The PEV Ethiopia project held simultaneous dialogue sessions in Assossa for religious and traditional leaders and civil society organisations (CSOs) on nonviolence messaging.
The workshops were held on July 30th and 31st, with 20 participants for each session drawn from traditional and religious leaders, regional inter-religious councils, youth councils, women associations and regional CSOs.
The sessions -based on ECES LEAD copyrighted methodology- aimed to mobilise a network of mediators for electoral dispute resolution and conflict mediation efforts in the event of election-related conflict. Indeed, following the trainings, the participants will later be deployed as mediators towards electoral conflict resolution missions during the upcoming elections
The LEAD ToT training was specifically tailored for religious leaders and traditional elders and covered the core concepts of leadership and conflict management, as well as basic concepts of elections. The second day of training was focused on elections related conflict and building the database of mediators.
The sessions also included various presentations, discussions, and exercises related to each topic.
COVID-19 prevention guidelines were incorporated into the trainings with regular temperature checks, the use of face masks, reduced number of participants and social distancing.
