Public Awareness, Sensitization and Education

Public Awareness and Sensitization activities are designed to listen to communities across the country and engage stakeholders in discussions to understand their peculiar needs so that the Community Mediation Programme remains relevant and accessible. These initiatives also build awareness and inform the public about the benefits of the mediation process in general and the services offered through the Community Mediation Centres and how these services could be accessed.

Public Education initiatives are usually directly related to specific conflict management needs of the particular community or stakeholder organisation. They may take the form of workshops, seminars, webinars, social media publications or other creative expressions to address the accessibility issues of the targeted audience.

Benefits:

• Enhanced opportunities to develop partnerships and to encourage and nurture stakeholder and citizenry participation.
• Increased availability of information on mediation and conflict management.
• Increased opportunities to encourage and support behaviour modification towards positive conflict management.
• Increased public awareness of the benefits of mediation, the services offered by the Division as well as information on how to access these services.
• The creation of champions for peace making and peace building in communities.
• Enhanced skills and competences among members of the public in areas related to conflict management in their particular contexts, communities and organisations.