Agenda for Reconciliation (AfR) started as a series of international conferences on peace-making at IofC’s centre in Switzerland in the early 1990s. They were coordinated by IofC UK, and when the series ended, the coordinators continued their weekly meetings.
In 2005, a particular focus began to emerge when leaders of the Somali community in the UK requested training in Dialogue Facilitation. Their country had collapsed, and the community was divided along clan lines. They believed that building trust within the diaspora would be a contribution to uniting the country when it became possible to return.
The courses created a network of leaders of different Somali clans who attended the AfR meetings. They created a charity ‘Somali Initiative for Dialogue and Democracy’. Sizeable delegations attended conferences at the IofC conference centre in Caux, Switzerland. Connections were made with parliamentarians and diplomats, and articles were published in newspapers. An intergenerational dialogue workshop, ‘Peace Begins at Home’ was developed to address the generation gap in the community.
Since 2012, when a transitional government was formed in Somalia, a significant number of those who had received the training returned to take part in the rebuilding process, at considerable risk to their lives. The ‘Refugees as Re-Builders‘ course grew out of this initial training.
Building on this model, AfR continues to support refugees who are working to reconcile their diaspora communities and contribute, where possible, to reconciliation in their countries of origin.
This work is coordinated through weekly open online meetings to share news from home countries and report on developments in trust-building projects.
