Peace Building through sustainable livelihoods initiatives development

Concept Notes

PEACE BUILDING & PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE INITIATIVES BY CHILDREN AND YOUTHS

OF

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

1. Name of the Organization: Freedom Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (FSLF)

2. Title of the Proposed Project: Peace Building and Peaceful Co-Existence Initiatives by Children and Youths of Papua New Guinea

3. Potential Donor: TBA

4. Context: Papua New Guinea has not been faring very well on the United Nations Development Human Resource Development Index to date. It has been listed number 150 or so out of some 180 countries; well below some of its much smaller neighbors in the Pacific Region. This rating signifies how much effort and resources the country has invested in the development and care of its people and their well being.

Since gaining political independence in 1975, PNG seemed to have lost contact with its general population along the way. A political gap developed between the voters and the elected leaders resulting in decisions and regulations being developed without much useful relevance and most importantly profound benefit to the needs and significant enhancement to actual living conditions of the general population especially in the rural areas. This negligence on the part of the political and public sector machinery and systems generated considerable frustration and disillusionment that are often expressed in behaviors that undermine the basic human rights of some sectors of its population, especially the rural population, the women, the youths, and the children. As a whole, members of the rural population has been denied their basic rights to education, health, information, protection of their own persons and properties against dangers and adversaries. Another of the United Nations Development Program Human Development Index rated as very high in the world, PNG’s mothers and children mortality rate. Mothers are dying unnecessarily during or after child birth. A very high number of children in rural areas never reached their 5^th birthday before they die. Curable diseases plagued and killed members of the rural areas unnecessarily due to lack of medical facilities, lack of reliable communication systems and worst of all lack of medicine.

Cultural biases are still in practice in both rural and urban areas in the country. Girls are biased against by parents and relations when deciding on whom to send to school. The parents would spend money on paying for school fees for male children than on girls who often join their female relations toiling gardens, tending livestock and never ending responsibilities at the family kitchen. This bias is practiced at all levels of education of the girls.

A major concern is the worsening state of law and order in the country. Sanctity of life, let alone protection of the human person and his or her properties as enshrined in the National Constitution of the country has been under attack, both in rural and urban areas, several thousandth times over and is becoming worse. The vulnerable members of our community, such as children and women are the worst affected.

The abuse and disrespect for basic human rights of some sectors of our society can also be seen even in families. This presents a very scary prospect for PNG in the near and far off future if nothing is done now to re-focus the attention of our people, especially the children and young peoples to peaceful attitudes and practices in our daily community living.

5. Rationale for the Proposed Project: Papua New Guinea is experiencing increasing violence at all levels of its society at an unprecedented pace and degree. Too many Papua New Guineans unnecessarily experience violence at almost all levels of their communities. The causes of these conflicts are varied but the impacts on all peoples are similar and the end results are expressed in various forms that are often anti-society and abuse and blatant disrespect for fundamental human rights of the people.

Our major hurdle in the country is that we all love peace to prevail in our homes, communities, and country but we are either not willing or cannot build or work with others for peace.

The children demonstrate violent trends in schools, communities and in many urban centres. In major townships of Port Moresby and Lae there have been instances of school rivalries expressed in fist fights on the streets and invasions of rival schools. Many children and youths show aggressive, disrespectful attitudes even to parents, elders, and other people either in their own communities or generally. At home parents are violent against each other at home instilling fear and violence in growing children who grow up expressing these bad experiences in their own lives. Men show violent attitudes towards women and often times express these in violent and sexual harassments and attacks that often lead to terrible deaths. In some communities of PNG traditional tribal fights are no longer fought in traditional ways with the use of bows and arrows. High powered guns are increasingly in use nowadays. The casualties increase and repercussions of these fights in turn instigate counter violent reprisals that take very long and violent path to resolution. The prevailing difficult socio-economic conditions in Papua New Guinea compounded with seemingly lack of political will and oftentimes self-serving leadership forced people to feel alienated. In their anger and disillusionment they take laws into their own hands, engage in blatant illegal home brewing and consumption of alcohol in public places, creating disharmony in village communities, guns for drugs trade, use and abuse of marijuana at homes, without any fear or acknowledgement of laws, disrespect to community values and norms, and violent abuses of innocent persons including females and children.

