Upcoming DNH Training in Boston

When: November 5-6, 2010
Where: University of Massachusetts-Boston
Price: $225 professionals; $169 students

This two-day training will discuss how assistance, given in a context of conflict, becomes a part of that context; it has an impact on the sources of tension in a society and on those things that connect people. We will introduce the DNH conflict-sensitivity tool and discuss options for decreasing dividers and increasing connectors in a context. The training will cover the concepts and elements of the framework and how to use them, providing participants with a broad exposure to the lessons learned by the Do No Harm Project over the past 15 years.

DNH Project Director Marshall Wallace will facilitate this training, which is co-sponsored by the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

For more information and to register for this training, please contact Candice Montalvo at cmontalvo@cdainc.com.

Emerging Themes

The DNH Team has recently begun holding weekly meetings to discuss the Reflective Cases and pull out some of the emerging themes appearing across the cases.

Here are a few of the most prominent themes we’ve seen so far:

• Donor Influence: How do donors promote or inhibit use of DNH? Do staff feel comfortable offering suggestions or revisions to project designs that do not follow DNH principles?
• Champions: How reliant are staff on local DNH “Champions” or authorities? What happens to DNH use when the organizational champion or DNH authority figure leaves?
• Training: How much training is needed for a person to feel capable of “doing” DNH? Within an organization, who should be trained in DNH (upper level management, project implementors, field staff, etc.)?
• Creativity of Use: How do people use DNH? Do they use it formally or informally? What are some effective, creative ways of using DNH?

Do these themes appear in your context? How so?

DNH Framework Tutorial Part II: The Action Framework

If you liked the relationship framework, you’ll LOVE the action framework! Watch DNH Project Director Marshall Wallace give another stunning explanation of another key DNH tool, the Action Framework. Learn how to do DNH analysis on a daily basis by using the Action Framework, an adaptation of the Relationship Framework, but presented in the form of a “loop” rather than in “boxes”.

As always, please give us feedback in the comment space below about other issues, tutorials, or ideas you’d like to see the DNH team expand upon!

Do No Harm Framework Tutorial Part I: The Relationship Framework

The DNH Project has begun a series of video tutorials on various DNH lessons. The first in this series is a brief training, given by Project Director Marshall, on the original DNH Framework, now known as the “Relationship Framework”. 

If you have any ideas or suggestions about future DNH tutorials, please let us know by posting in the comment space below!

It’s called ‘learning’

As well-intentioned external interveners, we want to do everything right.  Our mistakes have consequences for the people we’re working for and the people we’re working with.  There is a push to be perfect.  This pressure comes from colleagues, bosses, donors and beneficiaries. 

In an ideal world, yes, everyone intervening in humanitarian emergencies or working on development would be perfect.  No one would have too little time, too little money or too many tools.  This is, of course, leaving aside the fact that in a truly ideal world there would be no need for outside intervention in the first place. 

Unfortunately, we don’t live in either of these worlds.  We live in the reality in which the people who want to do good need to develop their skills, learn the context and learn how to apply their skills and knowledge to their work in ways that make sense.  They need to be granted the freedom to make choices that may not work, understand why they didn’t, then be granted the license to make changes based on this understanding.  This last bit is the most important. 

I’m not advocating for experimentation in people’s lives, but rather the leeway to adapt programming choices based on the realities of the context. 

One organization, working in Cambodia, was making beneficiary selections based on the wealth criterion “poorest-of-the-poor.” The project was slated to last three years.  After the first year, the project team re-evaluated their context and found that not only had very poor migrants moved into the project area, but those people with whom they had been working no longer fit the poorest-of-the-poor criteria.  The team, however, did not want to re-examine the criteria because they feared that they would lose funding from the donor, even though conflicts were arising in the villages between project beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries.

This was a case in which the project staff knew that they should have developed options for change, but they didn’t have (or perceived that they didn’t have) the license to make those changes.

Why a blog?

When we started this blog a month ago, we had a few ideas about what we could write about but mostly, we just wanted to talk to you. We still have plenty of ideas for posts (there’s a big list in our office that grows almost every day) but, with a few weeks of blogging under our belts, we want to hear your stories and opinions. We want you to use the blog as a place to interact with us and with each other.

At the bottom of each post, you’ll see a link that reads Leave a Comment. Please use this link!

