CCCRTE

Organising on the fly in Varna

by Paul Clifford

Over 100 participants from 20 countries gathered in Constantin, near Varna, for the Third European Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution (ECPCR) in mid-October 1996. The first surprise was that the conference programme had not been organised and the participants were charged with organising their own programme. This consumed the first day of the conference, as participants reacted with a mixture of disbelief, anger and a growing realisation that if anything useful were to emerge from the conference, it was down to us to organise it.

To the credit of all concerned, a programme of some 40 workshops were planned and took place. There were four streams: Psychological Dimensions of Conflict Resolution; Conflict Resolution at Community Level; Ethnic Conflict Resolution and an Open Track for workshops that did not fit into the other three categories. Workshops covered issues such as networking, reconciliation, crisis intervention, intervention by outsiders, evaluation, as well as many interesting presentations by participants of the work they and their organisations are doing.

The quality of the workshops was generally very high and some interesting combinations emerged, such as a joint workshop on community policing by participants from Northern Ireland and South Africa. There was a wealth of valuable experience, ideas and energy, which people were willing to share. It was a good place to meet others working in the field and to make contacts, which may be useful in the future.

There was a great deal of sadness, though, and a sense of a lost opportunity in who was NOT at the conference. In San Sebastian in 1994, here had been over 250 participants. In Bulgaria there were only 104. The conference had been located in Eastern Europe partly because of the situations in former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union. It was, therefore, incredibly disappointing that there was only one participant from former Yugoslavia and only a handful from the former Soviet Union.There was a large contingent from Bulgaria, but of the other Eastern European countries, only Poland was represented. Part of the problem was evidently down to inadequate organisation, marketing and publicity. Too much work had clearly been left to too few people to do. As a response to this, a group that had started out looking at networking, turned its attention to broader issues and came up with a series of proposals that were put to, and agreed by, the conference.

An interim steering committee of 12 people (others are welcome to join) was set up to work with the board of ECPCR to:

1) improve information flow;

2) set up a network of "in-country" and "issue-based" contact people;

3) co-ordinate with the conference planners for 1998 and 2000;

4) co-ordinate all ECPCR financial information;

5) facilitate joint projects outside of the conferences;

6) facilitate a structure to do all this.

The aim of the committee would be both to help organise future conferences and address the needs of people working in the field, in between conferences, to share information, to work together on short projects and to participate in training activities.

The next conference, in 1998, is likely to be in Northern Ireland, though details and a firm commitment were not immediately agreed. If it does take place in Northern Ireland, it could be undertaken solely by groups and individuals in Northern Ireland or in collaboration with the South of Ireland or in collaboration with groups from both the South of Ireland and Great Britain. Collaboration could provide some interesting and valuable alliances. Participants expressed a desire for the next conference to be better organised and more structured, though still leaving room for spontaneity.

I attended the conference on behalf of Responding to Conflict, and while there disseminated information on the CCCRTE and participated in workshops on Networking and Evaluating Conflict Resolution Training. As far as my own brief was concerned, I did discuss the work of, and share information about the work of Responding to Conflict, as well as about CCCRTE. I facilitated three workshops on: Intervention in Community Disputes; Interventions by Foreign Nationals; and Evaluating Conflict Resolution Training. I also did a lot of networking with other participants, some of which may lead to useful collaboration in the future.

There was a lot of interest in Responding to Conflict's 11-week course on Working with Conflict. There was an appreciation of the in-depth approach versus a deal of frustration with short courses (3-4 days) that many organisations put on. Other organisations were clearly struggling with the same dilemmas in evaluating their work that were raised at the CCCRTE day on evaluation last May. There was a lot of positive feedback on the co-ordinating and quality control work that CCCRTE is attempting to do. Overall, from a muddled and disorganised beginning, the conference grew into something very useful. It finished with energy and determination to go on to better things.

Paul Clifford is a freelance trainer and consultant

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