Search for Common Ground
Encyclopedia
Search for Common Ground http://www.sfcg.org (or SFCG) is an international non-profit organization
operating in nearly 30 countries whose mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with the majority of its 450 employees based in field offices around the world. To date, SFCG has created independent radio programming, begun a newsletter which features articles on relations between the West and the Muslim world, and brought together numerous conflicting groups to find ways to peacefully resolve issues. John Marks, SFCG's founder and president, received an award in 2006 from the Skoll Foundation
for social entrepreneurship
. In 2008 Search for Common Ground was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy by the U.S. Department of State.
The first project SFCG worked on was facilitating a US-Soviet task force on Lebanon
. This task force developed a concept of a multilateral, regional approach to peace in the Middle East. Their idea was to bring together different ethnicities to create peace. This plan was later adopted, through Search's help with negotiations, to end the Israeli-Jordanian war.
Since its founding, the organization has expanded its work to 24 countries in Africa
, Asia
, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe
. It employs 450 staff who represent 41 nationalities.
SFCG believes "peace is a process, not an event." They work with long term commitments in each country they serve and become immersed into local cultures.
Search for Common Ground's goal is to make finding common ground the common thing. According to their founding principles, common ground does not show weakness, it actually shows a willingness to understand a different perspective, leading to a more peaceful future.
SFCG works in Angola, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Indonesia, Jerusalem, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Macedonia, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, USA, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
About 25% of the staff works in the Washington, DC office, while most of the rest of the staff are from the countries in which they work.
, TV, film
and print
– as well as mediation
and facilitation
, training, community organizing, sports, drama
, and music
.
SFCG works in "peace media" focused on building ties between different groups. Their media programs span four continents and SFCG offers tools for the expansion of programs such as theirs. By focusing mostly on radio, they break down many of the traditional literacy barriers of print media.
Current programming includes Radio for PeaceBuilding, Africa and The Team.
Past programming for CG Productions include: The Academy (Nigeria); Africa: SFCG;, The Bridge (Egypt); Gimme6 (Cyprus); Nashe Maalo (Macedonia); Peace Songs; PSAs (Macedonia and Burundi); ; The Shape of the Future (Israel/Palestine); The Station (Egypt and Nigeria).
Common Ground Productions, helped create Burundi's independent radio studio, Studio Ijambo, in 1995, after fears that the Rwandan genocide of 1994 would spread to neighboring countries. A 2000 poll of listeners found that 82% of people in Burundi
thought that Studio Ijambo "helped reconciliation a lot." The studio employs an ethically mixed staff of Hutus and Tutsies, who present an ethnically united front to an otherwise divided country. Studio Ijambo has been credited with playing a key role in decentralizing the media in Burundi and building local capacity for news coverage.
Africa: The Search For Common Ground, was produced in the late 1990s as a 13 part series on the conflicts and struggles facing the African continent. It specifically highlights issues in 16 countries. The series, co produced by Ubuntu TV and Film Productions/Media Peace Centre and the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC), was broadcast by TV and radio in English, French and Portuguese. The series has been broadcast in 22 countries in 40 local dialects, as well as the three languages it was produced in.
), the show uses sports as a metaphor to unification while addressing local, deep-rooted conflict. The show follows specific characters on a football team who must learn to work together to overcome their differences and win the game. The show is specifically tailored to the country in which it airs. Each country has different issues it faces, and the scripts represent these differences. The cast, writers and production crews are, whenever possible, all indigenous to the country. In the DRC, The Team deals specifically with women's rights.
Part of the success of The Team is that the audience can relate to the characters. The characters portrayed on the soap opera are from varied ethnic, religious, educational and economic backgrounds.
As of Spring, 2010, The Team was airing in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya
, Morocco
and had already aired as a radio program in Ethiopia
. It was in production in 12 other countries in Asia
, Africa
and the Middle East
. Second seasons are in production in 3 countries. According to the Boston Globe, nearly 25% of Moroccans watch the locally produced episodes of The Team.
