Academy for Educational Development

At a recent AED conference, Peace Education in Action, a panel of experts explored the power of education and media to influence peaceful behavior at the individual and societal levels.  While television and radio have been used to incite conflicts such as the Rwandan and Balkan genocides, they remain largely untapped as tools for peace.

“The impact that war, conflict, and violence have on young people represents the greatest challenge to long-term success in human development,” said Gregory R. Niblett, senior vice president and director of the AED Social Change Group, in his opening comments. “And there is no one-size fits all answer.” He added that collaboration among all sectors of development is the key to successful peace-building activities.

The four panelists were: Sheldon Himelfarb, associate vice president at the United States Institute of peace; Janet Wallach, president emeritus of Seeds of Peace; Mary Mulvihill, senior program officer at the AED Center for Civil Society and Governance; and Sharmini Boyle, Chief Editor of Young Asia Television. May Rihani, senior vice president and director of the AED Global Learning Group, moderated the event.

Creating Safe Spaces

Media, Mulvihill explained, has the power to create safe spaces in which individuals can escape to explore the issues behind the conflicts afflicting their societies. For example, in Sri Lanka, she and Boyle helped to create serial dramas that promote conflict resolution, and in Kosovo, Mulvihill used AED’s Bridge Media approach to develop reality television shows that feature interethnic teams of reporters.

According to Mulvihill, different genres were used based on what resonated best with the local audiences. “By matching the genre with the context, we can create sustainable, indigenous markets for peace media, and attack the norm level of change,” she said.

Opportunities to create these safe spaces can also be found in new media, according to Himelfarb, who creates innovative applications for media in conflict resolution. “It’s not the Web 2.0 technologies that are exciting to us, but rather the power in communities that this media is able to create,” he said.

To provide an example, he asked the conference attendees, “How can we jumpstart peace-building communities in Iran, where there are 60,000 active bloggers? Can you imagine the power of harnessing that?”

New media and reality television programs are especially effective vehicles for promoting peace among young people, the panel agreed. Throughout the event, panelists noted that young people’s flexibility and openness make them more receptive to conflict resolution.

“Only by working with young people can we break down barriers,” Wallach said. Her camp in Maine brings together youth from societies in conflict. The careers of the camp’s first graduates, who are now in their 30s, speak to the program’s success. Among alumni are members of Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, as well as a number of journalists.

A Culture of Peace

Ensuring that peace-building activities have an enduring impact is another key concern, the panel noted. Young people who partake in these programs often face the challenge of returning to hostile environments, where peers and family disapprove of their involvement with the other side. Given this reality, Rihani stressed the importance of conducting follow-up activities in schools.

Moreover, sustainable solutions in conflict resolution, the panel said, depend on working beyond conflict zones to change the global culture of thinking about peace. Two suggestions to emerge from the discussion were incorporating peace correspondents in news media, and including peace-building initiatives in development assistance programs.

AED president Stephen F. Moseley reiterated this point in his concluding remarks to the conference. Reflecting on the current conflicts around the world, he said, “Those 42 conflicts need a lot of attention, but we also need to avoid the other 80, wherever they might be.”