Capacity Building Training on “Harmonious Community Building - Conflict Mediation”

On August 03-05, 2009, Capacity Building Training on “Harmonious Community Building-Conflict Mediation” was held in Beijing. The training was hosted by China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO) and Shining Stone Community Action (SSCA), and supported by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). Mr. Ludwig Weitz from Vision-Bonn Germany acted as the trainer.

More than 50 participants joined the training, including representatives from local government, community residents committees, NGOs, universities and academies. The training introduced two tools about communication and conflict solution: World Café and Mediation. The training adopted participatory methods, including presentation, group discussion and role play. World Café provided an opportunity to participants to experience how to make communication and discussion in a relaxed atmosphere. All participants held an active group discussion on “what kind of conflicts can occur during community development and what we can do to solve these conflicts”. They had many good ideas and suggestions. After the conversation, Ludwig Weitz together with all participants summarized the successful elements of World Café: (1) an important topic; (2) voluntary participation of related stakeholders; (3) atmosphere creation (4) active exchange and dialogue.

In addition, Ludwig Weitz introduced mediation methods. Participants raised conflict issues, and had role plays to simulate the mediation process, which helped them to understand the mediation method more deeply.

All participants shared their feelings at the end of training, they indicated that they all could benefit a lot from the training, and the two tools were very useful. At the same time, they also recognized that a successful mediator needs a lot of practice and rich experience.