Dialog für Frieden und Integration

Dialog was a completed project that contributed to demystifying the conflict and finding joint ways to resolve it. It raised journalists’ awareness of conflict sensitivity and trained NGO representatives and community activists in the essentials of integration and peacebuilding.

The project partners were Comparative Research Network (CRN) (Germany) and the Ukrainian Network of Adult Education and Development of Innovation (UNAEDI) (Ukraine).

Aim

Participants acted as multipliers and agents of change. They articulated issues of integration and peace in the mass media and provided a range of creative events for stakeholders and community representatives from different regions of Ukraine, bringing people together and opening a peaceful dialogue to address the conflict situation.

Results

The impact of the project included the strengthened capacity of journalists to produce professional materials on conflict-sensitive issues without prejudice and stigma, promoting peaceful dialogue in society. NGO leaders, youth workers, educators and local government representatives raised their awareness of peacebuilding and of dialogue between local communities and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The project reached an estimated 240 direct beneficiaries in target communities.

The project also included:

• 12 community actions implemented by activists in local communities;
• 1 workshop for 25 NGO leaders, youth workers and educators.

Long-term results

In the longer term, the project empowered and sensitised journalists who work with the conflict, as well as young people affected by it. By involving individuals from IDP communities, it generated a multiplier effect intended to improve the social situation of these groups. It also created durable partnerships and methodological cooperation between journalists and NGO practitioners, strengthening their capacity to pursue their peace agendas.

These results were the minimum the partnership set out to achieve. In practice, the project strove for further outcomes and a stronger local long-term impact.