Last week important events

Strategic planning and development projects in the communities surrounding UPEACE: constructing peace and sustainability from the local to the global.

The Department of Environment, Peace and Security is doing a special effort to work for peace and sustainable development from a local perspective, and at the same time committing efforts with the communities near our surroundings.

Under the leadership of Prof. Ronnie de Camino and the assistance of Jan Breitling, Carlos García and David Hoffman, a team has been created that includes one NRSD programme student, a Costa Rican student from the University of Maine and four Spanish students from the University Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid. This group will work the next two months  in the preparation of Participatory Community Strategic Plans and Development Projects with Piedras Negras, Picagres, Llano Grande, El Rodeo, Palmichal  and Jaris communities.

The development plans will be oriented to natural resources issues and presented to the Small Grant Program of UNDP/GEF for possible funding.  This initiative is a joint effort of the Municipality of Mora and UPEACE, and will identify solutions and accumulate experiences on local development and local leadership.

The activity initiated with a two-day workshop to discuss the methodological tools to be used. The workshop was facilitated by Sociologist Carlos Brenes, former coordinator of the FAO´s Forest, Trees and People Program, a professional with wide experience in participatory community planning tools. Among the tools discussed are Rapid Rural Appraisal, Rapid Ecologic Appraisal, Participatory Strategic Planning, Scenarios building, community mapping, etc. For more information about the project, please contact rcamino@upeace.org

Environmental Security Conference

The Environmental Security Conference organized by the UPEACE Department of Environment, Peace and Security at the Council Room at UPEACE on the 7th of July marked the end of a one-week ESP-6900 Capstone Course, which was primarily designed for transforming theory into practice. This course focused on the knowledge and skills learned by students in the preceding courses with the aim of translating them into concrete issues of policy and strategy.  The course challenged the students to develop and assess future scenarios related to existing and emerging threats to environmental security, based on the substantive knowledge, critical thinking and analytical skills they have acquired during the period studying the Environmental Security and Peace (ESP) programme.  The course related three major themes: the role of public policy and institutional change in promoting environmental security and sustainable development; the roles played by the private sector and the market, particularly through innovation, transfer of technology and know how, investment and training; and the roles and contributions of education, the media and non-governmental advocacy and organization in building social commitment and action for environmental security. 

During the course, students were tasked to craft a strategy or design a policy in one of the three core themes, and in close collaboration with each other and under the guidance and tutelage of invited experts in each major theme. Two groups of students were formed: one focusing on public policy and institutional change and one on the role of civil society organization in achieving environmental security. Two experts, Mirian Vilela of the Earth Charter and Mauricio Blandino of the Centro Internacional para el Desarrollo Humano, were actively involved in the one-week activity, especially sharing valuable expertise in their relevant fields with the ESP students and guiding them towards developing concrete implementable policies/strategies.

The ESP students, participating as speakers in the conference, proved excellent experts, consultants, and analysts, who eloquently addressed diverse issues, related to environmental insecurity and worked out some policies/strategies to overcome them. The conference, which was attended by some of UPEACE faculty, including the Vice Rector and Dean of Academic Programmes, as well as some of UPEACE staff and students was meant to share fresh findings with UPEACE community and to expose the students to a multidisciplinary audience to help strengthen a holistic understanding of environmental challenges. As expected, the students, through this exercise, were challenged with critical policy questions and received insightful and constructive comments, which would certainly help them develop more concrete policies/strategies for achieving environmental security in their respective contexts.

In the Department of Environment, Peace and Security, we felt very happy of the outcome of the Environmental Security Conference. This practical component of our young Environmental Security and Peace Programme, will receive yet more attention in the future by our department.   For more information, please contact mhamid@upeace.org

UPEACE featured in Canadian and Costa Rican media

UPEACE has been featured in the Canadian weekly newspaper l’Express. The article was written during the Creativity Unleashed activity that took place in May 2006. The UPEACE Toronto Centre was the organizer of the activity. The full note, in French, can be found at: http://www.lexpress.to/archives/503/

In commemoration of the Commencement 2006 an article was featured in the Diario Extra. This is the highest circulated newspaper in Costa Rica. The complete article is at:

http://www.diarioextra.com/2006/julio/01/nacionales08.php

Radio Nacional, the Costa Rican state-run radio station in Costa Rica, conducted a live interview to Dr. Victor Valle, Dean for Latin America and the Caribbean Programme and Head of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies. To read the transcription of the interview, in Spanish, click here.

Also an article featuring five UPEACE students was published in the Sunday magazine Proa of La Nacion newspaper on Sunday 9 July 2006. La Nacion is the most important newspaper in Costa Rica. If you want to access the full story please go to:http://www.nacion.com/proa/ 2006/julio/09/reportajes1.html

News from our alumni

Paul Rushton
International Peace Studies,
Class of 2006 

You might think that adding your bios and keeping all your info updated on the UPEACE   web pages is a lot of effort, especially when you have a thesis breathing down your neck or you’re packing to head home. Think again!

In September, I’ll be working with EarthRight International in Chiang Mai, Thailand, helping teach sustainable development and conflict resolution to Burmese activists. This amazing opportunity came to me because EarthRights (www.earthrights.org) was scanning the student bios on the UPEACE webpage, found mine, and sent an email asking me if I’d like to apply.

The moral of the story: the UPEACE bio page works! Keep yours updated with all your new info, because great new opportunities open up through that page. It’s an excellent place to network, and you honestly never know what you’ll find there – or who’ll find you! 

Emmanuel Ojo
International Peace Studies,
Class of 2005

Hello and how is the job going at UPEACE, what a stroke of luck to me also as a past UPEACE student in the 2005 Commencement from the International Peace Programme? Nevertheless, the joy and great prowess that UPEACE has bestowed on me has manifested again as I am one of the few who have just finished another Master degree with the European Commission Humanitarian course on the same day with newly UPEACE Commencement day for 2006 students!

I am very happy to inform the UPEACE community and staff that the skills and academic prowess that UPEACE has put into me is immeasurable. I remain committed and dedicated to the service to humanity in my global crusade for achieving lasting peace.


UPEACE Staff

Dr.  Tony Karbo 
Programme Officer at the UPEACE 
Africa Programme.

Dr.  Tony Karbo holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.  

His last appointments included Senior Lecturer and Programme Coordinator of the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance, Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe and Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University. He joined the Addis Ababa Office on 03 July 2006.   

Dr. Edith Natukunda leaves UPEACE

Last Thursday June 6th, UPEACE community recognized the efforts of Dr. Edith Natukunda-Togboa, Dean for African Studies and former Head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, as she completed her assignment with UPEACE after two years of a staff exchange arrangement with the Makerere University, Uganda.

Edith contributed in many ways to the development of the University and left behind her significant achievements and a large group of friends. Every academic and cultural initiative that she led strengthened the University. She has also contributed decisively to the integration of the African realities in our programmes and activities. 

Among her many accomplishments, she played a major role in the organization of highly successful UPMUNC conferences. The success of this annual project is an excellent example of the level of commitment and leadership she has continuously demonstrated at UPEACE.

The whole UPEACE System wishes her success in all her future endeavours!