LCP Activities

Initial stage of LCP Project in South Asia witnessed series of discussion and debates to understand the relevance of Do No Harm Concept and LCP tools in South Asian context where the conflict situation is not as violent as it was in cases from where LCP originally initiated. The project was conceptualized and planned in one of the consultation in New Delhi in Year 2004 where activities for mainstreaming of LCP Project was planned for two levels. It was a common understanding among cooperating organizations that LCP Framework shall be required at Regional Cooperation level as well as in Organization’s own programme planning, implementation and monitoring processes.


Regional Activities:

LCP activities: 2009 – 2010:- [region]

CC MEETING:
Kathmandu 1st-2nd April 2009, First meeting of LCP Coordination Committee was held where the sharing of LCP intervention by each partner organization was done, regional action plan was designed, decision was taken to enhance analysis skill of the participants of the member countries by organizing workshop on social analysis and trend analysis, Sharing was done on the LCP conducted in Kashmir, Srilanka and Jafan, Planning was done for a joint exposure visit to north India and also exploration of joint initiatives taken by the partners was done

Kathmandu 3rd-4th November 2009 Coordination Committee of the LCP Network met again. This meeting enhanced the knowledge of the participating organizations on trend of conflict in South Asia and how ‘Do No Harm’ approach has proved to be beneficial for minimizing the negative effects of the programmes conducted by the organizations. The meeting enabled the partners to review the LCP work taken up individually and collectively. The discussions held during the process have given a positive direction to the regional processes and a broader understanding on the present context of South Asia.

Workshop on social analysis
Kathmandu 8th to 11th June 2009, the first ever Social Analysis Workshop in was held in LCP process. The main objective was to enrich understanding on the concept of social Analysis with tools and techniques in the South Asia context, to understand better the dynamics of poverty and vulnerability in any local context and to enhance the analytical ability for development initiative interacting in the certain section of people life from different aspect The workshop helped to gain a better and deeper understanding about various dimensions and dynamics of the society, the socio, economic and political context (both local & global) and its trend, to see the link between and among the issues, and more importantly helped participants to understand application of the social analysis tools to be used while working in a conflict scenario.

Material Development
The main document on LCP the Do No Harm Book is in English. It has been translated and published in various local languages such as Hindi, bangla, Urdu, Manipuri, Nepali, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telgu. LCP Training Manual and Option book has been translated in Hindi. A series of booklets and short handbooks on DNH have been published in Urdu, Hindi, English, Bangla and in Dravidian languages. Several case studies in different conflict situations have also come up through LCP Partner’s involvement at grassroots level. Resource materials in local language are being widely practiced at regional level.

Revision and contextualizing of Training manual
After having four rounds of ToTs completed the facilitators and the coordination group members felt the need of revising the LCP training modules as with changing times, nature of South Asian context and wealth of experience that we gained through the process, some key changes in the module were urgently required. Special emphasis is being given to revise the manual on the basis of development intervention that partners are engaged in and bring in elements of social analysis and gender aspects to it. By the end of August 2010, we will come up with the revised version.

Beyond LCP
After practicing LCP for so many years, we have has moved beyond LCP and directly started working on peace. For example, in Manipur, UNMM on one hand mainstreaming LCP on the other hand taking peace issue in the context of extra judicial killing and human rights violations. With Right based approach both CASA & CNI assumes that unless people don't get their basic rights there is no peace. Keeping this in mind we are integrating LCP framework in all the programmes and interventions.

ISD on one hand working with LCP on the other hand it is also working with a peace building tool of Composite Heritage. In CHT, Hill Tract Forum, in the face of conflict largely perpetuated by state & armed forces, they are integrating LCP in their activities. UMN has a very holistic approach to working in conflict. It not only works on prevention but also deals with resolution aspects through its conflict transformation programme.

Working in areas like Provinces of Pakistan, Kashmir, North East in India, Chittagong Hill Tracts and other burning regions in Bangladesh and in the post conflict situation in Nepal, is a real challenge and under such circumstances, the efforts and spirit put in by participating organization of LCP project is really commendable. It is important to maintain the coordination and participation of different stakeholders in this process. There are indeed different dimensions, actors, elements components of context in different country & in different regions as well and therefore the wealth of experience gained in the process and mutual learning has been unique in the whole process. The most significant role is that of the regional trainers who are responsible to implement DNH approach within and outside their respective organizations and to bring some valuable inputs from derived learning and case-studies to DNH approach in South Asian context.

Local Capacities for Peace Workshop, Jaipur, India
As an initiative, a three-day workshop was organized for participants from Bangladesh, Nepal and India in Chokidhani, Jaipur, India from 25th to 27th November 2003. Trainers from Kenya, Netherlands and India shared their rich experiences and expertise with the participants from South Asian Countries so that they can make informed decisions on ‘Local Capacities of Peace (LCP) tools & ‘Do No Harm’ principals and its use in their development and humanitarian work in accordance to local context.