In 2007, Kenya experienced post-election violence. In response to this violence, SFCG, in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative, Media Focus on Africa, the UK's Department for International Development
and the US Agency for International Development, launched The Team: Kenya. The show follows players from the Imani F.C. team. Imani translates as Faith in the local language. The players are from all different parts of Kenyan society- rich and poor, educated and uneducated, urban and rural and male and female. The players have to work together to win games, and through working together, they overcome their differences. The show originally broadcast in May, 2009. A third season is currently in production.
In Lebanon, CG Productions released Kilna Bil Hayy (translation: “All of us in the Neighborhood”). This soap opera, targeting children, works to promote tolerance between the different ethnic and religious groups in Lebanon. Featuring six children, one from each of Armenian, Christian, Druze, Palestinian, Shiite and Sunni backgrounds, the show calls attention to the interactions between the different ethnic groups and shows different means of non-violent conflict resolution. A second season is being filmed in 2010.
In Macedonia, a joint effort between the producers of Sesame Street
and CG Productions produced a children's show called Nashe Maalo(translation: Our Neighborhood). The show aired in the early 2000s, and it promoted mutual tolerance and respect between the different ethnic and religious groups in Macedonia.
In Burundi, SFCG produced Our Neighbors, Ourselves. The show, produced by both Hutus and Tutsis, was an attempt to avoid the ethnic conflict that led to the genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Nepal's ongoing soap opera Naaya Baato, Naaya Paila targets youth in the formerly violence-ridden society of Nepal. It integrates the relationships between youth and adults, while showing how both can peacefully become involved in their communities. It also shows the growing role of women in Nepalese culture and how rising feminism helps, rather than hurts, society as a whole.
Due to this fact, SFCG created Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa, which aims to broaden the skills of broadcasters working in Africa. RFPA supports youth radio broadcasters and encourages the diversifying of viewpoints on the air.
RFPA works with politicians to increase the flow of communications between governments and the civil society, as well as encouraging the SFCG mission of acting on the commonalities between societies and ethnicities.
The countries served by RFPA are Angola
, Burundi
, Côte d'Ivoire
, DR Congo, Sierra Leone
, Guinea
, Zimbabwe
, Tanzania
, Togo
, Uganda
, Somalia
, Rwanda
, Nigeria
, Niger
, Liberia
, Kenya
, Chad
, the Central African Republic
, and Cameroon
. Specifically, RFPA targets broadcasters, governmental officials and members of the civil society in each state.
To address their mission, RFPA developed a multilingual training guide and module for broadcasters and journalists. They also organize forums and regional conferences to discuss challenges and issues facing projects. They organize two competitions to reward the top programs structured around the themes in the training guides.
Of the countries in which RFPA has programs or participating stations, Burundi, Central African Republic, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda have "Partially Free" status under Freedom House's 2010 Freedom in the World classification, published on January 12, 2010. Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe have "not free" status under the same ranking systems. This system ranks the degree of democracy and political freedom in each country in the world. Levels of political freedom and civil rights are ranked on a scale of 1 through 7, and each country is assigned a status of "free", "partially free" or "not free".
RFPA was created by SFCG and is supported in part by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland
. It was previously supported by the UK's Department of International Development.
In the DRC, SFCG has introduced mobile cinema dealing specifically with women's rights. Women in the DRC have been the victims of a brutal sexual assault war that has increased in intensity over the last few years. "According to UN figures, almost 3,500 females were
raped by soldiers, militiamen and civilians during the first six months of this year in eastern DRC, compared to some 4,800 for the whole of 2008."
SFCG also used Mobile Cinema in places like Kenya as a tool to broadcast The Team to a large audience who would otherwise not be exposed to it.
– which recently emerged from a civil war - its programming is listened to by over 90% of the population that has access to a radio. The radio was the most important form of mass communication after the civil war in Sierra Leone because there were three functioning radio stations in the country.
