes, at times, are limited by a focus on historical to current dynamics bound by borders or arbitrary lines. This can result in a frozen or stagnated understanding of vital and evolving conflict to violence dynamics that have broader ripple implications across communities to regions. Peace programming is then designed based on these limitations and is at risk for being several steps behind dynamics as in the cases, for some examples, of intra to inter-community conflicts to countries (e.g. Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria, Ukraine) and entire regions. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to interactively explore current trends and trajectories globally with a focus on Myanmar and Kenya case studies. Participants will then learn more about conflict analysis processes utilizing analytical tools with a focus on trends, trajectories and scenarios as a vital means to ensure more forward thinking conflict prevention and peace strategies in an ever changing lives and world. The workshop will close with discussions around forward thinking, more innovative, peace strategies for durable peace and next steps. This workshop, importantly, provides a foundation for the overall Global Peace Conference.
Featuring:
Martine Miller is the Acting Director of the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a conflict transformation specialist with over 20 years of experience engaged directly with communities, inter/national non-governmental organizations and academic institutions, governments, regional bodies, and UN agencies. Her work has engaged her in fluid war to post-war reconstruction contexts across 80 countries throughout Africa, Central to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, West to East Europe, North and South America. She is specialized in geopolitical, identity (e.g. ethno-religious, women, and youth) and environment / climate change dynamics in conflicts globally.
Hannes Siebert is a facilitator, advisor and peace envoy. As senior adviser for the UN, Common Space Initiative (CSI), FELM and Peace Appeal Foundation (PAF) in the Middle East and Asia, Siebert is providing technical and facilitation support to national dialogues and peace structures, and to political reform processes. He has worked in many of the world’s most conflict-ridden societies. In South Africa he served in the National Peace Secretariat, the multi-party body mandated to implement its 1992 Peace Accord. Post-1994 he assisted the Special Presidential Task Force in key conflicts, focusing on de-militarization of youth militia.
Bernardo Venturi is the director and co-founder of the Agency for Peacebuilding (AP), an associate fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and an adjunct professor at the University of Bologna. He has 15 years of experience as a scholar and a practitioner, publishing extensively on peacebuilding, security, Africa affairs and European Union foreign policy. Bernardo obtained his PhD in 2009 from the University of Bologna. Periods of study and research led him to the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, to the Moldova State University, to the Oslo’s Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in Norway, to the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) and to the Sussex University in the UK. Among his past positions, he also contributed to the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) serving as Steering Committee member and he was a lecturer for five years at the Marist College, Florence Branch Campus.
Solomon Odero (Kenya) is the Co-Founder and Director of the Development Associates for Young Africans, a non-profit organization that promotes peace building and conflict transformation with a focus on job creation and economic empowerment for women and young people living in poor urban and rural communities in Kenya. Through this work, he leads a Norwegian funded South-to-South exchange program (NOREC) between South Africa and Kenya where DAY-Africa is the coordinating partner. Since being a Peace Fellow in 2020 (Class 28) at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, he has been engaged as a Positive Peace Activator-East Africa with the Institute for Economics and Peace and Rotary International. He has returned to Bangkok to pursue his MA in International Development Studies and is working closely with the Rotary Peace Center to strategically design an Africa Studies Program at Chulalongkorn University.
Khin Khin is an interdisciplinary facilitator and practitioner with a background in education, development and conflict transformation. Khin Khin is inspired by people, human stories, nature, art, creative spaces, circle processes, the art of hosting conversations, chocolate and coffee. Originally from Myanmar, she is a vital instructor at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.
Facilitators:
Elaine Pratley (Rotary Peace Fellow, 2011 Chulalongkorn University) is a peace mobilizer and broker of partnerships in Melbourne, Australia. She developed her practice in partnerships in the government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors, and is completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne on youth peacebuilding and food. She was the co-chair of the 2021 Global Peace Conference (GPC-2) and Asia-Oceania Regional Lead in 2020 and 2023 (GPC-1 and 3). She has lived in Switzerland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and China and loves working with inter-generational and intercultural teams.