• Tell us about an issue, problem or question you want us to write about on the blog
• Share a story
• Tell us about something you’ve read or published that we should read
• Tell us what you’ve learned from your successes and failures that might help someone else
• Tell us you disagree with us
  Agreement is nice, and it makes us feel good, but it doesn’t do much to feed discussion! And, feeding our egos isn’t the primary purpose of this blog—it’s the secondary purpose. But, if you have more evidence, more stories that support what we’ve written, we want to hear those!

Please keep in mind when leaving or replying to a comment:

• Be careful about naming individuals and organizations. Don’t name and shame, hide identifying characteristics when necessary.
• Please be respectful of your fellow commentors’ opinions.
• Comments are approved by us before they’re posted to the site, so if your comment or reply doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry.  We will approve comments at least once during each work day.
• We will try to reply to every comment, but it might take us a few days.

 

About once a month we’ll pose a few questions, and look to the comments for answers.  You can leave a comment on the post, or you can reply to an existing comment thread to keep the conversation going! 

More than any other goal we may have for this site, we want to know you better and we want you to know each other.  Make this site a space for sharing and learning with other DNHers!

With that, a question for today: 

What’s your favorite, the most inspiring or the most resonant quote you have heard that you associate with Do No Harm? 

It can be something you’ve heard someone say about DNH, or something that reminds you to think in conflict-sensitive ways. 

My current favorite is a proverb:
Don’t think that there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
It reminds me to think about latent conflicts; they may not be obvious, but they can become violent if we’re not aware of them.

Candice likes a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
This quote reminds her about the importance of Implicit Ethical Messages. How we work is important.

The Next Generation of DNH trainers is getting a headstart

While I was in Davao City, Philippines this Spring, I was fortunate to meet a group of youth DNH trainers.  Seven of these remarkable young people attended our consultation in Davao. 

I’ll admit that when they walked into the room, I was a bit nervous that the adults, who were a mix of academics, field staff and headquarters staff, wouldn’t take them seriously.  But fortunately, I had underestimated my colleagues.  They welcomed the youth trainers (ages 13 to 17) into the discussions, encouraged them and even asked for their advice!  The youth trainers, in return, challenged the adults to consider children’s issues and shared their stories about how DNH had transformed thier lives. 

World Vision trained seventeen youths as trainers.  The youth trainers have since trained over 400 of their peers in DNH!  World Vision has released a video about them on YouTube, called Empowering Children as Peacebuilders.

In an upcoming newsletter, we will share more about this fascinating group of young people!

Shared Learning

On May 10-14, I experienced my first Do No Harm training of trainers, held at CDA’s office in Cambridge, MA.  There were a dozen or so attendees, including several students from local universities, two organizational representatives, some experienced freelance development and conflict workers, and few CDA staff. It was a diverse group of people, all with unique experiences in conflict sensitivity programs and knowledge of DNH; I was curious to see how the week would progress with such an eclectic group.

Marshall presenting the DNH framework - his enthusiasm is evident.

As soon as the first case study was underway—a story relating a project by Save the Children in Southern Tajikistan post civil war—the room came alive as each participant dissected the context of the case, indentifying potential connectors and dividers, and explored the implicit ethical messages conveyed by Save the Children’s project design.  I was stunned by the comprehensive analysis this small group was able to perform in such a short period of time. As the week continued, our group of participants approached each new lesson with this same rigor and thoroughness, all the while integrating personal stories and experiences from around the world to highlight examples of where they had seen good use—or lack—of DNH analysis.

On a personal level, it was great to spend a week focused on learning the fundamentals of DNH, but even more enjoyable was watching the constructive way this group of strangers came together to brainstorm ideas and encourage each other through each lesson. Through working together and sharing ideas, we were able to come out of this training with a clear understanding of the principles of DNH and how to employ its lessons—and had a great time doing so!

The participants

Botas y Banderas

Today, we present the first of our Guest Blogs, written by Eliana Spadoni, a consultant based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Eliana is a DNH trainer and has used DNH in her consulting work.  This article tells the story of her work with UNHCR on the border region between Ecuador and Colombia.   

*We publish submissions by our guest bloggers in their original language.  If you are intersted in submitting a post to the Do No Harm Project Blog, please leave us a note in the comments! 

