Peace Engineer Direct Intervention Program Ukraine
1.1
Relevance of the intervention
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Objective of the intervention.
The development objective of this intervention is that non-profit organisations (NGOs and governmental organisations and other civil society actors) can solve conflicts more peacefully for mutual benefit, and for the benefit of citizens of Ukraine.
We wish to accomplish this by organizing, supporting and financing Ukrainian NGO Dignity Space to enable their newly educated Peace Engineers to engage in conflicts in, or between, non-profit organisations in Ukraine as mediators, dialogue facilitators, and negotiators.
Dignity Space and Peace Engineers receives far more requests from NGOs, civil society actors and governmental institutions to help them resolve their conflicts, than they are capable of
addressing. Our analysis is that lack of peaceful conflict resolution is a major obstacle for non-profit organisations to fully implement their potential for contributing to a more just, equal, democratic and social responsible civil society.
Our goal is therefore to provide free service in peaceful conflict resolution to non-profit
organisations, as well as advocate for governmental institutions to adopt a similar program in order to establish peaceful conflict resolution to non-profit organisations as a permanent and free service for the Ukrainian society. No such service is available in Ukraine today. See the table, figure 1, for a summarized overview of immediate objectives, outputs, activities indicators and assumptions.
In the following paragraphs we will introduce LIVKOM, Dignity Space, explain who the Peace Engineers are, and show how we are all connected around this project, and how we intend to implement it.
1.1 A brief history of the partnership in the project:
In the revolution in Ukraine in 2014 more than 125 people died in clashes between riot police and activists. During the revolution Ukrainian leader of a volunteer group of activists that secretly evacuated wounded activists out of Ukraine, initiated cooperation with a volunteer trainer in Nonviolent Communication from Danish LIVKOM, foreningen for Livsberigende Kommunikation. This cooperation has continued ever since.
3 Months after the revolution these two volunteers started to facilitate a series of meetings of reconciliation between the former combatants from the revolution; riot police and activists. These meetings where generally highly valued by the participants as a space to build peace and
forgiveness. One participant called one of these meetings a true “space for dignity”. Thus, the upcoming Ukrainian centre for nonviolent communication and reconciliation initiated found its daily call name: Dignity Space, DS.
At July 1st 2016 DS started a 1-year project of cooperation with LIVKOM supported by CISU. This project was supported as a “Small Scale Development Project” with 198.834 DKR in the Civil Society Fund. During the project two senior board members and founders of LIVKOM and long-time certified trainers came to Ukraine to conduct trainings in Nonviolent Communication for a range of Ukrainian NGOs.
CISU’s support to DS via LIVKOM was the one decisive reason that DS had resources to officially establish itself as a legal formal and functioning Ukrainian NGO. In this project 4 staff members from DS came to Denmark on a 4-day study trip hosted by LIVKOM. The DS visitors met Danish specialists in Nonviolent Communication, Mediators and school people from Danish
“Efterskoler” and “Højskoler”. The learning from this study trip later helped shaped the curriculum and organization of the Peace Engineer School.
In January 2017 DS initiated a joint project together with German NGO Bergh of Foundation and Dutch NGO PAX. This project called the “Peace Engineer School” has DS as the implementation
partner on the ground in Ukraine, and is supported by the German Foreign Office with 1.000.000 EUR.
A board member from LIVKOM worked full time as a lead trainer in this project. During these last two years DS had a staff of 6 people working fulltime to organise the education of carefully
selected Ukrainians as Peace Engineers, PEs, with the aim that these PEs can step into any kind of violent conflict in Ukraine and support a more peaceful outcome. Throughout these two years DS and LIVKOM has maintained close ties of mentorship, cooperation and personal friendships.
DS (and LIVKOM as an in-formal supportive partner) have learned a lot from the Peace Engineer School program; here just mentioning two particular points:
The educated PEs has competence that is popular and sought after by people in their local communities. The demand from non-profit organizations to get help resolving their conflicts are much bigger than what the PE program could offer. There are strong forces among competent staff in both governmental and non-governmental organizations that sincerely work to offer citizens a good service and support. They are just very often stuck in intractable conflict, and they are the ones approaching DS asking for support to resolve these conflicts peacefully.
