Programme objectives and strategy

Objectives and Activities

The overall objective of the proposed "Peace and Disarmament Education" programme is to contribute to the transformation from cultures of violence into cultures of peace. It specifically focuses on the demilitarization of mindsets and the reduction of the level of violence - especially gun violence — among young people in selected communities in four host nations.

To achieve this goal, the proposed project aims to develop community-based peace education programmes, reflecting the assets and needs of civil society. It will achieve the following results:

• Development of an effective peace education curriculum, drawing on local experiences and resources and the collective wisdom of community leaders;
• The design and implementation of a teacher-training programme based on this curriculum to be offered to all of the teachers in the designated schools in the host countries;
• Utilizing the trained teaching staff and the programme's peace education curriculum, the integration of peace education programmes in elementary and secondary schools in each of the four host countries;
• In each host country the design and implementation of an extra-mural or non-school-based peace education programme for the broader community.

The Department of Disarmament Affairs and the Hague Appeal will aim to achieve these results through appropriate programme activities. Programme activities affecting the targeted sites are described below.

Developing A Community-Based Peace Education Programme

1. In September 2002, the Peace Education Coordinator will visit the targeted communities in each host country and meet with stakeholders who participated in the planning grant-period fact-finding visits. The broad goals and objectives will be thoroughly discussed, and local participants will have the opportunity to state or restate their needs and concerns.
2. Throughout the implementation of this programme, programme staff, teachers, students, and other stakeholders will have periodic opportunities to meet together to reflect on the progress and effectiveness of the programme and to adjust the programme to meet emerging needs.

Developing Appropriate Peace Education Curricula

1. The peace education curriculum for teacher training that will be used in this programme will be based on the teacher-training manual developed by the Hague Appeal's Global Campaign for Peace Education, Learning to Abolish War: Teaching Toward a Culture of Peace, by Professor Betty A. Reardon, Teachers' College, Columbia University, and Dr. Alicia Cabezudo, Director, Educating Cities, Rosario, Argentina.
2. The peace education curriculum will also be based on information and curriculum provided by UNICEF, UNESCO, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, the Department of Public Information, and the DDA, but it will be adapted to local needs and assets during the teacher-training programme described below.

Training Peace Education Teachers

1. Two peace education teachers from each targeted country have already been identified during the visits of DDA and Hague Appeal staff. Each of these teachers has had some training in essential elements of peace education, such as conflict resolution. They will play a central role in the September community-based meetings described above, and will thus begin their training knowing many of the basic elements of peace education and having had extensive consultation with key stakeholders in the communities in which they will practice their new skills.
2. In a supplementary plan, all eight teachers will go to Spain in November for a two-week training programme funded by the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and the Hague Appeal for Peace. The training programme will take place simultaneously with an international meeting of peace educators, and part of the training curriculum will include participation in, and observation of, meetings and workshops. The more formal teaching training sessions will be conducted by members of the Hague Appeal's Global Peace Education advisory board.
3. As part of the teacher-training programme, participants will modify existing peace education curricula to reflect local needs and assets, such as cultural issues, legends and folklore, recent experiences with violence and its prevention. Participants will also share these experiences and curricula modifications to enrich each other's knowledge and practice.
4. Following the completion of their training, the two teachers from each community targeted by this project will train teachers from elementary and secondary schools in their communities. At this time, we anticipate that the training will take place in December. Participation is expected from five schools in Lima, two or three schools in Albania, two schools in Niger, and two schools in Cambodia. Depending on the local situation, we expect this training will require several day-long workshops. As in the teacher training conducted in Spain, training of teachers in the host countries will include both learning a (now modified) peace education curriculum, and modifying further this curriculum to include issues of concern to local communities.
5. Additionally, on-going or "in-service" teacher education will take place over the life of this programme with periodic meetings of programme participants for evaluation of and reflection on their experiences. For example, in Peru the programme will invite school administrators and teachers to participate in peace education activity that includes three training workshops in pedagogical innovation and administration, six observation and consultation visits to classroom teachers to evaluate their pedagogical practice; and three group advisory meetings to assess pedagogical practice.

Developing Peace Education Programmes in Schools

The in-school peace education programme varies from country to country and includes both classroom learning and school-wide activities such as debates, entertainment, gender issue workshops, and student self-governance activities.

