Local context and international contacts | Paulo Baleinakorodawa & Alex Azarov

Paulo Baleinakorodawa and Alex Azarov have developed a thriving climate peace partnership between their respective NGOs, Transcend Oceania and Conciliation Resources, working in the Pacific, and Fiji in particular.
They are in conversation with Kevin Clements and Volker Boege.

Time stamps
00:00 Introductions
06:00 Why two peacebuilding organizations with a focus on conflict analysis decided to work on climate change
08:19 The working relationship between Conciliation Resources and Transcend Oceania, the division of labour and complementary skills.
13:12 Working together to jointly design the projects with communities in Fiji.
18:52 An adaptive peacebuilding methodology for engaging with communities.
26:23 Identifying and working on conflicts identified in the vanua methodology: Case studies of Vunitogoloa, Naviavia and Vunisavisavi.
37:09 Addressing power imbalances between old and young, men and women, in the communities.
46:54 The comparative learning approach.
51:55 Recommendations for state institutions, donors and other CSOs who want to support communities in climate change related conflict, transformation and peace building.
56:35 Plans for the future of the partnership.



Speakers:
Paulo Baleinakorodawa is the Director of Programs and Co-founder of Transcend Oceania, a Justpeace and development regional NGO based in Fiji. He previously served as a peace building specialist in various peace building and development organizations. He's worked as an independent peace building consultant across the Pacific, providing peace and conflict training, technical support and mentoring and group process facilitation. Paulo has an MA in conflict transformation and peace building from Eastern Mennonite University in the USA.

Alex Azarov is program manager for Conciliation Resources' Fiji and Solomon Islands program. Previously, Alex worked in Ukraine with various international and local NGOs supporting dialogue initiatives and a professional community of facilitators and mediators. Alex's interests include nonviolent communication, masculinities and the use of participatory theatre and peacebuilding. He has a Master's of mediation and conflict resolution degree from the University of Queensland, and is a professional mediator.

Professor Kevin Clements is Director of the Toda Peace Institute. He was the Foundation Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies and Foundation Director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS) at the University of Otago, New Zealand

Dr Volker Boege is a Senior Research Fellow for Climate Change and Conflict, Toda Peace Institute and a former Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Institute, Australia

Interview recorded 28 June 2024.
For more conversations on the theme of the Pacific, climate change and conflict, presented by Toda Peace Institute, please visit    • Climate Change and Conflict  

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