A two day workshop on Training the Trainers (TOT) on pluralism and conflict management for 39 master trainers was held under NPC’s project Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka supported by the US State Department. The partner is Legal Action Worldwide (LAW).

The objective was to contribute to an effective pluralism and conflict management framework for master trainers in 10 districts. Mr. Aruna Jayathilake, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sabaragamauwa conducted workshop.

In first session Mr. Jayathilake outlined the concepts of conflict, basic human needs and identity and gave participants practical exercises that enabled them to value different cultures. The next session focused on conflict analysis tools where participants analysed the main conflicts in their communities. The third session was on pluralism where topics such as cultural diversity, tolerance and judging were explored.

The final activity was to develop a master trainer’s session plan to use for community training. The plan was made for five categories - women, youth, government officers, local level politicians and religious leaders.

“We were able to learn new tools and topics related to conflict management and pluralism, and it will help us to deliver efficient and effective training to the community,” one participant said.

“It was good for us to participate in the training. We had the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with the master trainers who are actually working at the grassroot level,” said a representative from LAW.