Emma is an active member of the South East Asia Women Mediators and Peace Negotiators and the Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth (WMC) and on the board of the Centre for Peacebuilding at the University of Melbourne. [...] And so it broadened out the scope and the substance of the process and then eventually of the agreements. [...] One approach we took in the space in Nigeria was to approach the communities themselves and not look from top political leadership, although there were political and legal issues that were related to the conflict – going directly to the communities and talking to them about the need to live together and cooperate to pull themselves out of cycles of violence that were damaging all of the communitie. [...] They spoke about the symbiosis between the farmers needing the fertilizing power of the cattle for the cultivation of the farms, the importance of the herders needing the grazing land, and looking again at how to return to a symbiotic relationship, rather than the one they were in. [...] We're so caught up in the day-to-day of what we need to do, the next decision, and the next challenge, that we don't really get the time and space to step back onto the balcony.
- Pages
- 69
- Published in
- Cambodia