In addition to this Ukraine is hit hard by Russian hybrid warfare, which is a combination of multiple tactics aiming at weakening and de-stabilizing Ukraine. Parts of this hybrid warfare is the military engagement in east Ukraine, another part of it is information campaigns aiming to increase hostility, distrust and aggression between various internal lines of conflicts within Ukraine. The PEs has shown to be very effective in reducing and healing lines of division, aggression, hostility and distrust between various groupings in Ukraine. This way, the PEs activities have shown to be a real asset for peace building in Ukraine.
These learning points are at the core of what lies behind this application to CISU.
1.2 Status today:
LIVKOM continues to offer trainings and learning events in Denmark and internationally on the topic of Nonviolent Communication and peace building. Both for members of LIVKOM and in open trainings.
LIVKOM find the experiences from the partnership with DS valuable and relevant for members of LIVKOM and other NGO people in Denmark, as a source of learning and reflection. On
September 8th 2018 LIVKOM hosted a theme day about Nonviolent Communication on
Hilmmelbjerggården close to Ry. Around 60 participants from mostly Danish NGOs participated. During the day LIVKOM members presented various aspects and trainings in Nonviolent
Communication, and they also shared experiences from their work in Ukraine.
Dignity Space finished the Peace Engineer School project on December 31st 2018. The project has, among other things, educated approximately 40 that now have strong skills in direct conflict intervention supporting the conflicting parties to build mutual understanding and find mutual
acceptable solutions to their conflict. The PEs’ contribution to this intervention project is paramount because of their extensive knowledge of the local communities from which they originate.
Through DS’s work in Ukraine, the DS evaluation is that the Ukrainian society generally lacks a culture of peaceful conflict resolution. We notice that people are generally inclined to solve their conflicts by fighting for the right and power to dictate solutions. As a result, many Ukrainian NGOs and Civil Society actors are therefore constrained in theircitizen participation and overall
contribution to local and national community development in Ukraine.
The Peace Engineers that DS has trained and educated in the PE school where students, psychologists, teachers, coaches, business people, coal miners, NGO project managers, public servants and more. They joined a 1-year fulltime training programme consisting of 4 months initial intensive training in the PE School in Kyiv followed by 8 months of practice period supported by experienced mentors. The curriculum cover topics such as: Conflict theory, Nonviolent
Communication, Mediation, Negotiation and Dialogue Facilitation. The programme closed with a final exam of the competence of the PEs.
As a result the graduated PEs are able to effectively facilitate dialogues that reconcile people after a violent conflict, mediate conflicts in order to stop or prevent violence and also to negotiate agreements between conflicting parties. They can also design and carry out projects to strengthen peaceful cooperation and train others in all of the aforementioned subjects. The PEs has
demonstrated strong skills in supporting local communities in Ukraine to build mutual understanding and work cooperatively toward peaceful solutions to conflicts such as:
Reducing tensions and hate speech through inclusive dialogues: around Roma communities; between LBGTs and people with “traditional values”; between unions and employers; between civilians and Ukrainian army in the war zone; between IDPs and host communities and much more.
Peaceful implementation of de-centralization reforms
Enabling city councils to cooperate and agree
Supporting NGOs and local city administration to cooperate on humanitarian issues
Supporting ATO veterans from the warzone in east Ukraine to re-integrate peacefully in their families and home communities
DS estimates that PEs during their practice period has effectively hosted around 280 meetings, reaching around 1500 people, acting either as mediators or dialogue facilitators. We further estimate that PEs conducted around 50 negotiations, actively supporting marginalized and
disempowered groups in receiving entitled benefits and improving their general living situation. 598 participants in these dialogues have until now completed an anonymous survey evaluating their experience of the meeting. On average, they expressed a level of satisfaction of 4.73 with the meeting facilitated/mediated/negotiated by the Peace Engineers (1 being the lowest level of satisfaction and 5 being the highest).
Peace Engineers are now increasingly requested in Ukraine for their experience and skills in supporting peaceful conflict resolution. PEs have also worked with Danish Red Cross in Ukraine, in cooperation with Bjørn Nygaard from Center for Konfliktløsning; supporting Ukrainian NGOs and Ukrainian Red Cross to learn and develop skills in Nonviolent Communication and peaceful conflict resolution.
