Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Afghanistan, Mediothek Afghanistan and Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO) jointly organized the first peace forum of a series in Kandahar city titled “Kandahar Forum for Peace” on 15 March 2021. The forum implemented in the framework of a project entitled “Reaching Out for Peace” is funded by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Afghanistan. Seventy (70) participants including representatives of local government department, provincial councils members, academics, religious scholars, peacemakers, journalists, leading civil society activists, students and active citizens from the host province of Kandahar and its neighboring provinces of Zabul, Helmand and Urozgan provinces participated in the one-day peace forum. The event official lunched with opening remarks by Zia Sadr, a representative of Mediothek Afghanistan. He talked about the aims and objectives of the project adding that the project is seeking to facilitate community level exchanges on peace across Afghanistan and that is it based on the notion that the solutions must come from the people for peace to be sustainable and this project provides a great opportunity for members of communities to work together to find local solutions and address the challenges facing peace in the country. It also helps members of local communities to engage in constructive dialogue with key stakeholders in the issue of peace and experts at local levels, according to Sader. He encouraged the participants to take active part in every segment of the event, adding that peace must come from locals, they must engage in identifying the factors of conflict and the main peace spoilers and carve out solutions best fitting local challenges to peace. The Forums for Peace are planned in Kandahar, Herat, Balkh, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, Bamyan, and Kabul but invite participants from all neighboring provinces of each host province thus it is a project of national scope. Two rounds of local forums for peace will be conducted in each of the host province during the project in 2021. The first round of the peace forum is focused on the questions of how locals perceive peace and how citizens at local locals define peace, it also helps participants pin down the most pressing challenges to local peace and local ways of overcoming these challenges. While the second round will help participants delve in deeper discussion on operationalizing their solutions at local levels through dialogues and collaboration. A comprehensive survey of successful experiences of peacebuilding cases from other countries and regions was presented by Mohammad Ehsan Sadaat, a presentative of APPRO through an informative and educational presentation. The presentation also provided an in-depth analysis of the current peace process in Afghanistan, its nature, challenges and stakeholders and the major difference and similarities of the process with those of other countries and regions. Through several working groups, participants worked together to identify mechanisms of addressing local challenges to peace as well as factors and drivers of conflict at community levels. A selected representative of each group presented the results and ideas of the respective group to the larger group and to a panel of four members, including representatives of local government institutions, peace experts and civil society leaders for further analysis and deliberation. This phase provided ample opportunity for participants to engage in honest and in-depth discussion with each other in an open and friendly atmosphere and pose their questions to experts and representatives of local government. The first round of the Forums for Peace will culminate with a national forum to be held in Kabul with the participation of representatives from all over the country, and the results will be shared with the relevant national and international institutions after thorough analysis and synchronization by experts. The dialogues will continue through the second round of the forums.
