Training of Trainers in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation – Evaluation Report

Executive Summary The idea of the project “Curriculum for a Training of Trainers in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation" originated in 2002 intending to find a universal set of tested training standards in order to improve the training opportunities for becoming a qualified trainer in the field of Nonviolent conflict transformation in a European context. Now, after the project was brought to an end in March 2007 the achievement of objectives has been assessed in a final evaluation which results are presented in this report. Passing in review, the unlucky way of failing in the first attempt in 2004 had formed many obstacles for the progress of the re-designed Training of Trainers project. However, despite of the fact that it “was not born under a lucky star” as an interviewee put it simply, it has to be recognized that in the end it was successful below the line. Giving a reason for this, one of the tremendous advantages of the project was to having had an eligible set of partner organisations. It was found by analyzing the partners` share in project management, that each of them contributed to the project within the realms of possibility even though sometimes not as effectively as possible. With regard to the achievement of intended project outcomes, a “Curriculum for a Training of Trainers in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation” was tested successfully in a pilot course and new knowledge of implementing a Training of Trainers was gathered. According to the project proposal, one of the main objectives of the project was to find formal and contentrelated standards to obtain a comprehensive agreement as a universal basis for a “Training of Trainers in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation”. The training course intended to draw on different experiences and to contribute building a European approach to Nonviolent Conflict Transformation. It can be declared that this special goal was achieved only to a certain extent, not least because of not having a well-balanced project ownership.
A comprehensive training manual was produced and a project homepage was set up, the latter unfortunately with very low practical usage. The objective of having qualified 12 graduated trainers in Nonviolent conflict transformation was not fully achieved. Competencies for conflict transformation have been strengthened only to a limited extent, because of the small number of participants. It was assumed that at least six trainers would disseminate their newly attained competencies in the field of nonviolent conflict transformation by implementing trainings. This was an overestimation of multiplicator effects to be obtained by the project. As far as is known at the present moment, some of the trainees are not going to work as a trainer in future. Therefore, the aim of increasing potentials and capabilities of de-escalation methods in society was only partly achieved. To sum up the projects achievements, it was successful in achieving its goals by producing a curriculum and a manual as well as having tested a model course, but it was not successful
in having trained a sufficient number of trainees. Eventually, it can be declared as thoroughly successful if there will be a follow-up in the near future, avoiding a few malfunctions made in the last attempt by scaling it down to a feasible dimension.