Freedom Sustainable Livelihood Foundation (FSLF) offers leadership in promoting peace building and peaceful co-existence initiatives by & through children and youths of Papua New Guinea. In order to achieve this goal FLSF aims to work with leaders at all levels of the society of which the children and youths are members. This means that part of the equation in being successful or at least in creating public consciousness and local actions on peace building and peaceful co-existence in the society, FSLF will co-opt participation and support of adult relatives especially parents, leaders of tribes, clan or sub-clans, and family groups.

6. Project Goals and Objectives:

Goal: Create and nurture attitudinal and behavior changes in children and young people with the support of their communities in particular adult relations and family members; and community organizations in particular schools for peace-oriented thinking and behaviour conducive to sustainable living and peaceful co-existence for now and the future through promotion of integral human development. That is, developments that are based on and respond to both the felt needs and real needs of the people.

Objectives: In order to achieve the overall goal, FSLF aims to promote the following objectives:

· Work with children and youths at all levels of their community in peace building attitudes, practices and behaviours, starting from nuclear family units to sub-clans, clans and tribes and external support organizations such as schools (of all levels), Local Level Governments, churches, youth groups, women’s groups and church-based organizations, relevant Non-State Actors, NGOs both local, national and where necessary international.

· Work with women’s organizations to promote respect and healthy attitudes towards females in children at early age.

· Work with National Aids Council and its partners in educating children and youths in healthy practices and safe sex in order to ensure future generations of Papua New Guineans are safe from HIV/AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases.

· Work with communities and community based organizations to support initiatives of children and youths in peace building and integral human development.

· Form Groups of Children and Youths in Peace Building at different levels in designated communities, Provinces

· Develop and coordinate networking with relevant organizations both within and abroad that are concerned with children for peace building

· Establish linkages with international events and programs that promotes participation of children and youths in peace building such as International Peace Day, International Human Rights Day etc..

· Conduct training and awareness among children, youths and adults on peace building for sustainable living

· Sponsor and support formal and informal education, needs analysis for disadvantaged children, unemployed interested and capable youths in skills training for sustainable livelihoods

· Encourage and support community-oriented income generation incentives that supports and strengthen peace building and peaceful co-existence in communities and community organizations and institutions

· Establish Peace Building Initiatives Trust Fund for sustainability

· Work with State-sanctioned Peace and Good Order Committees to promote and develop peace building attitudes, behaviours and practices in children and youths.

7. Project Strategy/ Listing of Project Activities: FSLF aims to work on changing attitudes in the minds and behaviors of children and youths of PNG assisted by adults including parents for peaceful living and peaceful co-existence even within families for now and in the future. It aims to pursue this along three (3) pronged approaches:

1. Writing up and printing training and awareness materials; training and developing skills and capacities of facilitators/trainers/teachers who will be engaged on peace building and peaceful co-existence initiatives by children and youths,

2. Working with Children at formal School Level – encompassing school aged children from Elementary through Lower Primary to Upper and Secondary School Levels. This requires FSLF dialoguing and working with relevant educational organizations and institutions of both Public (Government) and Private Sectors comprising business houses and other non-state actors. At this level it is envisaged that curriculums on peace building attitudes and practices will be developed and used in schools as a school subject.

3. Working with Traditional/Community Groups. These include families in their villages, tribes, clans or sub-clans and family groups as distinct social units with their norms, laws and traditional sanctions that can be applied to supporting peace building and peaceful co-existence at social unit levels. Engagement of youths in role modeling initiatives that complement peace building and peaceful co-existence disciplines, practices and initiatives in communities. Families will be led in rediscovering and understanding their good traditional practices and behaviors and attitudes of peace and peaceful co-existence within their societal units.

