Sebastien Gasquet's Blog - Post #5

Training in Dialogue and Meditation

Despite it being the summer solstice and the longest day of the year, the sun has still completely disappeared from the Ghanaian sky by 7:00 pm, giving way to the harsh fluorescent lights of the streetlamps and the crackling fires by the street vendors hoping to sell some fufu and chicken or "tilapia" fish. And of course, to headlights of the ceaseless taxis that zip by, honking their horns at every potential customer (which is everyone outside that has a pulse).

This week at work has provided a very interesting twist, as I was invited to attend a workshop organized by WANEP and hosted at a hotel in downtown Accra. The guests: a delegation of representatives from various interfaith, government and civil society organizations in Ethiopia, organized by the Ghana and Ethiopia branches of UNDP. The purpose: to present WANEP's very own methodology in dialogue and mediation skills to these delegates so that they can in turn use them in various conflict scenarios in their own country.

At the workshop's conclusion

The whole event spanned Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and was MC'ed by WANEP's executive director, Emmanuel Bombande. The Ethiopians shared their own experiences of conflict from a country that has more than 200 ethnic groups, as their spokesperson said. Another delegate was an Ethiopian Orthodox priest who headed an cooperative promoting more dialogue between Ethiopia's different religions.

It was the first opportunity to see not only the skills I've been working on since I arrived at WANEP but also that I've been learning during my first year at GSPIA, and it was great to have those "Aha!" moments over the span of that workshop.  I was assigned to take notes during the meetings and to prepare a summary of the proceedings and the major themes that were discussed, so hopefully I can kick my paper-writing skills back into gear after some significant downtime...and as of post time, I am almost halfway through. As a result, I have taken my foot off the PMC pedal a little this week, but we are still keeping a wary eye on the various elections that MAY take place in the next couple months. Looks like the Guinea ones, which I had already helped write a policy brief on, are yet again on hold after some opposition supporters got roughed up. I now realize how much of a world of difference there is on a political level between Ghana and next door neighbors like Togo and Cote d'Ivoire...