In February, 2010, SFCG hosted a three day conference for bloggers in Tunisia
, Morocco
and Algeria
. The conference focused on finding ways for cross cultural communication and discussion of shared issues in the region.
The Talking Drum Studios in Sierra Leone and Liberia not only promote peace, but also HIV/AIDS prevention. TDS-Liberia has released several public service announcements, created billboards and handed out T-shirts and condoms at events.
experts working on current Middle East issues and the relationship between the West
and Muslim communities.
The 10 articles published per week come out in Arabic, English
, Hebrew, Bahasa Indonesia, French
and Urdu
.
34,000 people subscribe to CGNews. The editorial board is based around the world, with editors in Amman
, Beirut
, Geneva
, Jakarta
, Jerusalem, Islamabad
, Toronto
, and Washington, DC.
The articles published are chosen because they provide constructive and solution oriented perspectives, encourage peaceful means of resolving conflicts, offer constructive self-criticism, offer hope, and interpret information in a way that encourages rational thinking.
One section of CGNews is Partners in Humanity News, although PiH is a separate department within SFCG.
CGNews is funded by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Commission, the British
, Canadian, Danish
, Norwegian
, Swedish
and U.S. Governments, the Arca Foundation of Washington, DC, the United States Institute of Peace
, the National Endowment for Democracy, Rational Games and private donors.
The program started in 2003 at a meeting of over 60 international NGOs, media professionals, governmental agencies and international organizations. The meeting was held in Jordan, and was hosted by SFCG and His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal.
In addition to working with SFCG offices in the USA, Rabat
, Jakarta
, and Jerusalem, Partners in Humanity works with international organizations, including The World Economic Forum Council of 100, The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Soliya – The Connect Program, and The Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. PiH news
This program is supported by The Norwegian Foreign Ministry, The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The National Endowment for Democracy, His Royal Highness Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, Kingdom Holdings, The United States Institute of Peace, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Compton Foundation and individual donors.
The United Nations recognizes that over 2 million children have been killed during war, 6 million children have been permanently disabled and over 250,000 child-soldiers are still serving as soldiers, despite plans to release child soldiers in countries such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire and DR Congo.
The programs of SFCG Youth and Children include radio programming in all countries, news and journalism programs, mentoring programs between young girls and older women, Youth Parliaments, training youth as leaders in non-violent projects, offering bilingual kindergartens to foster communication, training children and youth in non-violent conflict resolution, and engaging youth in governmental creation.
The Talking Drum Studios (radio) in Sierra Leone and Liberia provide children and youth with platforms for expression, through programs such as Sisi Lorpu and Golden Kids News.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
operating in nearly 30 countries whose mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with the majority of its 450 employees based in field offices around the world. To date, SFCG has created independent radio programming, begun a newsletter which features articles on relations between the West and the Muslim world, and brought together numerous conflicting groups to find ways to peacefully resolve issues. John Marks, SFCG's founder and president, received an award in 2006 from the Skoll Foundation
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation is a social entrepreneurship foundation based in Silicon Valley, California, with a mission to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems...
for social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change . While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a...
. In 2008 Search for Common Ground was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy by the U.S. Department of State.
History
SFCG was founded in 1982 by John Marks, a former State Department diplomat. When SFCG was founded, it focused on facilitating cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union.The first project SFCG worked on was facilitating a US-Soviet task force on Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. This task force developed a concept of a multilateral, regional approach to peace in the Middle East. Their idea was to bring together different ethnicities to create peace. This plan was later adopted, through Search's help with negotiations, to end the Israeli-Jordanian war.
Since its founding, the organization has expanded its work to 24 countries in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. It employs 450 staff who represent 41 nationalities.
SFCG’s Mission
SFCG’s mission of transforming the way the world deals with conflict is best captured by their motto “understanding the differences, acting on commonalities.” According to their guiding philosophy, conflict is a natural part of life, and improving the ability to transform conflict into a source of growth and progress will have a profound impact on how well people are able to deal with each issue they face.SFCG believes "peace is a process, not an event." They work with long term commitments in each country they serve and become immersed into local cultures.
