The Group of 78 held its annual policy conference for 2023 between Tuesday, Sept. 26 and Friday, Sept. 29. The Title of the hybrid conference was Preventing and Stopping Violence: Effective Actions to Curtail Conflict.
The planning committee felt that there was a need to focus on solutions, to the degree possible, rather than the traditional approach of discussing background and causes. This orientation led to a fascinating examination of potential strategies for prevention and resolution of conflict in a wide variety of environments and circumstances.
A conference report is currently being prepared. Some very preliminary principles and findings that emerged are:
- The world has become less peaceful, challenging the adequacy of the whole peacebuilding system (consistent with the UN Secretary General’s message)
- The importance of “Inclusion” of all can not be over estimated. Ireland and Colombia provide excellent examples (i.e., including those in opposition in government). Related to this is to respect the “other”, including the opposition/enemy
- Prevention needs to be the focus of finding solutions … and this must begin with local communities, including, in some cases, peasants. An important component of this strategic element is Dialogue with all as well as active, effective listening (to understand)
- Several recommendations for UN reform were made, as well as a proposal for an “international fund for peacebuilding to support long-term institution and capacity building … to enable countries and their peoples to far better manage emerging threats to their peace
- It is time to make room for professionalizing peace work, which will lead to respect, credibility and inclusion of those with expertise in finding peaceful outcomes at the decision-making tables.
The following presentations were made (Note: Two of which involved members of the Peace Professionalism Partnership initiative):
| 1 | Keynote: A Peaceful World by 2030 | Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University, UK |
| 2 | Keynote: Charting a Path to Peace in the Midst of Escalating War & Militarisation | Kai Brand-Jacobsen, President & Director of the Department of Peace Operations of PATRIR, Romania |
| 3 | Keynote: Science and Secrets of Ending Violent Crime | Irvin Waller, Professor, Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa; Author |
| 4 | Northern Ireland – A Successful Peace Story | Sean Byrne, Professor, Peace & Conflict Studies, University of Manitoba John McGarry, Professor, Political Studies; Canada Research Chair in Nationalism & Democracy, Queen’s University |
| 5 | Colombia: Successes in a Challenging Environment | Cesar Jaramillo, Moderator / Discussant – Executive Director, Project Ploughshares Professor Dr. Luis Bernardo Díaz Gamboa – Professor, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) Hon. Senator Sandra Ramírez Lobo Silva – Elected to the Senate of Colombia for the Commons party in 2018: former combatant in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Dr. Alicia Cabezudo – Professor Emeritus at the School of Education UNR – Universidad National de Rosario and the UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Human Rights of the National University of Buenos Aires |
| 6 | Addressing the Roots of Conflict in Africa | Isaac Asume Osuoka, Fellow in Residence, Global and International Studies, Carleton University Lina Aburas-Awadalla, Doctoral Candidate, International Development & Global Studies, University of Ottawa |
| 7 | The Faith Factor: Positive Intervention or Perilous Intrusion | Audrey Kitagawa, President/Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation Rabbi Kliel Rose, Congregation Etz Chayim, Winnipeg Dr. Peter Petkoff, Director of Religion, Law and International Relations Programme, Regents Park College, Oxford and Brunel Law School, UK Edward Channer, Conflict and Social Cohesion Advisor, Islamic Relief Worldwide, UK Moderated by Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, CCC |
| 8 | Beyond Fragile Ground: New Peacebuilding Architectures for Today and the Future: Findings from PeaceCon2023 | Jessica Baumgardner–Zuzik Deputy Executive Director, Alliance for Peacebuilding Liz Hume, Executive Director, Alliance for Peacebuilding Megan Corrado, Director – Policy & Advocacy, Alliance for Peacebuilding |
| 9 | Health and Peacebuilding: Lessons from the Field | Moderator and Speaker, Neil Arya, Medical Doctor, Scholar in Residence, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo Barry Levy, physician, epidemiologist, Adjunct Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor, Yale School of Public Health Friederike Bubenzer, Peacebuilding Consultant |
| 10 | The Future of UN Peacebuilding – a New Vision: Preventing and Fighting Fires | Bob Berg, Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Centre Richard Ponzio, Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security, Stimson Centre |
| 11 | Peace Professionalism: The Time Has Come | Dr. Philip Onguny, Associate Professor of Conflict Studies, Saint Paul University in Ottawa Dr. Nathan Funk, Associate Professor of Conflict Studies, Saint Paul University in Ottawa Evelyn Voigt, Board Director, Civilian Peace Service Canada. |