Way forward: Local leaders vow to work for conflict resolution at community level

Five-day workshop at SDPI concludes.

Local leaders hailing from various districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa (K-P) and Punjab vowed to work for conflict resolution in their society and to bring warring groups together.

They also called for promoting peace in their communities through collaborative and solution-oriented approaches.

This consensus was reached at the conclusion of a five-day training workshop at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday. The event was jointly organised by SDPI and the Search for Common Ground (SFCG)-Pakistan.

Conducted as part of SFCG-Pakistan’s national “Pakistan Peace Initiative”, a project supported by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the training aimed to enhance the capacity of local leaders through constructive approach.

Participants were urged to find appropriate solutions to conflicts that often arise at community levels.

The workshop was attended by 16 participants comprising local political leaders, tribal elders, religious scholars, district government officials, representatives from civil society organisations and the private sector.



“We are standing at a critical juncture in Pakistan’s history. There is an urgent need to localise the concepts of peace and security in the society,” said SFCG-Pakistan Country Director, Ammara Durrani, while addressing the workshop’s concluding session.

“Our local communities have indigenous solutions and a genuine social will to resolve conflicts through creative collaborations. We need to explore and harness this tremendous social capital,” she added.

Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Suleri said that conflict transformation implies finding a common ground between conflicting parties, which essentially creates a win-win situation for all.

During the workshop, participants learned successful negotiation skills focusing on finding solutions to conflict situations.

At the end of the session certificates were distributed amongst the participants.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2013.