PISA Consultation, Negombo, Sri Lanka

An EED Partners’ Consultation was held at Negombo, Sri Lanka from 23-26th February 2004. This consultation was organized under the programme ‘Peace Initiatives in South Asia (PISA)’ with an objective to discuss and enhance the capacity of analyzing regional conflict issues which are of concerns to development, peace, human rights and women, to facilitate networking and exchange of experience among EED partners & other experienced actors and to develop plan for further activities in the area of peace, development and gender. 72 Participants from five South Asian Countries and Experts from Netherlands & Germany came together to discuss the concepts of conflict, peace, development & role of developmental assistance in the changing situation. Sharing of analyses of their past experiences was done and common areas for future cooperation were identified.

LCP Workshop, New Delhi, India

In order to initiate the process of mainstreaming ‘Local Capacities for Peace’ in organizational framework, a workshop of LCP Partners consisting of Organizations from India (CNI-SBSS, UNMM, CSI-BDM, CASA, and ISD), Bangladesh (CCDB, HTNF) and Nepal (UMN) was held in Delhi on 1st – 2nd September 2004. The participants had a discussion on the changing scenario in their respective working areas and the rationale of using LCP tools in their organizational and programmatic framework to make their developmental endeavors more appropriate in the peace building process. The participating organizations agreed on the idea of putting collective efforts at South Asian Regional level and mainstreaming LCP at organizational level. An agreement was developed about the overall goal of the mainstreaming process and possible strategies worked out at different levels.

LCP Coordination Committee Meetings

1st Coordination Committee Meeting:
First LCP Coordination Committee meeting was held in Bangkok on 4th and 5th February 2005 where the detailed plan of action for regional processes was developed and the operational mechanism for the LCP was finalized. The Committee unanimously invited CASA to take up the responsibility of the LCP Secretariat. An Advisory Council has been formed to guide and accompany the LCP mainstreaming process in the region and to bring more stakeholders in board.

2nd Coordination Committee Meeting:
The second meeting of Coordination Committee was held on 22nd and 23rd November 2005 at CCDB – HOPE Center, Dhaka (Bangladesh). This was a kind of review cum strategic forward planning meeting for the LCP Project where ToT I was reviewed followed by discussions held on conducting ToT II, joint exposure visits, orientation programme for Senior staffs, application training and role of Coordination Committee, advisory council and CASA.

3rd Coordination Committee Meeting:
Third CC meeting was held at Godavari Village Resort, Kathmandu (Nepal) on 8th and 7th March 2007. Through this meeting it was observed that orientation workshops should be followed by application trainings where the trainees should be taught about the use of LCP tools in the programmes of their organizations after gaining knowledge about the “Do No Harm” concept. Decisions were taken regarding place, venue and date, selection criteria and nomination of the trainers. Planning for the next phase of LCP Project and discussion on developing contents for PISA Website was done in the meeting.

4th Coordination Committee meeting:
The 4th meeting of coordination committee was held on 7th November 2007 at Kathmandu, Nepal. The sessions for the meeting were chaired by Mr. Jayant Kumar, Head of Programmes, CASA, Mr. Khurshid Anwar, ISD, Ms. Balkumari Rai Gurung and Ms. Mahnaz Rahman. It included discussions on proposal development beyond LCP, initiating joint assessment process, review of application training held on August-September 2007 and review of ToT III.

5th Coordination Committee Meeting:
The 5th CC meeting was conducted at Church of South India Training centre, Chennai on 17th and 18th November 2008 where reflections were made on LCP TOT IV and Backstopping. Discussions were held on LCP Phase II, roles and responsibilities of the secretariat and Advisory Committee, Integration of LCP in each organization, mainstreaming involving heads of the organization, status of website and future CC meetings and exposure visits.

Training of Trainers
The approach of LCP mainstreaming emphasizes on creating a pool of regional trainers who shall utilize this tool in project planning, monitoring and evaluation process in organizational framework. In this regard, the main component was felt as identification of potential trainers, organizing ToT for them and to provide regional backstopping support to facilitate regional trainings for orientation purpose and application of the tool by the organizations and their partners. Thus as a capacity building initiative four batches of trainers were trained through ToT I, II, III and IV organized in South Asian region such as Bangladesh, Nepal and India.

ToT 1 – Dhaka, August 2005 –
Training of Trainers (ToT) I was organized from 14th – 24th August 2005 in Dhaka, Bangladesh in which 16 trainees from 8 Organizations of South Asian countries participated. Dr. Rolf Grafe and his team of trainers from Horn of Africa & Nobokishore Singh from South Asian Region conducted the 10 days extensive training programme.

