Professional Training

Institute trainers Keith Bowen and Jacki Wilson arrived in the central Sudanese town of Dilling, at the foot of the Nuba Mountains, mere days after a series of revenge killings had left more than a dozen of its inhabitants dead. Working with the Badya Center for Integrated Development Services, an indigenous NGO, their mission was to train local leaders in conflict resolution skills, as well as to facilitate local problem solving.

The Nuba region is one of three special areas identified in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed last year, that is meant to bring an end to the North-South war in Sudan. But efforts to implement the terms of the CPA are faltering, and tensions are rising. "Participants were highly attentive," said Bowen. "The workshop addressed a pressing need. As one participant said, 'We want a peace that we can feel.'"

Wilson explained that the Institute attempts to leverage local knowledge as much as possible. "We drew upon traditional conflict resolution techniques while providing training in alternative strategies to complement them," said Wilson. At the end of the program, participants applied these methodologies to local problems in workgroups facilitated by Institute trainers and the Badya Center.

The Institute is giving a grant to the Badya Center so that it can carry forward in mediating several highly destructive local disputes. "It is a very impressive group, run by a Sudanese woman with exceptional leadership skills," said Wilson. "By working with the Institute's Grant program, we are able to magnify the impact of our work, and provide needed resources to a worthy partner. We hope to expand our work with Badya Center later this year to cover neighboring areas of Sudan such as the Southern Blue Nile and Abyei." Along with the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei are critical areas to maintain stability and enhance peaceful resolution of local conflicts.