Raymond Hyma is a conflict transformation adviser at Women Peace Makers and co-developer of Facilitative Listening Design (FLD), a participatory action peace research methodology leveraging inquiry to build alliances between conflict parties and learn about each other through the process. A two-time Rotary Peace Fellow, Raymond completed the master programme at the Universidad del Salvador in Argentina as well as the professional development certificate at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. He is a recent Asia Pacific Leadership Fellow at the East-West Center in Hawai’i and current Rei Foundation Scholar pursuing a PhD at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. His research explores the dimensions of bias in participatory research and the potential for conflict transformation and he is co-author of the recent publication Who’s Listening? Understanding ‘Us’ to know ‘Them.’
Krissta Kirschenheiter is a US Citizen who spent her childhood growing up in Micronesia, first on the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia and then on Saipan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and her law degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Krissta is currently earning her master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies as a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Queensland. Krissta intends to explore global solutions to better address climate change, especially in regard to its implications on the people of Oceania.
Miriam Mylvaganam is a Senior International Advisor at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment in New Zealand where she advises on the governance of the Migration Five forum and works on strategy building to grow New Zealand's bilateral relationships. She has previously led the operations for Refugees and Afghanistan Evacuees to safely relocate and stay in New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) system during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also worked in Thailand and Cambodia and will be completing her Rotary Peace Fellowship this year at the University of Bradford.
Gabe Hau has been a Rotarian for nearly 25 years but has only focused on peace in the last 5 years. His passion is to spread the idea of peace to as many people as he can. Peace is like an infectious laughter: the more it spreads, the easier it is to catch it. We want everyone to find peace and laughter. Gabe is the District 9800 Peacebuilding Committee Chair, an IEP Ambassador and a member of the Rotary Action Group for Peace.
Sally Angelson has worked in the international development sector for 20+ years, and has had the privilege of working across many continents, perspectives, beliefs and realities. A proponent of locally led development, she has worked with many communities through independence planning and strategic exit planning, and in sectors as broad as ending violence against women and children, water and sanitation, quality inclusive education, sustainable livelihoods and conflict resolution. For her PhD, she is researching the localisation agenda and how to make practical steps forward towards a more equitable, just and sustainable future for people and planet.
2023 GLOBAL PEACE CONFERENCE (GPC-3): Over 24 hours of peace talks, skills-based workshops and networking
Do you care deeply about your community and looking for ideas to bring about positive change?
Join us on 4 March 2023 for the third 24-hour online Global Peace Conference: an exciting, interactive convergence of thought-provokers, peacebuilders and everyday people building peace in their spheres of influence.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL AGENDA
The theme of this year’s conference is “Strengthening Our Peacebuilding Community”. This theme is an extension of our desire to connect our planet with people power, towards a peaceful and just existence for all. This year’s 24-hour conference has programming in four global geographical regions, with plenaries and skill-building sessions, covering all time zones across the globe and enabling anyone, anywhere, to participate.
This volunteer-led initiative of Rotary Peace Fellows and other members of the broader Rotary peace ecosystem is based on the premise that everyone has the power to change the world. We work in civil society, academia, and government. We work in conflict resolution, sustainable development, and business. We are change makers in our community wherever we are based across the globe, and have a passion to transform conflict into growth and potential.
This 24-hour Global Peace Conference is not a typical academic conference or business networking opportunity. Our value is in dialogue and in collaboration, so everyone—YOU included—has a part to play in making our conference meaningful.
The event will feature:
Local peacebuilders from all over the world
Interactive sessions at all time zones
Ample opportunity for training and networking
Join us by registering above! The conference is free of charge thanks to the generosity of volunteers and donors from the Rotary peace community, including Carol Fellows and Tim Bewley. The Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University also provided technical support to realize this session.
If you would like to make a donation to help keep future conferences free and inclusive, please click here. Thank you for your support!
WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS AFTER THE CONFERENCE?
During the inclusive, open planning meetings to prepare for the conference, it was decided to develop a conference declaration setting out positive peace as a unifying concept to unite Rotary Peace Fellows, other peacebuilders, and the Rotary family. The goal is also to articulate a vision for the conference as a vehicle to strengthen the Rotary peace ecosystem and to build relationships with and elevate grassroots peaceubilders. Please provide feedback on the draft conference declaration:
COMMENT ON THE DRAFT HERE
Thank you for your constructive input!