Initiatives of Change

After a bomb exploded in Nairobi on 18 November, sparking riots, two renowned peacemakers from Nigeria, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, were able to respond quickly, leading prayers at the scene of the blast and calling on the community ‘not to make the same mistakes that have been made in Nigeria’.

The peacemakers were in Kenya to run training of trainers’ workshops for peace practitioners, supported by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Initiatives of Change.Their first workshop brought together faith leaders invited by the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (SUPKEM) and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), together with lecturers in Christian-Muslim relations from St Paul’s University, Limuru, and activists from conflict flashpoints, including Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums, and the suburb of Eastleigh, home to many ethnic Somali Muslims.

Seven people were killed when the bomb was detonated on a bus in Eastleigh. It was followed by random reprisal attacks, leaving a further six people dead including the brother of one of the workshop participants.

At the urging of Sheikh Hassan Omari, Assistant Director of Religious Affairs for SUPKEM, Wuye and Ashafa and the USIP/IofC project team decided to take the workshop to Eastleigh. Invited by George Natembeya, District Commissioner of Kamakunji, and Hassan Yusuf, MP for Eastleigh, the group toured Eastleigh in an open-air truck

provided by the Ministry of Provincial Administration and Internal Security. As the first faith leaders to visit the scene of the blast, they held prayers and encouraged one Muslim and one Christian leader from the workshop to read a Peace Declaration condemning the misuse of religion and calling on Kenyans ‘to shun all politics of identity and religion at this critical moment’.

This work is part of an on-going project supported by USIP and IofC to transfer the peace-building methodologies depicted in the documentary film An African Answer across Kenya. Meanwhile GTV, the national TV network in Ghana, is broadcasting both of IofC’s films about the Nigerian peacemakers in all six of the country’s major languages, reaching an estimated 10 million viewers.

‘An American victory over poverty, illness and pain is needed for the sake of the American people and also for the sake of the rest of humanity,’ Rajmohan Gandhi told participants in the annual Metropolitan Richmond Day forum organized by IofC’s Hope in the Cities programme in November. ‘In particular, I would argue that fairness within America is needed to show an example to newly advancing nations such as China, Brazil and India.’

Speaking in the context of the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, Prof. Gandhi asked, ‘What does emancipation mean in our time? How do we as a community become truly free?’

Gandhi told the packed room of 300 community leaders that while all the world speaks of the American Dream, ‘standing up for dignity and equality is at the core of that dream’. He recalled that his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, dreamed of ‘an India where men and women feel they are the equal of anyone else, treat everyone else as their equal, and support one another of their own free will. No highs. No lows.’ That was also the dream of Martin Luther King, he said. ‘I think it’s the American Dream.’ Gandhi commended Richmond’s ‘visible willingness to acknowledge a difficult past, learn from it, and move forward in interracial partnership. It is not only a great American story,’ he said, ‘it is a great global and human story.’

December 2012 – No 33

Residents of Eastleigh gather to listen to prayers and messages of peace at the scene of the blast

Faith leaders pray at site of Kenya bomb blast

An American victory over poverty

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Farmers’ Dialogue International

Following a year of discussions and preparation and with strong support from the Initiatives of Change International Council, IofC’s Farmers’ Dialogue has evolved from its origins as an informal programme to being launched as an international association in Kenya on 7 November in front of an audience of 100 people. Ten people from 10 countries signed the document supporting the creation of Farmers’ Dialogue International. It came at the end of a five-day Training for Trainers for East African farmers held near Nyahururu, Kenya. Farmers’ Dialogue aims to link farmers internationally and to support and renew their calling to feed the world

Peace circles in Syria

In the heart of war-torn Damascus, a group of women are meeting to talk about peace. The Peace Circle was drawn together by Iman, a young teacher who had encountered IofC’s Creators of Peace programme when living in Canada. Now back at home, she is gathering groups of women together to share the Peace Circle experience. They talk about the trust they are finding, the new relationships and how to care for their families. ‘How to find peace when hearts are full of anger?’ asks Iman. ‘Fear and distrust are everywhere…. I don’t know if we will wake up the next day alive or dead, but I know that if I wake up I want to tell my people that we need to build peace. There is no way but listening with consciousness, compassion and values. I heard myself many times saying we have to listen to one another, we have to

find a way to communicate before we lose more and more people.’

