Sudan & Kenya programme; Resilience in Conflict Analysis Toolkit Training Workshop

The Life & Peace Institute's Sudan and Kenya programme teams held a five-day Resilience in Conflict Analysis Toolkit (RCAT) training from 21 to 25 August for our Sudanese civil society partner Peace Bridge Association (PBA). The training integrated resilience perspectives in climate change, conflict analysis, and peacebuilding, and highlighted positive nonviolent management and transformation of invisible and overlooked conflicts. The RCAT, developed after continuous research led by a diverse group of youth leaders, supports communities in understanding their coping mechanisms, flexibility, and capacity to manage changes peacefully and respond creatively to crises, transforming conflict into positive outcomes.

The training focused on themes such as: home, relationships, sense of self, capacity to transform, capacity for empathy, generation, personal history, and context. Training methods used included: icebreakers, role plays, value-based games, outdoor games, songs, and poetry, allowing participants to reflect, personalise, and contextualise resilience effectively through experiential learning.

Discussions focused on the importance of empathy and self-awareness. Using picture card exercises, the participants learned how to develop self-awareness, recognise the feelings of others, and be non-judgemental. Utilising the person, object and observer exercise, participants explored power and authority relations, emphasising the need for a more inclusive and effective approach to leadership. The gendered power pyramid activity underscored the importance of gender inclusive horizontal leadership and decision making to promote democratic governance.

At the end of the training, participants recognised the RCAT as a very useful tool in conflict transformation. They noted its similarities to the Alternatives to Violence Project pillars, namely: affirmation, communication, transformation of power, community building, and conflict resolution. Participants recommended that the RCAT be translated into Arabic to support communities to break trauma cycles resulting from violent conflicts and to begin a healing journey.