1.3 Relevant aspects of the context in which the intervention is to take place (e.g.
social, economic, political, climate-related and environmental conditions):
1600 km separates Aarhus and Kyiv, but that distance seems even bigger when looking at a few data about Denmark and Ukraine: Ukraine ranks at number 130 out of 180 countries in relation to corruption which is worse than countries like Sierra Leone, Myanmar and Iran. Denmark ranks as number 2, according to Transparency International 2017. Danes ranks as the 3rd happiest people in the world, and Ukrainians ranks as the 138th – less happy than people from countries such as Sudan, Uganda and India; according to World Happiness Report 2018.
For us in LIVKOM this is not just numbers, it is something we have experienced first hand through our work in Ukraine. Ukraine is close to Denmark, a part of our European neighbourhood, and also therefore LIVKOM finds it particular relevant to support DS in their work for peaceful conflict
resolution in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian society is in many ways polarized and fragmented. This divide is supported by mass media and a political discourse promoting polarizing hateful narratives. This building up of “enemy images” emphasizing on hostile narratives of “them” has heavily contributed to maintaining a sense of tension, instability, hopelessness and sense of ‘non-peace’ in the Ukrainian society. The widespread culture of intergroup distrust and anxiety in Ukraine adds to the overall polarization of the country and impedes its socio-economic and democratic development.
With the free service that this project offers, some of these non-profit organisations and structures can receive support to peacefully overcome these conflicts.
Dignity Space will use existing contacts within Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Social Affairs to promote the concept of this project in an advocacy effort. We see that this concept potentially can have an important long-term impact on socio-economic-democratic development in Ukraine. We see that the concept can fill up the institutional gap for this type of service and we will work toward obtaining the support of the government for this type of essential service delivery to be permanent.
1.4 Contribution of the intervention in favour of citizen participation, volunteering
and/or the organising of civil society in the countries of cooperation as well as in
Denmark:
In 2016, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) underlined the “key importance of local knowledge, ownership, and the broad involvement of civil society […] in working on the conflict” through the engagement of local people, called “Inside Mediators”. In that sense, we consider “peace engineering” by Peace Engineers to be a direct form of citizen participation as highly qualified inside mediators. Therefore, by supporting the work of the Peace Engineers, this project seeks to foster effective citizen participation, specifically tailored to the Ukrainian context.
Moreover, another significant aspect of citizen participation that this project is trying to advocate for is the effective inclusion of certain minorities such as e.g. religious, political and racial minorities as well as LGBT people, internally displaced people, veterans, handicapped and elderly people, etc.). Therefore, through mediation, dialogue and negotiation activities of the Peace Engineers, we intend to create a channel for them to be heard and be able to better influence local governments. Peace Engineers will be expected to have a special awareness on the inclusion of potentially less-empowered and marginalized minorities and other members of the society.
2.
Partnership and partners
2.1 Each partner’s contribution in relation to this particular intervention:
Dignity Space’s contribution in relation to this particular intervention will be manifold and supported by an extensive knowledge of both the subject and the Ukrainian context. Therefore, since the first ‘peace talks’ of reconciliation facilitated between Maidan activists and the riot police in May 2014, Dignity Space has effectively conducted communication training, such as emotional healing, reconciliation and/or peaceful resolution of conflicts for more than 2,000 people, as well as lectures and workshops directed at NGOs for more than 900 people. In addition to its practice of mediation and dialogue facilitation, Dignity Space has established the Peace Engineers School, which has so far provided training in nonviolent communication, mediation and dialogue facilitation to more than 40 1-year full-time Peace Engineers as well as another 30 Ukrainian professionals from governmental and civil society sectors. These activities have contributed to the establishment of a rich network of relations throughout Ukraine and its easternmost regions. DS has established connection and cooperation with Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs, and local police in the eastern war-torn part of Ukraine.LIVKOM's contribution to this intervention will be supported by its extensive knowledge and expertise in the field of nonviolent communication in peace making. In this project LIVKOM will be offering mentorship to the staff of Dignity Space, supporting the management of the project. LIVKOM will also design and carry out the monitoring and evaluation of the project. Furthermore, LIVKOM and Dignity Space have already established strong bonds since their cooperation on the first joint CISU project. LIVKOM sees that the experiences from Ukraine are highly inspiring and valued by its members and by people in Denmark working internationally in the NGO sphere.
After the first joint CISU project ended, LIVKOM and Dignity Space continued to stay connected and LIVKOM supported Dignity Space’s Peace Engineer Program as mentor, advisors and friends. Therefore, it is LIVKOM’s experience, paired with that of Dignity Space - that has already proven effective in implementing projects for peaceful conflict resolution in Ukraine.