Developing Extra-mural Peace Education Programmes

The full range of district-wide peace education includes many activities. Some of these will be linked to schools and an extension of school-based peace education programmes. Others will be more autonomous: peace fairs, education centres, district-wide peace campaigns, and a peace tent will illustrate the proposed breadth of this activity. Their common theme is the prevention of community — and especially gun-related — violence through community-based peace education.

Results, Indicators, and Sustainability

Indicators Used to Measure Progress

The Peace and Disarmament Education Programme will use both quantitative and qualitative indices to measure its progress. Our progress in meeting the four objectives outlined above will be evaluated in part by the Implementation Plan. Our progress in meeting the programme's goal — to reduce violence substantially in targeted communities, especially as it concerns children and youth — will be tested against the following yardsticks:

1. Has there been a decline in statistical measures of crime and violence involving children and young people, especially in the classroom?
2. Has there been an observable adoption within the school and community of conflict-resolution techniques?
3. Have students in programmes using the Conflict Prevention and Peace Education curriculum improved their academic achievement?
4. Does the community support the continuation of the peace education programme for a second year? Do neighbouring communities want to implement such a programme? How many teachers are registering for peace education training?
5. Does extended clinical interviewing indicate substantial enthusiasm and hope as a result of participation in peace education programmes?

Peace Education as a Catalyst for Change

This programme provides a new approach to education that differs from traditional, authoritarian models. It supports the expressed desires of some Ministers of Education to provide democratic participatory models between the student and the teacher. This new approach encourages conflict prevention because it is inclusive. It gives students the option not to use a weapon. It will give people hope in their futures because they have new confidence in their abilities.

Project Sustainability

The sustainability of this programme, and its new approach, are ensured by:

1. Ministries of Education in each of the four countries have already committed to continuing and replicating the project;
2. Experiences by students and teachers will be retained well after the two-year implementation.
3. The involvement of community volunteers, who will carry on with the project beyond the two-year duration of the programme;
4. The use of readily available technologies, such as radios, which can be therefore utilized even after the initial two-year implementation
5. Continuous efforts to develop further partnerships and mobilize resources.

Gender, Health and Economic Considerations

The main victims of violence and gun-related violence — especially when this violence grows out of local conflicts so easily fuelled by the widespread availability of guns and small arms — are women and children. Additionally as noted throughout this "programme" section, women as community leaders will have a central role in developing and implementing this peace education programme. Finally, increased social stability as a result of the reduction of gun-related violence will have a positive impact on the ability of communities to develop themselves through planning and cooperation, with positive health and economic outcomes not the least of the benefits.

Beneficiaries

As just noted, the immediate beneficiaries of any reduction in gun-related violence will be students and teachers in the local communities. The number of children and youth attending the schools where the peace education programme will be implemented vary from country to country: about 1,700 in Albania, 600 in Niger, more than 1,000 in Peru, 100 teachers and 2,000 students and youth are direct beneficiaries. In Cambodia, the direct beneficiaries will be 100 teachers attending seminars and trainings and 2,000 students and youth.

The secondary, or indirect, beneficiaries will be the entire community in which the programme will be implemented. This is true not only from the "spill-over" effects of a reduction of violence among children and youth participating in the programme through their schools, but also through non-formal or extra-mural peace educational activities. This number will vary from country to country. In Peru, the non-formal peace tent project will serve a Barrios Altos population of 500,000 people. In Niger, the non-formal radio programme has a 50-kilometre radius, within which 10,000 live. In Gramsh, Albania, the indirect beneficiaries are 100 parents, 1,200 pupils from lower grades between 1-8, and 200 other community members for a total of 1,500 people. In Shkodra, Albania, the indirect beneficiaries are 100 parents, 1,500 pupils from other schools in the town and surrounding villages, and 200 other community people for a total of 1,800. Therefore, the overall total in Albania is 3,300. In Kampong Chhnang, through television spots and other informal peace education activities, it is projected that over two million people including students and teachers not directly targeted as well as the general public will benefit from the project.

As indicated in the section on Activities (above) students, teachers, parents — as well as other community members — will be consulted through periodic meetings initiated by peace education working groups in each host country.