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The Life & Peace Institute (LPI) is an international and ecumenical centre that supports and promotes nonviolent approaches to conflict transformation through a combination of research and action that entails the strengthening of existing local capacities and enhancing the preconditions for building peace.

Somaliland: Theatre to promote peace and understandingOverview IREX Europe will run a series of drama-based activities across Somaliland to promote peaceful co-existence. Working with partner Kow Media Corporation from Hargeisa, a drama team will travel through six regions in Somaliland exploring tribalism, radicalisation, community tensions and other drivers of conflict in the region. Following each show, the theatre troupe will organise sessions using traditional spontaneous poetry blended with modern discussion techniques to promote critical thinking about Somaliland’s challenges.

Kenya: Learning theatre to promote peace and understanding among Somali communitiesOverview IREX Europe, in partnership with the Kenyan-based NGO Somali Aid Foundation (SAF), is implementing a project aimed at disenfranchised youth which uses theatre as a vehicle for youth to express their views and frustrations on key issues including poverty, lack of access to education and gender issues, among others. The project targets the Somali youth population in the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh and in the refugee camp of Hagadera. The theatre technique used is Drama for Conflict Transformation (DCT), which promotes understanding and tolerance in different societies. IREX Europe and its partners have successfully implemented the methodology in Somaliland, Indonesia and Central Asia.

Even today, schools in the most remote areas in the Moroccan countryside have neither water nor electricity, and often no facilities (classrooms, toilets) either. Students have to walk very long distances to get there, and teachers who have to live in such areas feel totally isolated. These situations lead to serious inequalities among the Moroccan population. 

A radical reform of education in rural areas, the construction of classrooms, canteens, boarding schools, and roads require the commitment not only of the Ministry of Education, but also of the Ministries of Transport, Infrastructure and Facilities, Housing, Youth and the Budget.  The Moroccan government must show real political determination to transform its rural schools.

Founded in 1988, the People's Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE-International) is a non-profit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with its network of affiliates — primarily women's and social justice organizations — to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights education relevant to people's daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy. PDHRE's members include experienced educators, human rights experts, United Nations officials, and world renowned advocates and activists who collaborate to conceive, initiate, facilitate, and service projects on education in human rights for social and economic transformation. The organization is dedicated to publishing and disseminating demand-driven human rights training manuals and teaching materials, and otherwise servicing grassroots and community groups engaged in a creative, contextualized process of human rights learning, reflection, and action. PDHRE views human rights as a value system capable of strengthening democratic communities and nations through its emphasis on accountability, reciprocity, and people's equal and informed participation in the decisions that affect their lives. PDHRE was pivotal in lobbying the United Nations to found a Decade for Human Rights Education and in drafting and lobbying for various resolutions by the World Conference on Human Rights, the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Commission, the UN Treaty Bodies, and the Fourth World Conference on Women.

n many ways, Ceibal can, and perhaps should, be seen not so much as an education project, but as a larger societal transformation project (of the sort often associated with e-government initiatives), with the education system as the primary and initial dissemination vector.

Under Plan Ceibal (earlier blog post here), Uruguay is the first country in the world to ensure that all primary school students (or at least those in public schools) have their own personal laptop.  For free.  (The program is being extended to high schools, and, under a different financial scheme, to private schools as well).  Ceibal is about more than just 'free laptops for kids', however.  There is a complementary educational television channel. Schools serve as centers for free community wi-fi, and free connectivity has been introduced in hundreds of municipal centers around the country as well.  There are free local training programs for parents and community members on how to use the equipment.  Visiting Uruguay last week, I was struck by how many references there were to 'one laptop per teacher' (and not just 'one laptop per child', which has been the rallying cry for a larger international initiative and movement). 

There is no doubt about the numbers (over 380,000) in Uruguay -- the laptops are not sitting in boxes under an awning at the Ministry of Education collecting dust.  You see them everywhere you see school children.

A total of 1 493 schoolgirls dropped out of school last year because they fell pregnant. Furthermore, a total of 31 teachers "were recorded to have been responsible for some pregnancies". This shocking revelation was made by Education Minister Abraham Iyambo during his New Year's address yesterday.

According to him, "current measures to punish those who impregnate learners must be revised urgently and strengthened immediately. We have no excuse to wait. Management must attend to this." Iyambo promised that all the bad apples will be eradicated this year. He said 2011 will be "a year of recommitment, better education outcomes, mass drive and mobilisation".

Iyambo emphasised that "education is not an asset if it is not quality education". He said: "We need a serious inventory to pinpoint possible misfits ... before they become a system. We need urgent transformation of our education system from the bottom to the top."

UNESCO is launching a Teacher Education Course on Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD) in late 2011

First, it helps teachers to understand the causes, dynamics and impacts of climate change through a holistic lens. Second, teachers are exposed to a range of pedagogical approaches that they can use in their own school environment. This includes engagement in whole school and school-in-community approaches. Third, teachers can develop their capacities to facilitate students’ community based learning.  Fourth, teachers can develop future oriented and transformative capacities in facilitating climate change mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction learning..    

In a nutshell, the course is designed to give teachers confidence in facilitating  CCESD inside and outside the classroom so that they can help young people understand the causes and consequences of climate change, bring about changes in attitudes and behaviors to reduce the severity of future climate change, and build resilience  in the face of climate change that are already present.