From April 13-16, the Kroc Institute hosted three dozen peacebuilding specialists from Catholic Relief Services and its partners for CRS' 17th annual Summer Institute of Peacebuilding (SIP). The Kroc Institute hosted the first of these institutes from 2000-2006.
The topic of this year's SIP was good governance. Over the four days, the group considered case studies of CRS projects on a wide range of issues, from resolving local conflicts over land rights in Mindanao, the Phillipines and promoting resilience in the Horn of Africa to reducing human trafficking in India and advocating for policy changes in Washington, D.C.
Three Kroc alumnae who are now playing key peacebuilding roles for CRS participated in the Summer Institute: Myla Leguro (Mindanao, the Philippines), Shamsia W. Ramadhan (Kenya) and Nell Bolton (working with CRS headquarters from her home base in New Orleans). Modeling consensus building which is a key component of good governance, they agreed on the following take-away: “While we’ve been able to apply nearly every component of our Kroc education in our work, we are especially grateful for the opportunity to nurture and sustain our sense of vocation for peacebuilding.”
In addition, a number of Kroc Institute and Keough School of Global Affairs faculty presented, including Scott Appleby, Sara Sievers, Paolo Carozza, Jerry Powers, and David Cortright, who was a consultant for the good governance document reviewed at the meeting.
Contact: Jerry Powers, 574-631-6973, gpowers1@nd.edu