The Design Process 2014
Dr Jeremy Ive (Relational Peacebuilding Initiatives (RPI) Director of Political Process) and Dr Valery Morozov (RPI Adviser on Eastern European Affairs) began work on the design of a process for Ukraine in 2014, under the auspices of Concordis International1. This work was then taken further under the aegis of Relational Research2 in 2015 until RPI was established as an association, under Swiss law, in January 2016, specialising in Track Two initiatives.
RPI’s approach involved a multi-year process of consultations among a previously identified group of informed and influential individuals drawn from different constituencies and geographies. In preparation for each consultation, information is gathered and, where necessary, research commissioned on specific sets of issues that are likely to feature in post-conflict reconstruction efforts. RPI’s role is to facilitate conversations about alternative futures that will strengthen prospects for lasting peace, and catalyse broadly-based partnerships for practical action.3
Members of the RPI team travelled seven times to Kyiv: in December 2015 and May, August, September, December 2016 and March and November 2017:
2015 and 2016 Milestones In Ukraine
The visit in December 2015 was undertaken by Dr Morozov. Contact was made with a group of senior Ukrainians including Dr Oleksandr Chalyi, former First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, State Secretary for European Integration and Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Ukraine, member of the OSCE Eminent Persons Panel since 2014 and currently President of Grant Thornton (Ukraine).
During the visit in May 2016 by Ms Gwynne, RPI President, and Dr Ive, a contact group was established in Ukraine and a Memorandum of Understanding signed with Dr Oleksandr Chalyi as RPI’s key partner and the group’s convenor. A visit by Drs Ive and Morozov in August 2016 followed up these contacts and identified a need for wider dissemination of information on Relational Thinking and exploration of the implications for relationships in government, society and economy within and between states. Specific reference was made to pressing concerns regarding environmental issues.
In September 2016, Dr Michael Schluter gave a series of presentations on Relational Thinking at the Institute for Global Engagement and the International Management Institute in Kyiv, respectively. In discussions with key contacts on this visit, urgent attention to environmental issues in Donbas was indicated as a key convening point to launch RPI’s Track Two peacebuilding process.
With the decision to focus on environmental issues as the theme for the postponed first consultation, Mr Brendan Bromwich joined the RPI team as Environment Advisor. With prior experience on the relationship between environment and peacebuilding in Darfur, Sudan4, Mr Bromwich was commissioned to do a desk study of environmental risks in Donbas. He travelled to Geneva in mid-December to meet representatives of Zoï Environment Network, based in Geneva, and others with interests in environmental issues.
On 20 December 2016, Dr Ive gave a presentation on the background and methodology of Relational Peacebuilding to the OSCE Project-Coordinator Forum. He also met with members of the contact group to review and assess the situation in Ukraine and internationally in the light of political developments in the USA, Russia, and in the European Union.
Outside Ukraine
RPI representatives have also had face-to-face meetings and online conversations with key individuals elsewhere.
In March 2016, RPI Representatives, Ms Gwynne, Dr Schluter and Dr Ive travelled to Strasbourg to meet Mr Elmar Brok, Member of the European Parliament and, at that time, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr Brok expressed his support for RPI’s Ukraine Programme, having participated in the South Africa initiative in the late 1980s.
Other (including on-line) conversations took place with senior diplomats, parliamentarians, businessmen, academics and technical experts in Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Russia and most recently, Austria. A number of these individuals are likely to participate in the consultation processes that comprise RPI’s hallmark Track Two approach.
In addition to the above, RPI representatives made best efforts to inform themselves of the activities of other civil society organisations (including the Crisis Management Initiative, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, SWISSPEACE, Interpeace and ecumenical initiatives such as those led by the World Council of Churches).
Consultation on Environmental Issues (early 2017)
In mid-January 2017, Mr Bromwich returned to Geneva for further discussions with the Director of Zoï’s programme in Ukraine, Dr Nikolai Denisov, and Mr Douglas Weir of Toxic Remnants of War together with Ms Gwynne, Dr Ive and Mr Rimando. As a result of these discussions, agreement was reached between RPI and Zoï Environment Network, based in Geneva, to work together to prepare for projected consultation to be held in September 2017, focusing on environmental issues.
