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Costa Rica Regional Meeting

Sustainable Regional Education Efforts
for Safer More Inclusive
Communities Working Group

November 9th and 10th 2010
Heredia, Costa Rica

sponsor logos

Ministry of Education (MEP), Costa Rica
Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)
Global Issues Resource Center, Cuyahoga Community College

The Ministry of Public Education, Costa Rica in collaboration with The European Centre for Conflict Prevention (ECCP), in its role as the Global Secretariat of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and Global Issues Resource Center, Cuyahoga Community College, invited participants for a two-day working group meeting of teams of governmental and non-governmental organizations from around the world to examine best practices in infrastructure development and the role of governmental/non-governmental partnerships at a national/regional level to address youth violence/conflict on November 9th and 10th, 2010 in San José, Costa Rica. This meeting, “Sustainable Regional Education Efforts for Safer More Inclusive Communities” involved teams of governmental and non-governmental peace and conflict resolution education practitioners and government officials that work together to address these issues at a national/regional level. This was followed by visits to local schools that are working on conflict resolution education and a visit to Earth University to explore linkages between environmental sustainability, peace, and community development.

The Costa Rican Government has been a strong supporter of the resolution of conflicts, and civic engagement, and has developed policies and programs to integrate these approaches within the governmental and non-governmental efforts to serve the country and the community including education settings. Participants from Costa Rica and 12 additional countries shared their work and experience in developing national and regional structures in their countries for safer and more inclusive communities including efforts to address youth violence.

The working group meeting on November 9th and 10th in San Jose, Costa Rica, “Sustainable Regional Education Efforts for Safer More Inclusive Communities” built upon prior working groups dedicated to further developing and creating effective policy and capacity building in the field of conflict resolution education, social and emotional learning, peace education, democracy and citizenship education. These prior events, co-hosted by Cuyahoga Community College, included a two-day international policy meeting on related topics in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009 and the Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education in March of 2007. The two-day international policy working group, Collaboration across Fields: Implementation and Sustainability of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Conflict Resolution Education (CRE), Peace Education (PE), and Citizenship Education (CE), on June 19th and 20th, 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA brought together government representatives from among the 50 states and invited countries (Ghana, Kenya, Montenegro, Philippines) and their non-governmental organization partners interested in developing legislation and policy in peace education, social and emotional learning, conflict resolution education, and/or civics education as well as securing ways to strengthen implementation and achieve sustainability of these efforts. The first Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Organization of American States (OAS) in March 2007 brought together government representatives from among the 50 states and 34 countries of the Americas, Europe, Australia, Israel and their non-governmental organization partners who have legislation or policies in place to deliver conflict resolution education at the K-12 level and in colleges of teacher education.

Participants for the Costa Rica/GPPAC Working Group Meeting Included:

  • An External Education Consultant representing the Organization of the American States (OAS)
  • Representatives from countries working through the Organization of American States (OAS) on the cross regional project ‘Armando Paz: Building a Culture of Peace with Youth in Central America through Art, Media and Social Dialogue’ (Guatemala and Panama)
  • Government representatives from the Ministry of Education of Costa Rica and their designated non-governmental organization partners
  • Additional Ministries of Education in the region including the Ministry of Education of Belize, The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Local Government of Trinidad and Tobago as T & T are the lead on the OAS funded project “An Inter-Sectoral Approach to Fostering a Democratic Culture in Schools and Local Communities in Countries of the Caribbean”
  • Teams of governmental and non-governmental organizations representing GPPAC Peace and Conflict Education Working Group member countries including Montenegro, Ghana, Kenya, Philippines, and the United States
  • GPPAC Peace and Conflict Education working group members from the Ukraine and Australia

These opportunities promoted international collaboration between government authorities and between active regional civil society organizations.
The aims of the two day meeting November 9th and 10th, and the school, government, and NGO site visits on November 11th were to:

  • Promote on-going collaboration between Ministries of Education and between other government and non-government organizations with the view to strengthen international partnerships in peace education, conflict resolution education, values education and social emotional learning
  • Provide a forum to share resources, knowledge and information at macro and micro levels for infrastructure development
  • Identify strategies for designing infrastructure in community and formal education organizations to create safe and peaceful schools and communities through education
  • Learn about the legislation, policies, and governmental and non-governmental infrastructure in Costa Rica which is working to create just, safer, and more equitable communities through education and service.

These events present a wonderful strategic opportunity to model and learn about collaboration between Government, GPPAC and civil society organizations.

Working Group Presentations

All the Presentations provided below took place November 9 – 10, 2010 in Heredia Costa Rica, as part of the Sustainable Regional Education Efforts for Safer More Inclusive Communities Working Group.

Sponsored by:

Ministry of Education (MEP), Costa Rica
Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)
Global Issues Resource Center, Cuyahoga Community College

Countries

  • Australia
    • Powerpoint (English and Spanish), presented by Gary Shaw, Senior Project Officer, Multicultural Education Unit, Student Learning Division, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

    • Handout in English and Spanish
  • Costa Rica
    • Powerpoint 1, presented by Ricardo Montoya Vargas, Ministerio de Educación Pública
    • Powerpoint 2, presented by Leonardo de la O, Ministerio de Educación Pública
  • Ghana
    • Powerpoint, presented by Victoria A. Osei, Curriculum Developer, Curriculum Research and Development Division, Ghana Education Service , and Francis Acquah Jr., Programme Coordinator, West African Peacebuilding Institute, West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)
  • Guatemala
    • Powerpoint, presented by Byron Gonzelez Casiano, Sub-National Director for the President’s Program on Open Schools, Office of Social Welfare of the President
    • YouTube Video on Escuelas Abiertas
  • Kenya
    • Powerpoint, presented by Caroline Owegi-Ndhlovu, Nairobi Peace Initiative, and Mary Wanja Mugo, Chief Government Counsellor, Ministry of Education
  • Montenegro
    • Powerpoint, presented by Branka Kankaras, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Education, and Ivana Gajovic, Director, Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro
  • Panama
    • Powerpoint, presented by Dayra I. Dawson Villalobos, Directora Ejecutiva, Programa Nacional para la Prevencion de la Violencia y la Delinccencia Juvenil
    • YouTube Video
  • Philippines
    • Powerpoint, presented by Loreta Castro, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Peace Education, and Luisita Peralta, Senior Program Education Specialist, Curriculum Division, Bureau of Secondary Education, Department of Education
    • Executive Order No. 570
  • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Powerpoint, presented by Hon. Clifton De Coteau, Minister of Education, and Dr. Marva Ribeiro, Manager/Coordinator, Communications and International Cooperation, Ministry of Local Government
    • Text in English
    • Text in Spanish
  • Ukraine
  • United States of America

International Organizations