Initiative for Peace
What is IFP?
What is IFP?
Initiative for Peace (IfP) is an action-based programme that offers UWCSEA students the opportunity to actively promote international understanding and reconciliation in areas of conflict. Since 2001, the IfP has empowered young people from Kashmir, Timor Leste and Sri Lanka to fulfill their potential as agents of change.
UWCSEA students and supporting staff supervisors spend a year planning these conferences, doing everything from sending applications out and selecting participants, to planning the conference programme and activities, to finding speakers and raising funds. They then facilitate and run the conferences, with the support of UWCSEA staff.
Our students explain it in their own words...
How IFP works
How IFP works
Part 1: Learning how to be peace makers
The first half of the IFP year is about training students to be facilitators. Participants have weekly sessions to discuss issues relating to peace and conflict, research the history of conflicts in the countries that the conferences will visit, and learn peace building skills. Students also have weekend training sessions with visiting experts from NGOs, the UN and UWC alumni, who lead sessions in team building, communication, negotiation and leadership.
Part 2: Focus on building deep understanding
The second half of the year is about focusing on a particular conflict and planning and facilitating a conference dedicated to the needs of that community or country. For our past conferences, students have focused on gaining a deep understanding about Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste while they plan their conference activities and programme.
Part 3: Running the conference
During the conference, participants engage in a variety of activities, building friendships across conflict lines as a first step in the search for ways to facilitate reconciliation. The conferences feature trust building activities, workshops and discussions facilitated by UWCSEA students, and lectures by visiting speakers. Topics covered include different portrayals of history, the role of the media, the plight of children and refugees, conflict management, youth leadership and effective advocacy.
Impact
Impact
The impact of the first Initiative for Peace programmes is still being felt, in both the lives of the participants and in the regions where the IfP has been held.
The Initiative for Peace Conferences bring together youths from two sides of a conflict to work on conflict management; their aim, to create permanent youth-led conflict management organisations around the world. As a direct result of the inaugural Focus on Kashmir Conference in June 2002 the first such organization, Youth Initiative for Peace, was established in India and Pakistan.
In the same spirit, the Focus on Sri Lanka conferences in 2003, 2004 and 2005 established and consolidated Voice for Peace, a youth-led organisation with the objective of contributing to the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately the Focus on Sri Lanka conference in 2006 had to be cancelled at the very last minute due to the escalation of the conflict, and we changed the focus of our programme towards Timor Leste, holding the first Focus on Timor Leste conference in June 2007 and second Focus on Timor Leste in June 2008.
Here are some articles about IFP and what it has meant to different people:
Peacemaker Heroes report on Focus on Kashmir
United Worlds article from UWC IFP facilitator
News Article about Focus on Sri Lanka in Ceylon Today