At the end of March 2017, Mr Bromwich and Dr Ive travelled to Kyiv together with Dr Denisov. Accompanied by Mr Dmytro Averin from Zoï Environment Network’s office in Kyiv, they conducted a series of meetings with key Ukrainian Government ministries, International Organisations (both UN and OSCE) and non-governmental organisations working in Ukraine. All confirmed the grave extent to which the environmental situation in Donbas has been exacerbated by the current conflict, with the effects of impending environmental disaster resulting from flooded mines and toxic chemical and radioactive waste affecting the water table and disruption of water and sanitation services having serious implications not just for the population of Donbas on both sides of the line of contact but beyond. A follow-up RPI-Zoï workshop took place in Geneva in May.
Following discussions between RPI representatives and Mr Moritz Ehrmann of the Austrian Delegation to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on 31 May, 2017, RPI has decided to put its plans to focus on environmental issues at the launch its Track Two consultative process in September 2017 on hold, pending clarification of the intentions of other interested parties and bring forward the planned second phase of consultations which will focus on “Relational Economy”. Details of the preparatory work carried out by RPI and Zoï have been shared with Mr Ehrmann to encourage improved coordination of efforts among the various actors and optimise the use of the available resources.
There was continued networking both in London, Berlin and Geneva. Ms Gwynne travelled to Berlin in mid-June and made contact with the Ukraine Task Force of the German Federal Republic. Dr Ive attended the high-level conference “Ukraine’s Transformation: Assessments and Solutions” organised by Chatham House held at Lancaster House, London on the 5th July, 2017.
2017 Relational Business stream (November 2017)
This was launched with a series of presentations to business, academic and political audiences by Dr Schluter at the International Management Institute in Kyiv (MIM-Kyiv) and other venues on the 16th and 17th November on the application of Relational principles and Relational Analytics in business, finance and the economy. These involved the following:
- identifying opportunities for the application of Relational principles to support more inclusive models for economic activity and employment creation
- paying attention to efforts to stem corruption
16th November: 4.30 pm Meeting a group of nine lawyers with an informal supper with a discussion on Corporate Governance and issues of application to the current situation in Ukraine.
7.30 pm Presentation by Dr Schluter entitled “Corporate Reporting & Public Accountability in Ukraine” to a wide-ranging group of some 40 people from politics, law, academia and business invited jointly by RPI and MIM-Kyiv.
17th November: 8 am presentation by Dr Schluter entitled “Ukraine at a Public Policy Crossroads” to a wide-ranging group of twelve, including from business people, researchers, lawyers, academics and a representative from the Austrian Embassy.
11.30 am: presentation by Dr Schluter entitled “Relational Capital — Its definition, significance and measurement” to a group of twelve senior business executives engaged in the second-year of the MBA in business and governance at MIM-Kyiv. The session was hosted by Professor Iryna Tykhomyrova, President of MIM-Kyiv.
Dr Schluter was preceded and accompanied by Ms Gwynne and Dr Ive, arriving on the 14th. They were able to have meetings with prospective partners and to identify possibilities for the launch of a future Track Two process series of consultations. At present, the sense of those they met is that the time is not yet right for the launch of a fully-fledged Track Two process (i.e. bringing selected participants across all the divides to a neutral venue), as opposed to a ‘Track Two and a Half’, i.e. a series of presentations within Ukraine itself familiarising Ukrainians with Relational Thinking in specified areas, i.e. in business.
资源
RPI’s activities were supported by cash and in-kind contributions from private sources. Planning for the first consultation in Caux, Switzerland, in September 2016 had to be suspended when submissions to Switzerland, UK, Canada, Germany and the European Commission were unsuccessful but momentum was restored with receipt of a grant of CHF50,000/USD50,000 in December 2016.
In addition, RPI was able to draw on the collective expertise of founder members, Dr Michael Schluter (Chair of Relational Research and based in Cambridge, UK), Professor Prabhu Guptara, and Mr Edmond Granges (Treasurer) and other members of the Relational Thinking Network (Relational Research, Relational Analytics, Relational Schools, etc.
Footnotes
1 Concordis International shares a common history with RPI, emerging from the work of the Newick Park Initiative in South Africa (1986–91), in post-genocide Rwanda (1994-7), and, under Relational Foundations auspices, in Sudan and South Sudan, since 1999. For more information on the Newick Park Initiative, see http://www.jubilee-centre.org/history-newick-park-initiative-jeremy-ive/.
2 http://relationalthinking.net/relational-research/
3 See paper entitled “What is Relational Peacebuilding”.
4 http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Sudan_RnR.pdf