2.2 The partners’ roles and areas of responsibility as regards the intervention:
During this intervention, Dignity Space will be in charge of the overall coordination and day-to-day administration of the project and will be responsible for receiving, centralizing, screening and dispatching the cases to the different Peace Engineers. Dignity Space will determine the adequacy of each case with regards to the project and constitute the link not only between the PeaceEngineers and the recipients of the intervention but also between the Peace Engineers and LIVKOM. The day-to-day administration of the project by DS will also comprise a thorough mentorship and supervision of the Peace Engineers, before, during and after completion of the intervention.
As previously mentioned, the Peace Engineers will be in charge of the practical implementation of the intervention through mediation, dialogue facilitation and negotiation activities (detailed below). These will be carried out under the thorough supervision of both Dignity Space and LIVKOM. During this intervention, LIVKOM will mostly act in a supporting capacity by providing an external evaluation of the intervention as well as overall coaching of its activities.
We foresee a small risk that some of the Peace Engineers may encounter very difficult and emotionally challenging situations that can affect their psychological well being. In this case we have a Ukrainian crisis psychologist at standby to help us to support the Peace Engineers. In all cases we will conduct a debrief with the Peace Engineers after they have worked on a case in order to both check up on their well-being as well as provide support and harvest learning.
2.3 How the intervention applied for will strengthen the relationship between
participant partners and increase their mutual gains:
This intervention will benefit from well-honed cooperation mechanisms and effectively enhance this valuable partnership. Through this project, LIVKOM will also be able to develop its own expertise in peaceful conflict intervention in ways that will strengthen its work both in Denmark as well as in other countries. This partnership will consequently allow Dignity Space to substantially expand its own expertise in this field and facilitate the dissemination of this expertise to the Ukrainian Peace Engineers.
Lastly, we believe that the Peace Engineers themselves will greatly benefit from that project, as they will get the chance to develop and strengthen both their skills and the communities they are applied in. The Peace Engineers Direct Intervention Project would, therefore, be a great way to improve their overall experience, develop the practice of peaceful conflict resolution and potentially systematize the way it is implemented in Ukraine.
Thereby, the PEs strenghten their potential as de-facto qualified Inside Mediators. The UN report “Supporting Insider Mediation: Strengthening resilience to conflict and turbulence” highlights
the importance and value of Inside Mediators as someone deeply rooted in a local community with strong conflict resolution skills as crucial in order to reduce tensions and turbulence by resolving conflicts peacefully.
3.
Description of the intervention
Who the target groups/participants in the intervention are:
This intervention has two major target groups; 1) Ukrainian non-profit organizations, 2) selected ministries and governmental structures:
First immediate objective:
To support non-profit organisations who are inhibited in implementing their mission because of conflicts with the peaceful conflict resolution service of Peace Engineers. The focus of this direct action intervention is primarily – but not limited to – east Ukraine.
Expected result: The supported non-profit organisations become more capable of fulfilling their full potential in providing service and support to the citizens of Ukraine.
This is immediate objective number 1): By November 1st, 70 meetings has been conducted for non-profit organisations as support to resolve their conflicts peacefully for more than 400 people representing more than 50 non-profit organisations (some conflicts may require more than 1 meeting in order to work out the conflict).
As a side effect of reaching this objective we support Peace Engineers to gain further experience and expertise and consolidate as “Inside Mediators” in Ukraine being capable of engaging in any type of conflict in Ukraine and support a more peaceful outcome. The most efficient way to further expand the PEs skills and expertise is simply by giving them more work to do – as Peace Engineers. This is what they need, and this is what this project will enable them to get.
Second immediate objective:
To advocate for a permanent establishment of a free support to non-profit organisations with peaceful conflict resolution service. The target group is primarily governmental institutions at ministry level, secondarily other organisations working in Ukraine with the aim at supporting reforms and socio-economic-democratic development of Ukraine.
Expected result: Governmental institutions and other organisations becomes aware of the benefits of supporting non-profit organisations with free service in peaceful conflict resolution – for the benefit of the citizens of Ukraine.
