GPC-3: [Mid-Conference Plenary] Convening Our Rotary Peacebuilding Community for Positive Peace

​Join us for the mid-conference plenary! This will feature a keynote speaker followed by a panel discussion on convening our Rotary peacebuilding community for positive peace. The session will also include breakout rooms focusing on inner peace, generating practical ideas for the Rotary peace community, the draft conference declaration, and general networking and community-building.

​Keynote Speaker:

​Mandar Apte is the Director of Cities4Peace, a strategic peacebuilding initiative of the International Association for Human Values and the Art of Living Foundation. He has had a two-decade stint with Shell, where he managed the GameChanger social innovation program investing in ideas that create shared business value and social impact. Mandar is also the Producer/Director of the documentary From India With Love which delves into ideas of nonviolence (Ahimsa) from across the world. Mandar founded the World Summit for Countering Violence & Extremism which brings together peace activists and law enforcement executives in the spirit of promoting peace and compassion. For over a decade, he has taught leadership using meditation practices.

​Panelists:

​Rukmini Iyer is a Rotary Peace Fellow (Chulalongkorn University) and currently a Board member of the Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni Association. She works at the intersection of business, leadership, peacebuilding and systems design. Over the last 22 years, she has worked across the globe with corporate organizations, the development sector, communities and individuals through the modalities of consulting, facilitation, coaching and dialogue. The inspiration to be an entrepreneur 15 years ago--by setting up her consulting practice Exult! Solutions--came from her need to integrate her work in conscious leadership and organizational development, and peacebuilding, and to create a bridge between these spaces.

​Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska is a genocide scholar, educator and a Rotary Peace Fellow (Chulalongkorn University). Her Ph.D. research deals with Holocaust distortion and identity. She has extensive experience in the field of memorialisation, dealing with the past, and genocide education for diverse audiences in post-conflict societies in Eastern Europe and South- and Southeast Asia. Her recent experience includes work at the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw as well as cooperation with the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh and other museums and sites of memory. She has also worked with organisations countering racism; as well as projects on countering Holocaust and genocide denial in Southeast Asia coordinated by the Never Again Association. In 2018, she was a European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Fellow at the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Bucharest. With her experience as a Rotary Peace Fellow, she has co-chaired the Rotary Peace Projects Incubator, and has also been a coordinator for Europe at the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPFAA).

​Elaheh Pooyandeh is a Rotary Peace Fellow alumni of University of Bradford (2018-2019) with masters degree in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies. Her area of work and interest includes peace education, development, chemical weapons disarmament and gender equality. She currently works as a freelancer in peace education and development in Iran.

​Masao Mizuno is an active Rotarian and highly involved with the Rotary Peace Fellowship program in Japan. He started traveling to Europe and South Asian countries in the 1980s, and worked in Saudi Arabia. In the 1990s he started a joint venture company with an international industrial tool manufacturing company. In 2008, he joined the Ageo-West Rotary Club. He became a Rotary Peace Fellow counsellor in 2015 and assistant coordinator of the International Christian University (ICU) Peace Fellow Committee in 2020.

​Bindu Shirsath is an ophthalmologist practicing since 25 years, and a Rotarian since 20 years. She has worked in remote tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra in India, conducting free eye camps, especially for leprosy patients. She has also worked as a Rotary volunteer in remote villages in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Since 2002, through her Rotary Club, she has spearheaded many projects for the youth: e-learning, cyber crime awareness, use of artificial intelligence, menstrual health and hygiene, and upcycling workshops. She is currently enrolled in the Institute of Economics and Peace Ambassador program through Rotary and will be presenting 'Project Mindstrong', which aims to empower youth with strategies to develop positive mental health, and also train young volunteers as 'Mindstrong Ambassadors' to support the community.

​Moderator:

​Florence Maher is a social scientist, international civil servant, and a former diplomat and a Rotary Peace Fellow (International Christian University). She helps governments and technical experts build multi-stakeholder coalitions to develop data-driven international policy. She is currently working at the OECD on the human aspects of nuclear technology, including gender, leadership, and diversity. As a previous US government official, she worked on integrating research-backed social science methodology on conflict into US foreign policy; international cooperation on cybersecurity policy, anti-terrorist financing, sanctions, export controls, and nuclear nonproliferation; and consular affairs.

​Facilitators:

​Natalija Vojno is a Rotary Peace Fellow (2020-2022, International Christian University) with a decade of experience helping diverse groups align on environmental priorities and actions – be it North America’s Great Lakes or the Nile River. Her work and research to date have been at the intersection of environmental policy and peacebuilding. She has led environmental campaigns, been a speech writer for Ontario's Minister of the Environment, and facilitated multi-stakeholder spaces for foresight and dialogue e.g. Balkan Youth Environmental Assembly (virtual) and Youth in Water Diplomacy (Cairo). She seeks to support systems that enable life on Earth for all by focusing on SDG 6 Water & Sanitation and SDG 16 Peace & Institutions.

​Luz Carreno is a current Rotary Peace Fellow (International Christian University) and a social justice advocate who has experience working in public schools, nonprofits, and young female empowerment programs. Prior to becoming a Rotary Peace Fellow, Luz worked for different nonprofits that advocated for and empowered refugee and immigrant communities in Utah. She has also worked with first-generation English Language Learners, where she oversaw after school programs that provided educational resources and encouraged these students to continue their higher education. As the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, Luz has been very involved with the Latinx Creative Society which is an organization that raises awareness about Latinxs in Logan, Utah through literary and media arts such as poetry, short story, documentary, and filmmaking. Luz is currently working on a master's degree in public policy and social research with a specialty in peace studies from International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, she holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Utah State University in Logan, Utah (USA).

​Kanakulya Dickson is the Research Coordinator at the Makerere Rotary Peace Centre and a Lecturer at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University. He holds a Ph.D. (Makerere), Licentiate (Linköping), M.A (Bergen) and B.A. (Makerere). 

​Eva Czermak, MD, E.MA. is a trained physician, has a Master’s degree in Human Rights and is a Rotary Peace Fellow besides being a trained mediator and polyglot. Currently she works for Caritas Austria for humanitarian aid projects in Ukraine and additionally two projects in Burundi (a medical project and a project about sanitary pads) with a partner which is a religious order for reconciliation. Until 2021 Eva Czermak has gathered extensive experience in the socio-medical field in Austria, where she worked almost 20 years (9 of which as manager of an NGO) with marginalized groups, providing healthcare to homeless people, poverty migrants, refugees, people with mental health and substance abuse problems. She is very experienced with the various life problems and also language and integration challenges of these target groups and has contributed substantially to the diversity policy for hospitals in Austria. Other experiences include participation in dialogue projects in the US, international experience in the development and humanitarian fields, election observation, and provision of trainings in the medical, communication and human rights fields.

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​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 Red Dot Foundation 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!