Ethical Leadership training

In the last year, major articles in the Economic Times of Mumbai, and the Indian Express have reported on the role that Asia Plateau, the IofC centre in India, is playing in the battle against corruption. IofC trains nearly 10,000 people each year in ethical leadership at Asia Plateau and elsewhere. They include batches of managers from the German multinational engineering company Siemens which has committed to cleaning up its act after a major bribery scandal, and senior civil servants of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, which has contracted with Initiatives of Change to provide training to their managers.

‘Ethics must be a cultural value within the organization,’ says Armin Bruck, the CEO of Siemens India, ‘Corporates must not leave it to government regulations to force them to comply.’

IofC’s Heart of Effective Leadership courses focus on effectiveness and accountability at the individual, community and institutional levels. By working with decision-makers in public administration, private sector, management and village-level administration, as well as students, these trainings address issues of poverty, corruption, division and development.

Caux reports availableA 20-page report of the 2012 Caux Conferences organized by IofC is available for download from IofC websites and in print from some IofC centres. Over 1,000 people attended the five conferences focusing on topics such as ‘Learning to live in a multicultural world’, ‘Trust and integrity in the global

economy’, ‘The dynamics of being a change-maker’ and ‘Exploring the vital link between personal and global change’. One of the busiest conferences was the fifth Caux Forum for Human Security. This year 300 participants from 56 countries met to take forward various initiatives for human security, including significant delegations from South Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Ukraine and Francophone Africa. A separate report of the Forum is also available from www.cauxforum.net

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News in Brief

Caux, Switzerland

26 Dec 2012 – 1 Jan 2013Winter Gathering

london, uK22 JanuaryConflict Transformation from an Islamic Perspective

PanChgani, india

1 – 5 FebMaking Democracy Real conference

Kigali, rwanda

18 – 24 FebEast Africa Youth Conference

liverPool, uK19 MarchTrust and Integrity in the Global Economy – Roadshow

Juba, South Sudan

18 – 21 AprilNational Reconciliation Conference

Kuala lumPur, malaySia

24 – 27 AprilTools for Change – KL

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GLOBAL UPDATE is published twice a year by Initiatives of Change International, Rue de Varembé, 1, CH 1211Geneva 20, Switzerland. Email: ia-secretariat@iofc.orgReaders are encouraged to photocopy and distribute it. Please send news/comments to: IofCCommunications, Armagh, 226 Kooyong Road, Toorak, VIC 3142 Australia, or to globalupdate@iofc.org.Free email subscriptions are available by writing to the same address, or through www.iofc.org.

Farmers’ Dialogue training in Kenya

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For over 80 years, Initiatives of Change’s work of inspiring people to make a difference, has led to remarkable initiatives in trustbuilding, ethical leadership and sustainable living. In 2012, these became official areas of focus.

Following a comprehensive process to include individual ideas from the 50 plus countries where IofC operates, the movement adopted a Framework for Common Action, which aims to sharpen IofC’s focus into more effective, consistent and credible action as a global team.

IofC works to inspire, equip and connect people to address world needs, starting with themselves. Everyone can make their unique contribution towards a just, peaceful and sustainable world by responding to the call of conscience. With this personal approach as its bedrock, IofC offers solutions in the three areas of focus.

Dr Omnia Marzouk, President of Initiatives of Change International, said, ‘We can draw on personal stories from a range of changemakers, and show grassroots examples from

different countries and different training programmes to sharpen our focus,’ she said. ‘This will also enable our conference centres in Caux (Switzerland) and in Asia Plateau (India) to facilitate creative partnerships with other organizations to enhance our effectiveness and impact in the areas of trustbuilding, ethical leadership and sustainability.’

TrustbuildingSome of IofC’s most significant stories concern trustbuilding and reconciliation – particularly the work to rebuild international relationships in Europe after WWII, in which the conferences in Caux, Switzerland, played a major part. IofC also played a role in helping Japan move towards reconciliation with her neighbours in Asia and the South Pacific from the 1950s onwards. More recently, IofC has been invited to help support reconciliation in the world’s newest country, South Sudan, after decades of war. A small, but growing team is in place to support dialogue efforts in that country.

