On October 4th, 2009, under the direction of Dr. Hassan Al Momani, Director of the RCCP in Amman, and Dr. Bruce Stanley from Hult International Business School London, the last workshop on conflict prevention took place and results of the three previous workshops were summed up. The main goal of the four workshops is to train participants about conflict prevention techniques and how to apply them in their work. Furthermore, the workshop sessions aim at developing a training manual on conflict prevention to be used by Jordanian NGOs in future workshops and training sessions on conflict prevention.

The first KAS-RCCP workshop on conflict prevention took place in spring 2008. During this one-day course participants were provided with a definition of conflict prevention both in theory and in practice. Dr. Stanley also discussed the role of economic actors in conflict prevention. Participants were then divided into groups to work on the process of dialogue and mediation in conflict prevention. Through the use of case studies and real-life examples participants could understand the different stages and dynamics of conflict.

The second training workshop aimed at enhancing the participant’s analytical skills to study the origins and causes of conflict. During a group exercise the participants were familiarized with various theoretical cases where conflict could arise. In order to bridge the gap between the academic and the practical experience of conflict, the participants were asked to come up with means by which to teach conflict prevention methods to others. The second part of the workshop dealt with the possibilities of civil society and NGO intervention in conflicts.

The third workshop, which took place in autumn 2008, was related to the discussion of the case studies the participants were asked for. The local case studies which will be used in the manual on conflict prevention were evaluated and finalized.

The focus of the last workshop of October 4th, 2009, lied on the final discussions about the “Manual for Conflict Prevention: Enhancing Civil Society’s Interventions”. This manual addresses the staff of all NGOs and community-based organizations throughout the Middle East. It is the result of a collective effort of an advisory team of NGO, KAS and RCCP staff and it attempts to provide methods and information on how to manage and transform conflict. It will offer tools for evaluating conflict, ideas on how to intervene in conflict and will present some interesting case studies of intervention in Jordan.