This is immediate objective number 2): By December 31st Ukrainian authorities both on the ministry level as well as local oblast level, as well as other NGOs and relevant networks, has been presented for the results of the programme and been encouraged to support a more permanent continuation of such a program. Olena Hantsyak-Kaskiv, Head of DS is an experienced GR specialist, will be supporting advocacy work for DS. Her extensive contact database that includes opinion leaders, civil activists, politicians, high level public officials, including target ministers, will be utilized by the project in the course of the advocacy work for the benefit of setting up an infrastructure for the dialogue and restorative processes work on the national level.
3.1 The pursuit of objective 1) to support non-profit organisations in resolving
conflicts peacefully with the direct action service of Peace Engineers:
We wish to accomplish this by engaging Peace Engineers in these conflicts by using these 3 methodologies direct action methodologies for peaceful conflict resolution:
● Dialogue Facilitation → Peace Engineers will act as neutral facilitators, supporting the efforts of a group of conflicted parties in building a deeper mutual understanding and identifying potential mutually beneficial solutions.
● Mediation → The Peace Engineer will act as a neutral mediator to support conflicted parties in reaching mutually acceptable and beneficial agreements.
● Negotiation → The Peace Engineer will act as a negotiator in concrete cases where the focus will be put on supporting the effective empowerment of certain minorities as well as an equal representation in their communities.
As dialogue facilitators, the Peace Engineers are expected to ensure that any relevant, less-empowered participants benefit from the same level of inclusion and that their voice is equally heard during the dialogues. As mediators, the same considerations are applied but extra care will be taken to ensure that the mediated agreements comply with Ukrainian Law and the Human Rights Declaration. Lastly, as negotiators, PEs are expected to only work for the benefits of
less-empowered people after having received legal advice to ensure that the negotiated agreements are compliant with Ukrainian Law and the Human Rights Declaration.
The PEs will proactively support the equal inclusion of any person in the activities, regardless of the person's gender, age, sexual orientation, political opinion, socio-economic status, religious belief, ethnic affiliation, nationality, physical capability, civil status, and/or race.
In fact, the PEs are generally expected to have a special awareness of the difficult inclusion of certain minorities and other potentially less-empowered and marginalized people. During their training, this awareness has also been extended to considerations of asymmetric power
imbalances between individuals participating in the PEs’ activities so as to foster and enhance the equality in the processes of being heard, acknowledged and included, both in dialogues as well as during the decision-making processes.
Step by step what is going to happen:
The persuit of objective 1 can be divided into a sequence of actions with 4 phases:
1. Preliminary announcement and advocacy → Dignity Space advertises and informs about this specific service where Peace Engineers come to local communities in conflict areas of Ukraine (e.g. with a focus on Donetsk and Luhansk regions/oblasts) and help them address their conflicts peacefully. At this point DS already have multiple requests for exactly this type of support from various non-profit organisations. We expect to receive far more requests for this service than we can accommodate.
2. Initiation → DS receives a request from local communities to have a PE dispatched to help them, either via phone call, email or through the Peace Engineers website. Cases of conflicts are received and screened by Dignity Space in order to ensure that the specific conflict has a realistic change to be resolved within the frame of this project. In case that DS receives more requests for support than DS can respond to within the frame of this project, DS will give priority to cases that fulfil these criteria’s, in this order:
a. The conflict has a potential to avoid people losing their lives b. The conflict manifest itself through physical violence or destruction
c. The conflict has negative consequence for a large group of a local population d. The conflict has negative consequences for marginalized less-empowered people
The cases are then dispatched by a coordinator (from DS) to the different PEs according to their respective fields of expertise and availability.
3. Direct intervention → The PEs will assess the case, conduct some groundwork/preparatory work including a series of pre-meetings and then proceed to the main
dialogue/mediation/negotiation meeting and follow-up with post-intervention meetings (see figure 2 below). The PE will travel to the location and work directly with the organizations on the ground. (We also aim to avoid doing harm to the situations and conflicts that the PEs engage in, see figure 2 on the last page).
4. Evaluation → The coordinator, under the assistance and supervision of LIVKOM, will then qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the performance of the PEs. See the Indicators of success for all 3 goals below.
Indicators of success:
We expect PEs to conduct minimum 65 individual meetings as dialogue facilitators, mediators or negotiators – but we expect that number to be higher. We expect to have more than 400 people representing more than 50 non-profit organisations participating in these meetings. It is hard to estimate exactly how many citizens that will benefit positively from the results of these meetings, but it could potentially be counted in several hundred thousands of citizens. For an example, in November 2017 the city council of east-Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk credited Peace Engineers
as playing a pivotal role in building a large majority agreement on the city budget. For the first time in 2 years. This had a significant positive impact for all 150.000 citizens (formal citizens + IDPs).