Eliana en la Frontera Norte

   

Mi nombre es Eliana, y soy una constructora de paz. Hago paz, fabrico paz. Otros fabrican motores de heladeras, bicicletas, figuritas para niñas. Yo no. Trabajo con lo que hay. La mayoría de las veces: dolor, odio, traición, violencia, pobreza, desesperación…¿pero vos querés tener razón o ser feliz? Siempre hay más: amor, misericordia, alegría, identidad, puentes, interconexión: Conectores.Es como querer atrapar el viento. A veces creo que  no tiene ningún sentido. 

Las botas de goma negras que nos dieron antes de aterrizar en  Esmeraldas son como chicle  en el fango. Al oído una mujer bajita de tez oscura, me dice: -En la Federación nos decíamos compañeros pero acá se dice colegas.- Y elevando ahora la voz, dice: -Bienvenida colega a Naciones Unidas.- 

Acabo de llegar junto a cinco personas del Alto Comisionado de  Naciones Unidas para Refugiados (ACNUR) a la comunidad “el viento”, luego de recorrer la frontera norte ecuatoriana que linda con Colombia y ver como los bosques más altos del mundo bordean la costa más pobre y conflictiva de Latinoamérica. Son los bosques de manglares que desparraman su inmensidad sobre el mar, y le dan nuevo nombre  a  Esmeraldas: “la provincia verde” . Mi misión es acompañar al equipo de ACNUR para ayudarlos a ser sensibles a la conflictividad emergente, la de ellos es encontrar colombianos, y ayudarlos. Más del 40% de los ecuatorianos que viven en la Frontera Norte viven en situación de pobreza extrema. Es decir, que venga Naciones Unidas o cualquier otra entidad, les da igual. Lo que importa es que traen recursos. Lo que molesta es que a cambio les piden colombianos. Se reinventa así un viejo mercado en el continente: personas por recursos. 

Nos pusimos las botas cuando subimos a la lancha: las botas y los chalecos. La lancha es precaria,   un bote de madera balsa, con un motor chico y los colores desgastados. Los chalecos tienen el logo de Naciones Unidas, antes era suficiente para que no te maten, hoy da lo mismo. Me puse todo inmediatamente, aunque fui la única que lo hizo. Los otros en cambio simularon ponérselos. Me sentí una estúpida. Me quedé incomoda. Me desplacé al costado de la lancha, y en un gesto de fastidio me lo saqué. Fue un error. Diez minutos después alguien dijo: -Ahí vienen! 

Para mi sonó como una alerta, pensé que llegaban las FARC o algún narco terrorista. Para la lancha fue un dato mas y con displicencia cada uno tomo su chaleco  y nos los pusimos al tun tun. Era solo la patrulla de control ecuatoriana. Hay sólo una para 600 kilómetros marítimos imposibles de controlar.  

El afro descendiente que conduce la lancha anda descalzo. También así le decimos en Naciones Unidas, si estuvieramos en dock sud le diríamos, el negrito. Ni chalecos ni botas para él. Entre el ruido del mar que golpea fuerte a la lancha, se da vuelta y  alguien le pasa la bandera de ACNUR. La desenreda, sonríe, la ata y empieza a flamear, con la sonrisa sin dientes posa para la foto. Será la primera de miles de fotos que  las personas del grupo sacarán durante este viaje. Algunos tenemos chalecos y otros banderas.  

Estacionamos en la comunidad El Viento. Intentamos bajar, en realidad subir, tenemos que trepar hasta el muelle. Todas las comunidades costeras de la frontera son en su mayoría pesqueras, viven de conchear. Meterse en el fango, sacar las conchas, limpiarlas y venderlas en el mercado local. No alcanza. 

Nos espera toda la comunidad. La Asamblea es en una habitación que comparten más de una familia. El suelo esta húmedo y las paredes gastadas, pero a pesar de la  suciedad: hay  ropa recién lavada sobre la cama. Solo una silla, y un agujero en el medio para mear. En la ventana, alguien señala a la escuela. Salimos, del otro lado barro y más barro.  No se puede cruzar. -“ Construyeron la escuela, pero se olvidaron del puente!” . Ocho casas, cuarenta familias, una escuela  de 100 mil dólares. Una maestra que no viene más. Un pueblo analfabeto. 