Search for Common Ground's goal is to make finding common ground the common thing. According to their founding principles, common ground does not show weakness, it actually shows a willingness to understand a different perspective, leading to a more peaceful future.
Countries
SFCG has over 450 staff operating in 35 offices in 24 countries around the world. The staff represents 41 nationalities.SFCG works in Angola, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Indonesia, Jerusalem, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Macedonia, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, USA, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
About 25% of the staff works in the Washington, DC office, while most of the rest of the staff are from the countries in which they work.
Work
To achieve its mission, SFCG manages projects that use innovative tools and work at different levels of society to promote cooperation and non-adversarial solutions to problems. Its “toolbox” includes media production – radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, TV, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
– as well as mediation
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
and facilitation
Facilitation (business)
Facilitation in business, organizational development and in consensus decision-making refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting.Facilitation concerns itself with all the tasks needed to run a productive and impartial meeting...
, training, community organizing, sports, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
.
SFCG works in "peace media" focused on building ties between different groups. Their media programs span four continents and SFCG offers tools for the expansion of programs such as theirs. By focusing mostly on radio, they break down many of the traditional literacy barriers of print media.
Common Ground Productions
An internal arm of SFCG is Common Ground Productions, or CG Productions. This arm is responsible for the media production of SFCG, including radio, television and internet programming.Current programming includes Radio for PeaceBuilding, Africa and The Team.
Past programming for CG Productions include: The Academy (Nigeria); Africa: SFCG;, The Bridge (Egypt); Gimme6 (Cyprus); Nashe Maalo (Macedonia); Peace Songs; PSAs (Macedonia and Burundi); ; The Shape of the Future (Israel/Palestine); The Station (Egypt and Nigeria).
Common Ground Productions, helped create Burundi's independent radio studio, Studio Ijambo, in 1995, after fears that the Rwandan genocide of 1994 would spread to neighboring countries. A 2000 poll of listeners found that 82% of people in Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
thought that Studio Ijambo "helped reconciliation a lot." The studio employs an ethically mixed staff of Hutus and Tutsies, who present an ethnically united front to an otherwise divided country. Studio Ijambo has been credited with playing a key role in decentralizing the media in Burundi and building local capacity for news coverage.
Africa: The Search For Common Ground, was produced in the late 1990s as a 13 part series on the conflicts and struggles facing the African continent. It specifically highlights issues in 16 countries. The series, co produced by Ubuntu TV and Film Productions/Media Peace Centre and the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC), was broadcast by TV and radio in English, French and Portuguese. The series has been broadcast in 22 countries in 40 local dialects, as well as the three languages it was produced in.
The Team
An ongoing project of CG Productions is The Team (L'Equipe). Using the popularity of football (called soccer in AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), the show uses sports as a metaphor to unification while addressing local, deep-rooted conflict. The show follows specific characters on a football team who must learn to work together to overcome their differences and win the game. The show is specifically tailored to the country in which it airs. Each country has different issues it faces, and the scripts represent these differences. The cast, writers and production crews are, whenever possible, all indigenous to the country. In the DRC, The Team deals specifically with women's rights.
Part of the success of The Team is that the audience can relate to the characters. The characters portrayed on the soap opera are from varied ethnic, religious, educational and economic backgrounds.
As of Spring, 2010, The Team was airing in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and had already aired as a radio program in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. It was in production in 12 other countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Second seasons are in production in 3 countries. According to the Boston Globe, nearly 25% of Moroccans watch the locally produced episodes of The Team.