During this project, we will conduct a thorough evaluation of all the Peace Engineers' activities in order to determine the added value of these activities. Through semi-structured interviews and surveys conducted before and after the Peace Engineer's intervention with the participants, we will determine the extent to which each of the following issues has been changed by the intervention:
Reduction in inter-group anxiety.
Increase in inter-group belief-similarity (sharing the same values and needs as humans)
Increase in inter-group optimism (believing and wanting the conflict to be resolved peacefully and in a way mutually beneficial for both sides)
Increase in inter-group positive attitudes (increased sense of care, respect, liking and willingness for cooperation)
Reaching an agreement and finding mutually beneficial solutions to conflicts.We also expect that: 85% of participants from the facilitated dialogue/mediation/negotiations express some level of agreement with the following statements:
○ “After the dialogue, I see the other side of the conflict as people I can potentially trust and cooperate with.”
○ “The mediation enabled us to reach a mutually acceptable and beneficial agreement that would not have been possible without the mediation.”
○ “The PE negotiator enabled us to; be heard / to be included in the decision-making process / to receive entitled equal benefits / to have entitled equal access.”
→ The data will be gathered 7–14 days after the event through online surveys and direct phone calls to collect narrative descriptions (stories of most significant change) of the results of the intervention. As a secondary result we expect that our intervention will have effectively contributed to the following changes:
Restored and increased level of trust, safety and mutual understanding amongst local communities.
Effective cooperation amongst communities resulting in the improvement of their infrastructures and institutions.
Empowerment of certain minorities through the equal access to benefits and a guaranteed effective representation in the relevant institutional processes.
3.2 The pursuit of objective 2: To advocate for a permanent establishment of a
free support to non-profit organisations with peaceful conflict resolution service.
We wish to accomplish this by reaching out to already existing contacts within the ministries and share with them the results of the project as it has been collected and analysed in the description above. This would require that the project actually turns out successful and that this is reflected in the positive evaluations from participants. However, based on our previous experience with the PEs and our evaluation of their work, we do expect a positive outcome.
This advocacy effort will start when the project is halfway through in accomplishing objective 1, because we at that time expect to have a fairly good and reliable halfway evaluation at that time already. Once objective 1 has been fully accomplished we will shift focus in the project to only work on advocacy. As previously mentioned, Olena Hantsyak-Kaskiv, head of Dignity Space, has
several years of experience working in the fields of Public Relations and Governmental Relations, and she will take a lead on the advocacy work.
The target group is primarily governmental institutions at ministry level, secondarily other organisations working in Ukraine with the aim at supporting reforms and
socio-economic-democratic development of Ukraine. At this point we are connected with deputy ministers in ministry of social affairs, internal affairs and foreign affairs. Further, we work together with police from Luhansk, Donetsk (both in the warzone in east Ukraine), and also with the Kyiv dialogue police. These offices will be the first places we start our advocacy efforts.
Expected result: Governmental institutions and other organisations becomes aware of the benefits of supporting non-profit organisations with free service in peaceful conflict resolution – for the benefit of the citizens of Ukraine.
4. Planned intervention-related information work in Denmark
We intend to continue and possibly expand the reach of the theme days that we organise in Denmark. We see that such theme days are valuable ways for LIVKOM to share knowledge and insights from our work, including our work in Ukraine. In relation to this project at this point we do not have any particular planned information work in Denmark
Possible factors (risks) potential hindering or delaying the fulfilment of the intervention's objective: In the following table (figure 2) some of the possible risks that may hinder or delay the fulfilment of our objective as well as some of the mitigation strategies we planned to counter them:
Potential harm: Risk/impact: Mitigation strategy: Sabotage of the achieved results by
people who are not included in the Peace Engineers’ activities.
- Risk: Low/Medium - Impact: Medium/High
Peace Engineers must ensure that everyone involved in a particular conflict is included in the process.
Any possible form of aggression towards and/or sabotage of the intervention by people who are not receiving support from our project regarding their particular conflict.
- Risk: Low/Medium - Impact: Low/Medium
Expansion of the project so as to effectively cover a greater number of communities and offer the qualified help of the Peace Engineers to more people in addressing and resolving their conflicts peacefully.