For the past decade, IofC has worked in the Great Lakes region of Africa, helping to build trust and reconciliation. This has included significant accompanying of government and rebel groups in Burundi on their path towards peace. IofC also continues grassroots efforts in a number of other places, including work in racial reconciliation through Hope in the Cities in the USA and through Creators of Peace,

Initiatives of Change adopts a Framework for Common Action

(reporting by Chris Breitenberg, Mike Brown & Mike Lowe)

‘IofC works to inspire, equip and connect people to address world needs,

starting with themselves’

December 2012 – No 32

PEOPLEbUIlDINGTRUST

‘South Sudan has gone through a violent past which has caused mental barriers with some

still fighting wars in their minds’

which aims to engage women in their role as creators of peace at every level of society in over 30 countries.

Ethical leadershipIofC’s conference centre in India, Asia Plateau, is well positioned to become a world resource on good governance. Each year thousands are trained there in ethical leadership, including many of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers – some of whom have asked IofC to roll out training programmes to tens of thousands of employees in government agencies.

In several countries, IofC teams have run Clean Election Campaigns to inspire a critical mass of people to commit themselves to neither give nor accept bribes during elections. One currently running in Kenya also calls on people to vote on the basis of character rather than tribal allegiance. In January, a Workshop for Africa will kick off in South Africa, training leaders to work on issues of good governance. In Eastern Europe IofC’s Foundations for Freedom programme continues to train young people to be ethical leaders in their communities.

Sustainable livingIofC approaches sustainable living through programmes focused on business and the environment. For five years, the Caux Forum for Human Security has brought together policymakers and grassroots activists to work together across silos on issues of food security, peace and land degradation. Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy is an ongoing programme of conferences in Caux and Asia Plateau focusing on business. Environmental efforts have included reforestation and anti-pollution campaigns in Asia. Grampari, a rural development initiative at Asia Plateau, offers holisitic solutions for rural living, particularly in water management and sanitation.

South Sudan initiativeAs concrete expressions of these new focus areas, Initiatives of Change International will coordinate support for various Common Action Projects. The first of these is a programme to support national reconciliation in South Sudan.

In November, South Sudan’s Vice-President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, officially announced the first comprehensive national reconciliation conference ‘to try and heal the mental wounds’ in the world’s newest nation, after 40 years of war.

The conference, set for 18-21 April, 2013, will launch a national campaign for reconciliation coordinated over the next 4-5 years by the Office of the President and the South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission. The Sudan Tribune reported that President Salva Kiir Mayardit will address the conference on the ‘daunting task… still facing the underdeveloped country 15 months after independence’.

Participants will draw together both the top leadership of various government institutions, including delegations from the nation’s ten states, and grassroots community

organizations, the churches, NGOs and traditional leaders. IofC International been asked to partner with the government in the first phase of this campaign, providing international speakers and facilitators with evidence of reconciliation and healing during the conference, and on-the-ground support in the lead-up to it. ‘South Sudan has gone through a violent past which has caused mental barriers with some still fighting wars in their minds,’ Dr Machar told a preparatory meeting at the Council of Ministers hall in late November. ‘The country should reconcile with its own past.’

Accountability, transparency and good governance will also be part of the reconciliation campaign, Dr Machar explained, because of the sense of injustice and discontent generated by corruption and bad governance.

The Sudan Tribune noted that, one month after independence last year, Dr Machar became ‘the first senior political leader to initiate the post-independence reconciliation process by voluntarily apologizing to the Dinka Bor community for his past political differences’ which split the SPLM/A liberation movement in 1991, leading to a massacre in neighbouring in Jonglei State, an area still plagued by violence.

In January 2012, Dr Machar referred to the events leading to that apology at a conference on Making Democracy Real, at the Initiatives of Change centre, Asia Plateau, in India. It was then that Dr Machar made a plea for ‘bold steps’ by the international community to help the new nation in a process of reconciliation, in order to address the ‘simmering violence’ which has caused over 3,000 deaths in the past year.

The request for IofC to partner in this process, floated at that conference in India, became formalized in August 2012, when the General Assembly of IofC International in Switzerland adopted ‘A journey of healing for national reconciliation in South Sudan’ as one of IofC’s ‘Common Action Projects’ for 2013

On 29 November, the Executive Vice-President of IofC International, Edward Peters, and IofC’s liaison officer for the project, Amina Dikedi-Ajakaiye, were invited to speak to state governors and speakers of the state assemblies at the Governors’ Forum, which was meeting in Freedom Hall in Juba – the same venue as for April’s national reconciliation conference. The Vice-President urged the state government leaders to prepare the ground for the upcoming conference, saying that ‘bitterness should not be allowed to carry on to the next generation’.

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Dr Riek Machar, Vice President of South Sudan, speaking at the Dialogue on Democracy.

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