IHRICON organised an interaction programme on "The leading role civil society can take during adverse situations" on 7^th March 2009 at IHRICON Hall. Mr. Sharif Abdulla, a founder member and Director of the Commonway Institute was the resource person who delivered the 2 hour programme.

 

The programme begun with the welcome speech to all the participant from Kapil Kafle, the Executive Director of the Institute of Human Rights Communication Nepal (IHRICON). Mr. Shisir Khanal from Survodaya Nepal was also present and he highlighted the importance of the programme. He explained about the non-violence approach to development through the transformation of the human mind along the lines of the approach taken by Mahatma Ghandi and his followers.

 

Around 30 participants from different NGOs and academic organisation attended the programme. Sharif Abdulla (the guest speaker) initially expressed his logic with regards trying to bring about peace in the community, the nation and even the world. The focus of the ideas which he shared with the group shifted from physical development being a means of catalyzing community and their spiritual development to working directly with inclusivity, empowerment and spiritual transformation.

 

He elaborated the role which Civil Society and NGOs/INGOs should take in his suggested approach. He also explained the adverse effect of programmes which are launched in communities by the INGO’s who always seem to apply the same thinking as that which caused the problems in the first place. He was able to give examples where there had been adverse effects of programmes delivered by INGO’s through references to his work in Sri Lanka. He stated that the role of civil society should be ignored by the organisation while running the programme in the community.  Following a thought provoking assessment of the role that NGO’s can play the participant raised many question regarding how he thought their role would have a beneficial effect upon the peace building process and attempting to reduce the levels of violence across Nepal.

 

Sharif Abdulla explained that in his view there were 12 global challenges which were faced by everyone in the world.

 

 

Following the explanation of 12 global challenges provided by Sharif Abdulla, he invited the participants to open up a discussion. Initially they were asked to say which three challenges were the most important – meaning that if action were not taken in these areas then all the actions taken on others would not resolve the fundamental problems of thee world. The participants chose the following three:

 

§         Conflict/Security/Peace,

§         Education/Awareness and

§         Human Habitat 

 

The group were asked if they considered that the list should be extended and it was accepted that Diversity should be added. This new category went further than purely stating Religion as there was now a need to recognise that the world is full of diversity which required to be acknowledged.

 

Finally Sharif Abdulla replied to the many questions that were raised by the participants and a lively and interesting discussion took place. During the session Sharif Abdulla referred to, and quoted from, two of his books. Both of them have been of interest to many people for many years all over the world. These books are:

 

The programme ended with the vote of thanks by Ms. Ganga Gurung Chairperson of IHRICON to Sharif Abdulla and all the participants for taking part in a thought provoking interaction session.