Merging Ethiopian Wise-Counsel Mediation and Facilitative ...

I.2 General BackgroundThe Civil Peace Service (CPS) programme of GIZ has been actively working in Ethiopia since thebeginning of 2008. The programme aims to capacitate federal, regional and local actors to transformexisting and arising conflicts in Ethiopia in a timely, systematic and sustainable manner. The programmeis embedded in the national, regional and local level through partnership with different Ethiopian stateand non-state actors engaged in peace building. These partner organisations have different mandatesregarding their engagement in peace-building and conflict-transformation activities, however mediationcompetencies are beneficial for each to fulfil their mandates. Moreover, Ethiopian indigenous mediationapproaches are still in high demand and are practiced by the greater Ethiopian public (mainly through itscustomary institutions) and complement or have the potential to complement formal judicial and otherconflict-resolution approaches.Upon the requests of these partners and other community representatives, GIZ CPS conducted anintensive Mediation Qualification Programme in cooperation with the House of Federation (HoF) aspolitical partner; and with Ljubjana Wüstehube and Dirk Splinter from inmedio Berlin, who conceptualisedand facilitated the programme. 1A common objective for GIZ CPS, its partners and the participants of the Mediation QualificationProgramme was not only to strengthen existing and build new capacity in facilitative mediation, but toalso foster mediation institutionalisation and mainstreaming as an essential component within an Ethiopianconflict-resolution mechanism, thereby bringing together the existing indigenous mediation approachesand the facilitative mediation method into a complementary approach.In the course of the Mediation Qualification Programme, the participants replaced the terms“traditional” and “Western modern approach” because of the judgmental and sometimes even negativeconnotation of the terms. Instead the participants drew to the terms “wise-counsel mediation” and“facilitative mediation.” “Wise-council mediation” is a scientific term introduced by Nadja Alexander inher “Mediation Meta-Model” 2 and is used in this manual to describe the Ethiopian traditional (indigenous)mediation approaches and mechanisms, 3 while the term “facilitative mediation” is used to describe themediation approach that is predominantly used in the Western world.1 For an overview of experiences during the Mediation Qualification Programme, see Roos, C.; Splinter, D. & Wüstehube, L. (2011).2 Alexander, N. (2011).3 Nevertheless, the term "wise counsel" does not fully represent Ethiopian mediation mechanisms, since in the latter it is expected that the mediator will pass the final solution, whilein wise-counsel mediation the final solution remains with the parties. However, it is a scientifically-established term that best reflects the characteristics of the Ethiopian model.Introduction9