North South Research Forum (4): Peacebuilding Across Borders

Thursday 23 June 2011
City Hotel, Derry
9.30am to 1.00pm

The North/South Research Forum, which meets twice a year, offers an opportunity for academics and other professional researchers, public officials, funders, policy makers and other interested parties to meet in a semi-formal setting to discuss research, policy and practice of particular relevance to the border region and/or the promotion of cross border co-operation.

The 4^th meeting of the North/South Research Forum, was held at the City Hotel, Derry on Thursday 23 June, from 9.30am to 1.00pm. The theme for the event was Peacebuilding Across Borders.

Download the discussion paper [No longer available]

Dr Kenneth Bush, research coordinator for INCORE, the International Conflict Research Institute , will place the discussions for the day in context with his presentation, How Can Research Contribute to Cross-Border Peacebuilding? The presentation identifies and discusses six principal roles played by research in the broad area of conflict resolution and peacebuilding and illustrates each of these roles with both international examples and examples from the conflict in Ireland.

Ms Amanda Leighton will present the case study of the Communities and Policing in Transition (CAPT) programme. CAPT is an innovative and groundbreaking project that seeks to facilitate structured and meaningful engagement between policing services on the island of Ireland and communities and key social partners in disadvantaged areas in Belfast and Derry City Council areas and the Tyrone and Donegal border area. Key social partners are represented through Intercomm, ICTU, the Tyrone Donegal Partnership and INCORE.

Mr Paddy Logue, Research Co-ordinator, Experiential Learning, Irish Peace Centres (IPC) will talk on the subject of An Integrated Approach to Action-Research in Peace-Building. The Irish Peace Centres consortium is a collaborative partnership led by Co-operation Ireland in partnership with Corrymeela Community and Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.    The peace and reconciliation programmes delivered by the consortium are complemented by reflective, or action-based, research conducted through a variety of methods which further embeds the impact of peace and reconciliation interventions.

The final presentation of the morning, by Ms Ruth Taillon, Deputy Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, will be on A Pilot Cross Border Impact Assessment Toolkit being developed by the Centre for Cross Border Studies in partnership with the Euro Institute. The Pilot Toolkit for the Impact Assessment of cross border programmes and projects is one of a package of five projects funded by the Interreg IVA Programme through the Special EU Programmes Body currently underway at CCBS.

Presentations by the keynote speakers will be followed by opportunities for discussion and informal networking. A light lunch will be provided at 1pm.

Download the agenda.

ABOUT the SPEAKERS

Kenneth Bush is the Research Coordinator at INCORE. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations and Comparative Politics  from Cornell University.  From 2004 to 2009, he was a founding professor of the Conflict Studies Programme at St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. He has developed and taught a broad spectrum of courses in Peace and Conflict Studies.  Dr. Bush has worked with an array of development and humanitarian organizations in the Global North and South – in Ireland, this includes the Irish Peace Centres and the Council for Community Relations.   He has been appointed the independent member of the Monitoring Committee of the PEACE III Programme (2007-2013). He was Special Advisor on Humanitarian Issues to the Canadian Government when it served on the UN Security Council (1998-2000).  He has published widely on issues of peacebuilding, identity-based conflict, and bad governance.  Current activities include: developing and mainstreaming practical tools and processes that anticipate, monitor, and assess the peace and conflict impacts of development projects in conflict zones; the peace and conflict dimensions of diasporas; and work on the commodification of peacebuilding or the conflict-generating impacts of ‘peacebuilding’ initiatives; and the role of local government in peacebuilding.

Amanda Leighton was appointed Research Associate at INCORE for the Communities and Policing in Transition Project (CAPT) project in January 2010. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Social Administration and Policy from the University of Ulster and obtained a MSc in Social Research Methods from the same institution. More recently she has gained accreditation in PRINCE2TM Foundation and PRINCE2TM Practitioner. Amanda previously worked as a Research Associate and part-time lecturer in the School of Policy Studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. She has published in a wide range of policy areas.

Paddy Logue is Research Coordinator, Experiential Learning, at the Irish Peace Centres. Prior to joining Irish Peace Centres in 2008, Paddy was Programme Manager in the Irish Government’s Combat Poverty Agency with responsibility for the implementation and delivery of Measures under the EU PEACE I and II and the EU INTERREG IIIA and IVA programmes. In the seventies he worked in community development in Leeds, Liverpool and London. From 1978 to 1996, he managed a community centre in the Bogside area of Derry where he was an advocate for human rights and active in campaigns against poverty and low pay. His publications include: Them & Us, Columba Press, Dublin, 1994; The Border, Oak Tree Press, Dublin, 1999; BEING IRISH, Oak Tree Press, Dublin, 2000; Being Scottish, Edinburgh University Press, 2002 (with Prof. T Devine).

Ruth Taillon is Deputy Director, Research at the Centre for Cross Border Studies (CCBS). Ruth Taillon has worked as a social policy researcher for many years and has a special interest in equality, peace and conflict and social justice issues.  Ruth was the first Director of the West Belfast Economic Forum and has worked in a variety of capacities with many community, women’s and social partner organisations in both parts of Ireland. More recently, she was Research Co-ordinator with Border Action, the implementation body in the Irish Border Region for the Peace and Interreg programmes. She also writes and lectures on subjects related to Irish women’s history.