Nansen Dialogue Centre Serbia GPPAC member

Since 1999 NDC Serbia has been implementing a number of projects in South Serbia, Vojvodina, Sandzak/Raska following two major lines: Education for Peace and Capacity Building for local self-government. Cross-border projects were implemented in cooperation with NDC centres from Montenegro, BiH and Croatia (2007 -2012). The most recent one was Cross-Border Inter-Cultural Cooperation of Educational Institutions from Serbia and from Croatia (2017-2019).
During the process, lobbying and advocacy strategies were developed, as a result, partnerships with the Ministry of Education of Serbia (as well as with the Ministry of Education of Montenegro) were established. The change of legislation is the most concrete result: the articles of Laws on Education in both countries recommend school mediation to be used as a conflict mechanism.
NDC Serbia staff and associates (teachers, MoE School departments’ advisors gained extensive experience working on Interethnic dialogue, Mediation and Reconciliation in multiethnic communities in Serbia, thus contributing to the cooperation of ethnic groups in their own environments. Building resilience of the local population towards life circumstances and decisions made by irresponsible decision-makers in the country, in the EU and internationally is one of the important objectives. That way, they are able to join the forces for the purpose of creating safe environments by adapting to these influences and actively working on the prevention of violence. 

In cooperation with Lillehammer and Bujanovac municipalities, NDC Serbia implemented School Cooperation project connecting Serbian and Albanian schools in Bujanovac for 7 years. Mediators clubs were established in 4 primary and 2 secondary schools, inter-ethnic cooperation among teachers and students increased, local authorities and the Ministry of Education officially supported the project.

NDC Serbia implements School Mediation in Multiethnic communities programme for teachers, students and parents to influence multiethnic cooperation and prevention of violence in the multiethnic province of Vojvodina. Achievements are 6 school mediators clubs in 6 municipalities; cross-sectoral cooperation with MoE and local stakeholders to jointly create a safe school environment.

Building on the achievements, NDC Serbia developed and got accreditation for the programme for the professional development of teachers: School Mediation in Multiethnic and Multicultural Communities. It has been accredited for 3 school years: 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. 
The programme has attracted great interest of schools in Serbia and the number of schools inviting NDC Serbia to cooperate is broadening. Since 2018, teachers from 10 primary and secondary schools (Bački Petrovac, Gložan, Vranje, Belgrade, Čelarevo) took part in this training and evaluated it with highest remarks for practical conflict prevention/resolution skills for their daily work, for the new insights regarding children’s behaviour and new approaches to conflict. Based on the external evaluation done by the Ministry of Education representatives, the number of conflicts and cases of violent behaviour has been decreasing in schools which use school mediation as CR mechanism.

At the Political Sciences Faculty in Belgrade regular workshops on Conflict Analysis, Dialogue and Mediation for students have been held each year for 5 years. This is the International MA on Peace Studies. (Facilitator: Tatjana Popovic, NDC Serbia).

NDC Serbia is an active member of GPPAC (www.gppac.net) network since 2004. It is also Regional Secretariat for the Western Balkans. Work groups in which our associates participate: Peace Education, Improving Practice and Preventing Violent Extremism. 

Publications:
- Education for Peace, Experiences from practice, textbook, NDC Serbia, 2013, 
- Resolution through Dialogue, Nansen Dialogue Centre Serbia, 2008, textbook, 
- Peace Education for Peaceful Society, Nansen Dialogue Centre Serbia, textbook 2008.