Tetiana Kyselova, advisor to the Ukrainian Community of Dialogue Practitioners, took part in the discussion ‘A gender-responsive recovery in Ukraine’ at The Berlin Peace Moot, - conference on the future of peace in the 21st century.
“Ukrainian dialogue practitioners have many years of experience of using dialogue as a practical tool of people inclusion into local and central decision-making. After a full-scale invasion in 2022, the dialogue methodology has been complemented with a trauma-healing component and piloted in a number of local communities throughout the country. Dialogue models should be scaled-up as a functional example of community-centered approach to recovery, along other mechanisms.”
Below are a few of the points from Tatiana's speech at the conference on 18 April:
“Dialogue and social cohesion work often produces intangible results that are nevertheless crucial to peace in Ukraine.”
“Reconstruction of physical infrastructure and recovery of the labour force for the economy (social recovery) should be accompanied by the social cohesion work – restoration of the social fabric of the society and relationships in the families, schools, and local communities. Such “soft” recovery should be supported by the donors and Ukrainian government alike, in parallel to the military support of Ukraine and support to the social and infrastructure recovery.”
“Social cohesion work should be based on the principles of gender-responsiveness, inclusion of all societal groups into decision-making, and trauma-sensitivity of all interventions.”
“Ukrainian civil society, including mediators and dialogue facilitators have been working on the ground with their Theories of Change and strategies.
International actors will be better off if they refrain from developing their Theories of Change, but instead follow Ukrainian strategic thinking and offer financial support to Ukrainian civil society for what they consider important. Dialogue and social cohesion work often produces intangible results that are nevertheless crucial to peace in Ukraine. Therefore, this work should be supported by the flexible, open-ended and core funding to the local actors rather than conventional project funding”.
Dr. Tetiana Kyselova is an Associate Professor of Mediation and Conflict Resolution for the Department of International Relations at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine, Associate Researcher at swisspeace, and Director and Founder of the Mediation and Dialogue Research Center at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
The Berlin Peace Moot, organised by the German non-governmental non-profit organisation “The Berghof Foundation” on 17-18 April 2024 in Berlin, was an event with new approaches to conflict resolution to determine the future of peace in the 21st century.
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