Instantáneas, fotos, poses, miradas, modelos del subdesarrollo. En el piso, en realidad en el fango, un niño y una filita de hormigas. En cuclillas parece más pequeño de lo que es.  De repente alguien le lanza un lamparazo en la cara. Inmutable sigue mirando la filita de hormigas. Mientras un desconocido que nunca volverá a ver imagina un folleto internacional de buenas prácticas para la administración de la pobreza. 

¿Y los colombianos donde están?. Acá hay gente escondida. Las cifras oficiales hablan de más de 135.000 refugiados en Ecuador, las otras dicen que son el doble: 300.000. El conflicto entre el gobierno ecuatoriano y colombiano, rompieron relaciones diplomáticas por casi más de un año, estalló por la operación colombiana en La Angostura dentro de territorio ecuatoriano, y escala día a día por estas cifras. Un gobierno que no reconoce un conflicto y otro que disfruta escalándolo. Un tema de Estado. A los colombianos eso no les importa, quieren sobrevivir. A los ecuatorianos tampoco, quieren trabajar. Caminamos buscándolos, dicen que están por allá atrás. Son los invisibles del siglo XXI. Los que no quieren ser encontrados, prefieren la clandestinidad, y tampoco quieren contar su historia. Acá no hay historias para contar. 

Hay casas con chapas que tienen el sello de Naciones Unidas. En algunos casos se ve que intentaron borrarlo. Suena con todo el regeaton, ahora sí estamos en tierra colombiana dentro del Ecuador. Pueblo trabajador, los colombianos son conocidos por ser grandes emprendedores, negociantes, o como ahora los llaman los ecuatorianos: “unos vivillos”. Un mangle de cuatro metros de altura es usado como banco para las reuniones comunitarias. Siento un impulso, me acuesto sobre él, lo abrazo, y alguien me toma una foto, y me dice: mis respetos para usted que se arrodilla ante la naturaleza. 

Una mujer refugiada nos muestra un hogar a leña improvisado, una olla negra de las de antaño, el calor indescriptible. Desde que llegamos siento un charco adentro de las botas. El olor de la leña, colchones rancios, el hedor, una cortina separando el espacio. Me aclaran: del otro lado vive un señor,  una hamaca y una televisión. -Lo compartimos por la tele. -Nosotros no queremos sacarle nada a ellos -usted cree que nos gusta vivir así?– 

Estamos cerca de la costa, prontos para irnos. Dos adolescentes descalzos escuchan una canción hit de regeaton mientras pescan. Un joven con botas blancas se acerca. Les sonríe. Se saludan, se quita las botas y se las pasa. Uno de ellos, se mete mar adentro con las botas blancas, son mucho mejores que las mías- intento ver la marca. Pero en cambio, cuando se da vuelta veo en su remera una bandera estampada que es amarilla, azul y roja, por el calor parece pegada a su cuerpo. Uno se podría confundir, y pensar que es la bandera colombiana, comparten los mismos colores que la ecuatoriana, la base del sueño Bolivariano de la gran Colombia. Acá en la frontera todo es poroso, los límites se mezclan y se desdibujan a cada paso. Llega la victoria: es una raya. Hay aplausos. Se pasan las botas blancas. Festejan con la inocencia de la juventud compartida y la alegría del regeaton colombiano. 

Antes de irme, les grito: -¿de qué país es tu bandera?-

The first half of 2010

From now on, we will try to write a post about each of our project trips as they happen.  But first, we should catch you up on where we’ve been so far this year. 

2010 has been a busy travel year already:

In January, Marshall was one of the featured presenters at the Global Response 2010 International Conference on Violent Conflict and Health in Copenhagen, which brought together experts on health and conflict from around the world for four days of discussion. You can read the report of the Global Response Conference here.

After the Conference, Marshall traveled to Liberia to work with the staff of the Peace Building Office in Monrovia to incorporate DNH principles into the PBO practices.  This was the second of three scheduled trips to Liberia to assist the PBO in their task of mainstreaming conflict sensitivity throughout the Liberian government. On this trip, Marshall was joined by Dost Bardouille, the Corporate Engagement Project Director, and three consultants: Peter Bauman and Catherine Wilson of the US and Kerstin Lundgren of Sweden. Together, the team held a number of DNH workshops and ToTs with PBO staff in addition to meetings with government officials.