In 2007, Kenya experienced post-election violence. In response to this violence, SFCG, in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative, Media Focus on Africa, the UK's Department for International Development
Department for International Development
The Department For International Development is a United Kingdom government department with a Cabinet Minister in charge. It was separated from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997. The goal of the department is "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". The current...
and the US Agency for International Development, launched The Team: Kenya. The show follows players from the Imani F.C. team. Imani translates as Faith in the local language. The players are from all different parts of Kenyan society- rich and poor, educated and uneducated, urban and rural and male and female. The players have to work together to win games, and through working together, they overcome their differences. The show originally broadcast in May, 2009. A third season is currently in production.
Other Soap Operas
The basis behind The Team is the same idea that drives other SFCG productions.In Lebanon, CG Productions released Kilna Bil Hayy (translation: “All of us in the Neighborhood”). This soap opera, targeting children, works to promote tolerance between the different ethnic and religious groups in Lebanon. Featuring six children, one from each of Armenian, Christian, Druze, Palestinian, Shiite and Sunni backgrounds, the show calls attention to the interactions between the different ethnic groups and shows different means of non-violent conflict resolution. A second season is being filmed in 2010.
In Macedonia, a joint effort between the producers of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
and CG Productions produced a children's show called Nashe Maalo(translation: Our Neighborhood). The show aired in the early 2000s, and it promoted mutual tolerance and respect between the different ethnic and religious groups in Macedonia.
In Burundi, SFCG produced Our Neighbors, Ourselves. The show, produced by both Hutus and Tutsis, was an attempt to avoid the ethnic conflict that led to the genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Nepal's ongoing soap opera Naaya Baato, Naaya Paila targets youth in the formerly violence-ridden society of Nepal. It integrates the relationships between youth and adults, while showing how both can peacefully become involved in their communities. It also shows the growing role of women in Nepalese culture and how rising feminism helps, rather than hurts, society as a whole.
Radio For PeaceBuilding, Africa
Radio is the most accessible form of mass communication in Africa.Due to this fact, SFCG created Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa, which aims to broaden the skills of broadcasters working in Africa. RFPA supports youth radio broadcasters and encourages the diversifying of viewpoints on the air.
RFPA works with politicians to increase the flow of communications between governments and the civil society, as well as encouraging the SFCG mission of acting on the commonalities between societies and ethnicities.
The countries served by RFPA are Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, DR Congo, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
, and Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
. Specifically, RFPA targets broadcasters, governmental officials and members of the civil society in each state.
To address their mission, RFPA developed a multilingual training guide and module for broadcasters and journalists. They also organize forums and regional conferences to discuss challenges and issues facing projects. They organize two competitions to reward the top programs structured around the themes in the training guides.
Of the countries in which RFPA has programs or participating stations, Burundi, Central African Republic, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda have "Partially Free" status under Freedom House's 2010 Freedom in the World classification, published on January 12, 2010. Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe have "not free" status under the same ranking systems. This system ranks the degree of democracy and political freedom in each country in the world. Levels of political freedom and civil rights are ranked on a scale of 1 through 7, and each country is assigned a status of "free", "partially free" or "not free".
RFPA was created by SFCG and is supported in part by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. It was previously supported by the UK's Department of International Development.
Mobile Cinema
In many countries in Africa, SFCG has introduced mobile cinema. These programs bring CG Production works into rural villages and expose more people to topics and discussion.In the DRC, SFCG has introduced mobile cinema dealing specifically with women's rights. Women in the DRC have been the victims of a brutal sexual assault war that has increased in intensity over the last few years. "According to UN figures, almost 3,500 females were
raped by soldiers, militiamen and civilians during the first six months of this year in eastern DRC, compared to some 4,800 for the whole of 2008."
SFCG also used Mobile Cinema in places like Kenya as a tool to broadcast The Team to a large audience who would otherwise not be exposed to it.
Africa
Next to the BBC, SFCG is the largest producer of radio soap operas in the world, and in countries like Sierra LeoneSierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
– which recently emerged from a civil war - its programming is listened to by over 90% of the population that has access to a radio. The radio was the most important form of mass communication after the civil war in Sierra Leone because there were three functioning radio stations in the country.