Any possible form of aggression towards and/or sabotage of the intervention by people who had a bad experience of the Peace Engineers’ activities. - - Risk of verbal aggression - medium - Risk of physical aggression - Low - Impact - Low/High
Support of the Peace Engineers through thorough supervision and additional training.
Assigning additional Peace Engineers to work on the same case.
Obtain the support of LIVKOM experts for certain activities.
Any possible form of aggression towards and/or sabotage of the intervention by people benefiting from some sort of structural (in)formal power. - Risk of verbal aggression - medium - Risk of physical aggression - Low - Impact - Low/High
Advocate for the long-term benefits of the intervention for local communities with the people in power.
DS staff and PEs are confronted with potential harmful emotional challenging and disturbing experiences.
- Risk - Low - Impact - Low/High
Support DS staff and PEs with supervision and emotional debriefings to help them cope and reconcile with these potential harmful emotional experiences.
The tangible changes and outputs which the intervention is expected to contribute: In the LFA inspired table (figure 1) below, we seek to provide a summarized overview of the project, with a project start set to be in January. In the reporting to CISU, all the following outputs will be reported, including an evaluation of the extent to which the Immediate objectives were accomplished and to which extend the assumptions have proven to be true:
The development objective of this intervention is that non-profit organisations (NGOs and governmental organisations and other civil society actors) can solve conflicts more peacefully for mutual benefit, and for the benefit of citizens of Ukraine. (Figure 1):
Immediate Objectives: (see development objective in 1.1)
Outputs: Activities: Indicators: Assumptions:
1) By November 1st, minimum 65 meetings have been conduced for non-profit organisations as support to resolve their conflicts peacefully.
1.1) By March 1st DS has initiated a campaign to NGOs announcing the free service of receiving support from a PE to resolve their conflicts peacefully.
1.2) By March 1st DS has identified the PEs that will work in the project.
1.4) By April 1st PEs has participated in an initial 2 days preparation and
introduction meeting to engage in the project as dialogue facilitators, mediators or negotiators.
1.4 By April 1st the first conflict cases has been distributed to PEs.
1.5) By October 1st PEs has received 4 days supervision and mentorship training to support their work.
1.6) By December 1st PEs has participated in a final 2-day evaluation meeting of the project.
Developing content to DS website and Facebook page.
DS meeting with people from various local public administrations and NGOs to announce the service.
Recruiting 10-14 PEs to participate in the project.
Setting up and running the logistic and administrative system to receive, screen and dispatch cases to PEs
Setting up and running the evaluation procedures, including an online evaluation survey.
Individual communication with PEs; sharing evaluation results and provide mentorship.
Preparing and conducting meetings for the PEs.
1.1 Copies of campaign material as annex for final report.
1.2 10-14 PEs has signed agreement to participate in the project
1.3 PEs has signed attendance sheet for the meeting.
1.4 A list of all cases with dates of reception and closure, including a small summary and evaluation of the case.
1.5 7-14 PEs has signed attendance sheet for the meeting.
1.6 7-14 PEs has signed attendance sheet for the meeting.
- All attached as annex in the final report to CISU.
PEs wish to work as dialogue facilitators/ mediators/negotiators for a small fee.
NGOs and civil society actors want help to resolve conflicts they are part of peacefully.
DS succeed in facilitating PEs and civil society actors to meet and cooperate together to resolve conflicts peacefully.
2) By December 31st Ukrainian authorities both on the ministry level as well as local oblast level has been presented for the results of the
programme and been encouraged to support a continuation of such a program.
2.1) By December 1st A final evaluation report of the PE's intervention activities have been made,
2.2) By December 31st DS has reached and hold meetings with the ministry of social policy, the ministry of internal affairs and the ministry of temporary occupied territories, as well as in various
conferences and forums for NGOs, where the findings of the project have been presented.
Analyze evaluation results and write evaluation report of the results of the PEs work.
Write a report on the efforts of advocacy.
2.1 Evaluation report of the results of the PEs work
2.2 Report of advocacy efforts Includes information of: whom we met where and when, what information was presented and the result of the meeting.
- All attached as annex in the final report to CISU.
The PEs engagements as dialogue facilitators/ mediators/negotiators are evaluated positively by the non-profit organizations.
Ministries and other organizations are interested in NGOs and civil society actors being more capable of realizing their full potential to