4. Societal Institutional Levels. These include social enterprises or Non-State Actors, Non-Governmental Organizations including Churches and their affiliated social groups for Youths, Women’s Groups, Professional and Interest-Based Groups as well as others such as Programs and Projects that are funded by both Government of Papua New Guinea and international Donor Agencies addressing similar concerns and issues of peace, conflict resolution, law and order, gender and HIV/AIDS, Illicit Drug Use and Abuse in PNG.

It aims to achieve this under the following general framework of activities:

· Conduct social mapping of known and potential conflict areas in pilot provinces and develop database of types, nature, degree and level of conflicts; and, develop data on situations of families, children and youths requiring intervention and participation in peace building activities to address and redress these conflicts.

· Identify suitable persons and organizations that are already involved and can be involved as Master, Partner, Provincial and Community Facilitators for peace building initiatives by and for children and youths at respective levels.

· Convene workshops and seminars for interested and concerned partner organizations that are already and can be involved in children and youths peace building initiatives and peaceful co-existence.

· Convene and conduct training workshops for Master, Partner, Provincial and Community Facilitators in their roles as facilitators for peace building training at respective levels.

· Sponsor formal education training in justice, peace and development studies at University and Teacher Training Institution.

· Form Groups of Children and Youths in Peace Building at different levels in designated communities, Provinces

· Develop and coordinate networking with relevant organizations both within and abroad that are concerned with children for peace building

· Establish linkages with international events and programs that promotes participation of children and youths in peace building such as International Peace Day, International Human Rights Day etc..

· Conduct training and awareness among children, youths and adults on peace building for sustainable living

· Encourage and support community-oriented income generation incentives

· Conduct public awareness, community communication and participation on peace building by children and youths.

· Establish and manage small development grant for income generating activities that are based on and respond to real and felt needs of the people

· Conduct fund raising events to generate funds for peace building programs.

· Establishing units/cells for children and youths peace building and peaceful co-existence incubation.

· Establishing and managing a support administrative processes and mechanisms for programs and activities of community-based children and youth peace building initiatives and activities at family, community, district, provincial, national and international levels.

· Establishing a national Community Peace Building Trust Fund

· Setting up National and Provincial Peace Building Management Committees

· Sponsor formal education for committed and promising youth/adolescent facilitators and children in furthering education and skills development for future self sustenance.

8. Expected Results:

Through intervention of this peace building and peaceful co-existence in schools at all levels in 4 main townships and social communities in 2 mine sites in PNG we anticipate to influence the following unquantifiable results:

· Set in place foundational understanding, practices and attitudes in peace building and peaceful co-existence behaviors in young children and consequently future Papua New Guinean citizens, mothers, fathers and leaders.

· Instill respect and healthy attitudes towards females as human beings endowed with equal rights and responsibilities in communities and society at large.

· Availability for use school curriculum in peace building and peaceful co-existence to be used as one of the skills subjects in schools at all grades in PNG.

· Set up and operationalise children’s and youths’ peace building and peaceful co-existence incubation cells and units in communities where the project is implemented in PNG.

· Incorporate peace building and peaceful co-existence into national or regional regular calendar events for public awareness and observations at personal, communal, and societal levels.

· Availability of both technically qualified teachers for justice, peace and development and community-oriented facilitators.

9. Innovation: How different it is for other or earlier projects?

· Children’s & Youths’ Award for Peace Leadership for any member (children, youths, adults, men, women) of their community.

· Setting up and co-constituting of Council of Peace by Children, Youths and adults.

· Formulation and enforcement of Charter for Friendship and Wantokship (wantok is a Pidgin word with literal meaning one-talk, that is, speakers of same language)

· Formulation and enforcement of Contracts for Peace within family, tribe, clan, district, province and nation levels.

· Setting up of forums or groupings of children and youths to enforce scrutiny for peace, conflict resolution in practices and behaviors of adult leaders and members of communities.

· Children and youths expressing their visions, aspirations and desires for peace, conflict resolutions, compassion, friendship and wantokship in artworks.