In February, 2010, SFCG hosted a three day conference for bloggers in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. The conference focused on finding ways for cross cultural communication and discussion of shared issues in the region.
The Talking Drum Studios in Sierra Leone and Liberia not only promote peace, but also HIV/AIDS prevention. TDS-Liberia has released several public service announcements, created billboards and handed out T-shirts and condoms at events.
Common Ground News Service
The Common Ground News Service was launched in 2000 as an arm of SFCG. CGNews publishs articles from local and internationalexperts working on current Middle East issues and the relationship between the West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
and Muslim communities.
The 10 articles published per week come out in Arabic, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Hebrew, Bahasa Indonesia, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
.
34,000 people subscribe to CGNews. The editorial board is based around the world, with editors in Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Jerusalem, Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, and Washington, DC.
The articles published are chosen because they provide constructive and solution oriented perspectives, encourage peaceful means of resolving conflicts, offer constructive self-criticism, offer hope, and interpret information in a way that encourages rational thinking.
One section of CGNews is Partners in Humanity News, although PiH is a separate department within SFCG.
CGNews is funded by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Commission, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canadian, Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and U.S. Governments, the Arca Foundation of Washington, DC, the United States Institute of Peace
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
, the National Endowment for Democracy, Rational Games and private donors.
Influence in Philanthropy
Members of the organization have worked for years to transform philanthropic decision-making processes by facilitating dialog between grant-makers and grantees. The process led to a youth program that bridges communities of wealth and social entrepreneurship. It also inspired a series of meetings at the United Nations on the idea of young philanthropy.Partners in Humanity
The Partners in Humanity program attempts to allay feelings of fear and suspicion based on perceived and real injustices, stereotypes and inequalities.The mission of Partners in Humanity is to change the way individuals thank and feel about the issues, stereotypes and tensions that face Muslim-Western relations, which in turn will facilitate action.The program started in 2003 at a meeting of over 60 international NGOs, media professionals, governmental agencies and international organizations. The meeting was held in Jordan, and was hosted by SFCG and His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal.
In addition to working with SFCG offices in the USA, Rabat
Rabat
Rabat , is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000...
, Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, and Jerusalem, Partners in Humanity works with international organizations, including The World Economic Forum Council of 100, The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Soliya – The Connect Program, and The Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. PiH news
This program is supported by The Norwegian Foreign Ministry, The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The National Endowment for Democracy, His Royal Highness Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, Kingdom Holdings, The United States Institute of Peace, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Compton Foundation and individual donors.
Children and Youth programs
SFCG's Children and Youth programs work directly with children in 26 programs in 14 countries aiming to transform children's roles in conflict into alternatives to violence.The United Nations recognizes that over 2 million children have been killed during war, 6 million children have been permanently disabled and over 250,000 child-soldiers are still serving as soldiers, despite plans to release child soldiers in countries such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire and DR Congo.
The programs of SFCG Youth and Children include radio programming in all countries, news and journalism programs, mentoring programs between young girls and older women, Youth Parliaments, training youth as leaders in non-violent projects, offering bilingual kindergartens to foster communication, training children and youth in non-violent conflict resolution, and engaging youth in governmental creation.
The Talking Drum Studios (radio) in Sierra Leone and Liberia provide children and youth with platforms for expression, through programs such as Sisi Lorpu and Golden Kids News.
See also
- Conflict ResolutionConflict resolutionConflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
- Conflict resolution researchConflict resolution researchConflict resolution is any reduction in the severity of a conflict. It may involve conflict management, in which the parties continue the conflict but adopt less extreme tactics; settlement, in which they reach agreement on enough issues that the conflict stops; or removal of the underlying causes...
- Cost of conflictCost of conflictCost of Conflict is a tool which attempts to calculate the price of conflict to the human race. The idea is to examine this cost, not only in terms of the deaths and casualties and the economic costs borne by the people involved, but also the social, developmental, environmental and strategic costs...