Liberia DNH Team: Marshall, Kirsten, Catherine, Peter, Wilfred Gray-Johnson (of Liberia PBO) and Dost

While Marshall was in Liberia, I left for two months of DNH work in South Asia.  The trip started with a two-day consultation in Colombo, hosted by Diakonia Sri Lanka.  Winifred Fitzgerald, a long-time DNH colleague came from her home in Madagascar to co-facilitate.  In the course of those two days, participants discussed the DNH Action Framework, the logistics of using DNH in humanitarian emergencies, the gains and losses of DNH analyses at different levels (local, regional national) and the next steps for DNH practitioners in Sri Lanka. 

Trainers' Tea after the Sri Lanka Consultation

 After the consultation, Winifred and I ran a half-day DNH workshop with Diakonia partners and held a tea with DNH trainers to discuss issues specific to training DNH. 

After leaving Sri Lanka, Winifred and I went to Indonesia, where we ran a two and a half day DNH workshop with Terry Silalahi, a DNH trainer formerly of World Vision Indonesia. Participants at the workshop came from NGOs working all over Indonesia, including Trocaire, Peace Brigades International, Compassion East Indonesia, Center for Empowering Reconciliation and Peace and Asian Muslim Action Network.  In addition to a successful workshop, there was excellent coffee to be had in Indonesia!

Upon departing Indonesia, Winifred traveled home, and I headed to Chennai, India, the headquarters of Cornerstone Trust.  Richard Devadoss and Chandra Mohan, the directors of Cornerstone welcomed me to India and introduced me to their program of Issue-based Peacebuilding with the Uravugal (“relationship”) Network.  Stories of the Uravugal Network were included in our last DNH Newsletter.

Members of the Uravugal Network at a meeting in Mahaballipuram

Fisherman preparing to set out from Mahaballipuram

 From India, I traveled to the Philippines and met Michelle Garred in Manila.  Together, we flew to Davao to interview DNHers for a reflective case study on DNH in Mindanao.  Following our case study interviews, Michelle and I facilitated a two-day DNH consultation, which was organized by the Mindanao Commission on Women.  During the two days, we had over 35 participants!  We were joined by consultants, peacebuilding, development and humanitarian NGOs and even a group of youth DNH trainers. 

Participants at the Davao consultation during small group work.

A conflict-sensitive fashion statement by Irene Santiago of the Mindanao Commission on Women

After the consultation, Michelle and I visited a unique program run by a member of the Davao Ministerial Interfaith, Father Thomas Catarata.  Father Catarata runs the HUBIKA (Hugpong sa mga Binilanggo Alang sa Kalinaw: “Union of Prisioners for Peace”) group at the Davao City Jail who have all been trained in DNH!  Michelle and I listened to their stories and heard about how they are using DNH in their lives at the jail and how they plan to use DNH after they are released. Look out for Michelle’s story about this group in the next DNH Newsletter! 

Father Catarata, first row, far right, Michelle Garred, Nicole Goddard and Sister Joan Castro with HUBIKA at Davao City Jail

Michelle and I then headed back to Manila for a half-day debriefing session with the Office of the Presidential Advisior on the Peace Process, AusAid, and GTZ. 

The final stop on this action-packed trip was Cambodia.  Marshall met me in Phnom Penh and we ran a one-day workshop with the students of the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies program of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.  Later that week, CPCS hosted a two-day DNH consultation in their office.  Following the consultation, Marshall headed back to the US, and Emily Brady and I stayed in Phnom Penh to conduct interviews for a reflective case study on DNH in Cambodia.  In early April, I headed home.

Buddhist temple outside Phnom Penh

Later in April, Marshall flew back over the Pacific to Canberra Australia, where he worked with AusAID’s Crisis Prevention Stabilization & Recovery Group and the Afghanistan team to develop and deliver a training program for complex environments.

The entire team managed to be in the office for most of May, but that doesn’t mean we were sitting still!  Apart from writing and getting out the DNH Newsletter, Marshall ran a five-day DNH ToT at our Cambridge office.  Several participants were from local universities, but we were also joined by NGO professionals from New York, Washington DC and Victoria, BC Canada. 

This week, Marshall is teaching a course at American University in Washington, DC along with the Dayna Brown, the Listening Project Director and Diana Chigas, the Reflecting on Peace Practice Project Co-Director.  We’ll update you on that course when Marshall returns!