· Initiation and facilitation of Children’s and Youths’ Peace Radios/TV/Media

· Building into the existing formal and informal education systems, school curriculums and disciplines peace building and peaceful co-existence initiatives and practices in formative years of children at school of all levels in the country.

· Re-locating the responsibilities of the promotion of practices, attitudes and formation of peace building and peaceful co-existence initiatives within cultural and traditional values of families, tribes, clans and sub-clans of which children and youths are members.

· Engagement of youths in role modeling initiatives that complement peace building and peaceful co-existence disciplines, practices and initiatives in communities.

· Remuneration for youth and or community organizers/facilitators are primarily in the form of sponsorship for further education and or small business start ups in place of money.

· Engagement of traditional landowners, especially women, youths, traditional leaders of major economic extractive development ventures such as mining, forestry or fishery activities in peace building and peaceful co-existence strategies and practices in acknowledgement of ever present conflict situations and differences between parties.

· Re-discovery and reinstatement of good Papua New Guinean traditional values and customs that promote peace and peaceful co-existence that underpin respect for fundamental human rights. j

10. Organizational Background, including the expertise and experience: Freedom Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (FSLF) is a newly established Papua New Guinean community organization set up to promote integral human development for sustainable livelihoods as vehicle for peace building and conflict resolution, training services, gender relations and women empowerment and informal employment oriented skills development. It draws from vast local expertise that is available on database to which it has easy access.

FSLF is derived from the long and extensive involvement of its founders, in particular Basil Peutalo in social and community development programs and projects that often take him to most parts of rural areas of Papua New Guinea. There are activities that address community concerns and issues that cannot be undertaken along strictly commercial and business frameworks. Hence, the birth of FSLF came about from experiences and involvement in commercial and business activities in the broad social and community development frameworks.

FSLF utilizes experiences and expertise of personnel who have over 24 years of collective involvement and experiences in designing, delivering and implementing a significant portfolio of peace building, conflict resolution, training courses, and development projects from reputable Papua New Guinean firms such as Tanorama Limited, Ok Tedi and donor programs of the Australian Government through AusAID, PATTAF and New Zealand Government, through NZAID. It is also a development agency with PNG roots.

These experiences are accumulated through the Papua New Guinean professionals who constitute the core technical expertise available to FSLF who have been instrumental in a range of projects that have been successfully managed and also are currently implemented through other PNG consulting firms such as Tanorama Limited; and that are focused on assisting and developing people and services in PNG communities.

Capacity of the Organization to carry out the Project

As an organization, FSLF has not undertaken any project under its own name as it is established only in 2009.

FSLF utilizes experiences and expertise of personnel who have over combined 30 years of collective involvement and experiences in designing, delivering and implementing a significant portfolio of peace building, conflict resolution, training courses, and development projects from reputable Papua New Guinean firms such as Tanorama Limited, Ok Tedi Barrick Gold (PNG) Ltd, and donor programs of the Australian Government through AusAID, PATTAF, URS Australia Pty Ltd and New Zealand Government, through NZAID. It is also a community development service agency with PNG roots.

The founder of FSLF has been involved in community peace building for over seventeen (17) years. Basil Peutalo was employed by Catholic Commission for Justice Peace and Development with core responsibility of promoting peace building through integral human development. The Commission was an agency of the Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands Catholic Bishops Conference. The community peace building through integral human development involved designing, development and delivery of training in community social analysis of underlying factors contributing to conflicts and disharmony among peoples and members of communities, and identify appropriate remedial measures in countering these factors for sustainable livelihood.

13. Complete Contact Information of the NGO along with the name of the Contact Person.

1) Contact Person: Basil Peutalo

2) Telephones: Fixed Wireless telephone number +675 3406987;

3) Cell Telephone numbers: B-Mobile + 675 76984410; Digicel + 675 71376639

4) Email Address: bpeutalo@yahoo.com

5) Postal Address:

· P.O. Box 316, WAIGANI 313, National Capital District. Papua New Guinea

· Residential Address: Section 92, Allotment 12, Korobosea Drive, National Capital District.