Community Relations Council

Learning From Peace ll Project

  Following a successful tender application, the Community Relations Council (CRC) is pleased to announce, that it will be delivering the 'Learning from Peace ll' Project. This project is the first coordinated attempt to gauge the impact of the Peace ll Programme across the entire range of constituent sectors involved in Peace and Reconciliation work in both Northern Ireland and the Border Counties of Ireland.

Over the next two years, CRC, in conjunction with the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), will organise and deliver a series of events and seminars that will critically engage with the key sectors involved in the Peace Programme. The purpose of these events is to create a shared learning, which will be disseminated to key stakeholders in Ireland, Britain and beyond.

Learning from Peace ll Project 

Over the last nine years the European Union has made a tremendous commitment to N.I and the Border Region of Ireland. The Peace ll Programme, through its support to over 4,000 projects, is delivering real benefits to local communities. Whilst the Programme has achieved much, both in economic and social terms, the reality is that the process of building a peaceful society is a long-term one. No matter what the political difficulties have been, the PEACE Programme has enabled local communities to remain engaged in the process of building a better future for themselves.

The need for this series of events/seminars was initially identified by the SEUPB in its role as the Managing Authority of the PEACE II Programme, and followed discussions with Government Departments, Implementing Bodies, the PEACE II Monitoring Committee and other individuals/agencies. This proposal was then developed, put out to tender and subsequently awarded to CRC.

The purpose of the project is to deliver six events/seminars in a two-year period examining aspects of the impact and implementation of the PEACE II Programme on peace-building and reconciliation in Ireland (north and south) to ensure that the lessons learned can be disseminated to funded groups, funders, policy makers, Commission representatives, Government Departments and the general public. The series will create an opportunity for stories, successes and difficulties to be shared and learned from on range of critical issues, affecting both Northern Ireland and the Border counties.

All good programmes should quantitatively and qualitatively assess the inputs, outputs and outcomes of the PEACE Programme. Although each Implementing Body within the current PEACE Programme gathers information on the participation and impact at Measure level, there has not been (as yet) a co-ordinated attempt to gauge the impact the entire Programme is making across the range of constituent sectors. This project attempts to apply this co-ordinated approach by organising a series of events/seminars which will ultimately evaluate/assess the impact of the Programme and provide feedback, suggest areas for further engagement and development, challenge assumptions about peace-building work, as well as help identify weakness/gaps and intended/unexpected successes. This project will not focus on the administration of the PEACE II Programme, but rather it will focus on the impact it is making on peace-building/reconciliation work.

The events series will investigate a number of key themes including: challenges to reconciliation work; the experience of PEACE I and PEACE II as strategic interventions; the dissemination of best practice and the identification of areas of difficulty. All the events will be fully documented in publications which will enable us to learn from the Peace Programme and hopefully build the foundation for further peace-building and reconciliation work.

Contacts:

Sean Pettis
Project Manager – Events and Seminars Project
Community Relations Council
Glendinning House
6 Murray Street
Belfast
BT1 6DN

Email: spettis@community-relations.org.uk

Tel: +44 28 90 227500

Jim Dennison
Director - European Programme
Community Relations Council
Glendinning House
6 Murray Street
Belfast
BT1 6DN

Email: jdennison@community-relations.org.uk

Tel:  +44 28 90 227500

Events Publicatons to date

1.         'Beyond Sectarianism?: The Churches and Ten Years of the Peace Process'

            Seagoe Hotel, Portadown      

            Friday 15 October, 2004.

            Click here to download publication.

2.         'Shaping and Delivering Peace at Local Level?: Learning from the Experience 
            of Peace ll'

            Europa Hotel, Belfast

            Friday 3 December, 2004

            Click here to download publication

3.         'Prosperity – A Part of Peace?: Learning from the Economic Experience of
            Peace ll'

            Canal Court Hote, Newry

            Friday 13 May, 2005

            Click here to download publication

4.          'The Impact of Peace ll on the Public Sector'

               Stormont Hotel, Belfast

              Thursday 8 September, 2005

               Publication not yet available

5.           'Bordering on Peace? Learning from the Cross Border Experience of
               Peace II'

               Fairways Hotel, Dundalk

               Wednesday 25 January, 2006

               Click here to download publication