2007 Symposium

Community-Based Peacebuilding Across Borders and Boundaries

Kigali, Rwanda ~ November 6-13, 2007

Download Symposium Proceedings

Community-Based Peacebuilding Across Borders and Boundaries is a symposium designed to meet the needs of the of the international grassroots peacebuilding community. It will bring together practitioners, theorists and policy makers to:

• Inform and explore theory and practice in community-based peacebuilding
• Create, support and collaborate on ideas and research projects across borders
• Connect and strengthen the InterChange network of peacebuilding theorists and practitioners around the world, particularly in East Africa
• Learn about the situation in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region and build shared capacity for income-generating activities, conflict resolution, human rights work, trauma healing and reconciliation, and sustainable agriculture
• Contribute to domestic and foreign policy on peacebuilding issues

Symposium Themes:
This symposium will involve in-depth discussion of the theory and practice around two thematic areas: "Diaspora Dialogues" and "Cultural Approaches to Peacebuilding"

Symposium Context:
The title of the symposium - Community-Based Peacebuilding Across Borders and Boundaries - reflects our intention to build bridges of understanding and collaboration across borders and boundaries of all kinds. These include geographical borders, especially between the global North and South, and between diaspora communities and their homelands.

We also see great promise in people from very different localities - e.g. the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Balkans - coming together to learn from each others’ experience.

Another boundary we hope to cross is that of role - by bringing together theorists, practitioners and policy-makers to build theory together and learn from the perspective of the other. And we hope to build bridges of dialogue and mutual support across borders of gender, ethnicity and generation.

Find out more about the symposium's philosophy.

Symposium Agenda:
View the symposium agenda

Information about Participating:
Detailed information for academics / theory-builders
Detailed information for practitioners / peace workers
Detailed information for decision-makers, policy makers and funders

For more information:
Contact Anne Goodman, InterChange Executive Director, or Anastase Rugirangoga, Country Director for Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Programme (PHARP) Rwanda

The Symposium is being hosted by:

• InterChange;
• Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Programme (PHARP) Rwanda
  
• Transformative Learning Centre, University of Toronto

We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders:

• Canada Council for the Arts; Conseil des Arts du Canada
• Canadian Auto Workers' Social Justice Fund; Les Fonds de justice sociale des TCA
• Canadian International Development Agency; Agence canadienne de developpement international (CIDA-ACDI)
• International Development Research Centre; Le Centre de recherches pour le developpement (IDRC-CRDI)