ToT 2 – Dhaka, April – May 2006 –
ToT II was organized April- May 2006 at CCDB HOPE Centre, Dhaka in which 16 trainees participated in 10 day extensive training on DNH Framework. This time participants from partner organizations of Cooperating Organizations also participated in ToT. The objective of involving partner organizations was to spread the skill among the grassroot organizations who are not directly involved in the project but those are related to conflict context in their own areas. Jochen Neumann & Wolfgang Heinrich – the External Trainer and Khurshid Anwar, Sangnaider and Kalipada Sarkar – all Regional Trainers facilitated the 10 days training programme.

ToT III (Nepal, November 2007) -
The LCP ToT III was held in Godavari Village Resort’ Kathmandu, Nepal from 26th -06th November 2007. This was the third one in the series of ToT in South Asia. In total 22 trainees attended the workshop with seven senior and young trainers facilitating the process.

ToT IV (India, November 2008) -
LCP TOT IV training programme was held in India at Mammalla Beach Resort, Mammallapuram (Chennai) from 4th to 14th November 2008. The training continued for 11 days, with the support of EED and practical arrangements were provided by CASA (Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action).

The participants and the trainers who attended the programme were from partner organizations of South Asia viz. EED, CSI DM, CASA, ISD, CWS-P/A, CNI-SBSS, TUS, UMN and CCDB. In total 25 members attended the programme; out of which 18 were the trainees, 5 were the trainers and 2 belonged to CASA secretariat. The trainers who facilitated the training process were Mr. Jochen Neumann (KURVE Wustrow), Mr Khurshid Anwar (ISD, India), Ms. Shruti (ISD, India), Mr. Arvind Sinha (CASA, India) and Mr. Kalipada Sarker (CCDB, Bangladesh). The candidates appearing for LCP TOT IV were experienced in developmental work and had sufficient knowledge on English language. They were experts in grasping the concept of “Do No Harm” approach.

The purpose behind all the four workshops was to prepare a new batch of trainers every year from the South Asian regions so that they can further disseminate knowledge and skills of DNH Approach and LCP tools in their respective organizations at regional level. The trainees after becoming experts in LCP performed the task of conducting orientation & training for their organizational staffs and partners in their region.

Backstopping meeting :
In the planning meeting held at Kathmandu, Nepal from 11th to 14th of November, 2008 it was decided that backstopping should be a regular process where experience should be shared on LCP mainstreaming process and the challenges faced by the trainer’s while using LCP tool in their respective fields. These experiences will be further used as a guideline for the trainers in setting the agenda for implementing LCP tool in a better way. The documentation of the experiences will act as a reference material in future implementation of LCP. Inspired by the discussions in planning meeting the first backstopping meeting was held at Church of South India Training Centre, Chennai on 15th and 16th November 2008. It included discussions on positive and negative experiences of the participants, advantages and disadvantages of local case study V/s distant case study, recommendations for case studies, different methods of conducting orientation and application workshops, bridging language barrier between participants and trainers, criteria for selection of participants, revision of DNH Manual, time frame of revision process, issues of South Asia and its root causes and dimensions for LCP mainstreaming. The facilitators headed the process through group discussions.

Consultation at Dhaka, Bangladesh :
On completion of 3 years of PISA initiative in the region, the South Asia PISA consultation was organized in HOPE centre of CCDB in Dhaka from 18th- 21st November 2005. Around 50 representatives from 7 countries participated in the consultation. The PISA consultation reviewed the initiatives in last three years and the "PISA statement of concern" was developed which will be the guideline and pathway for journey ahead.

LCP Exposures and Joint Assessment :
During planning process of LCP in South Asia, joint exposures were conceptualized with an idea of initiating a process of monitoring and assessment of one’s programme by other partners in the process. Joint exposure visit could provide a better understanding to the visiting team and at the same time, it will provide a feedback to host organization for making improvement in its process. The concept of Joint exposure is to involve organizations for value addition to the process and mutual learning.

Documentation & Publication :
The activities under documentation and publications aims at intensifying research and case studies in consultation with already existing group who are committed to disengage people from violence and work for peace through non-violent means. The objective is a creation of pool of information and documentation for use of NGOs and activists involved in development or peace building processes in their areas.

Application Trainings :
In view of application of LCP tool, it has been realized by cooperating organizations that there is need of a separate mechanism for effective application of LCP tool & DNH approach in each organization’s area. It is also important to formulate operational strategies for LCP application in violent conflict situation and also to generate strategies for areas where conflict in not so violent. After orientation programme, people are knowing about the concept of DNH and LCP but still they are in a loss on how to apply this tool, how to use LCP in planning, monitoring and evaluation process. In order to fill this gap, Application training will be organized for each of the organizations. Each organization will identify and involve personals from their organization who have prior knowledge of LCP tool and who are involve in planning, monitoring and evaluation process.