International Development

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS FEATURING IMPACT ASSOCIATES (IA) PRINCIPALS

• Kosovo: designed and implemented a large three-year pilot project on the professionalization of licensed mediators through a program established by the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.  Also provided basic and advanced mediation training, mentoring, and program design under projects with the US Agency for International Development and Checchi Consulting

•  Myanmar: USAID, Private Sector Development Activity, Trainer and Designer: Trained Myanmar mediators for the Department of Consumer Affairs and currently designing and facilitating commercial mediation programs for the country.

• Papua New Guinea: Conducted a review of the PNG National and Supreme Court annexed mediation program, focusing especially on the relationship between the courts and the mediation providers, and submitted recommendations for growth and expansion of the initiative.

• Facilitated the development of PNG National and Supreme Court ADR Committee 2015-2020 National ADR five-year strategic plan

• Afghanistan (USAID/Deloitte)
  Conducted an in-country assessment to determine whether commercial mediation could play a role in enhancing the climate for foreign investment and more efficient resolution of commercial disputes, which led to a plan for the creation of a nationwide commercial mediation system.

• Serbia (USAID/Booz Allen)
  Provided over a dozen basic, advanced, and train-the-trainer courses in leadership development, negotiations, and cultural awareness training for business executives to improve their ability to negotiate effectively, both internally in the workplace and externally with suppliers and customers. Provided basic education marketing skills training for university professors to enable the teachers to more effectively teach marketing skills to their students.

• Serbia Contingency Planning and Economic Security Program; Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence; Civil Society Advocacy Initiative. Provided negotiations training for these three projects, like those provided to the Serbia Enterprise Development Project.

• Bulgaria (USAID/Deloitte)
  Trained and certified 70 mediators to resolve cases referred for mediation by the commercial courts and by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce. A great success included a court-referred mediation training provided to commercial court judges in Stara Zagora and Plovdiv, who became extraordinarily proficient in selecting commercial cases from their crowded dockets and referring those cases to our trained mediators during “mediation settlement week” and thereafter. In 2006, the European Commission adjudged “mediation settlement week” as the best practice for popularizing mediation among SMEs and recognized Bulgaria as being the first member state to adopt the settlement week concept.

• Croatia (USAID/Booz Allen)
  Under USAID’s Croatia Commercial Law Reform Project, an IA Principal co-lead the implementation of a commercial mediation initiative in one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. The Croatia model has become a template for the adoption of commercial mediation initiatives throughout Southeastern Europe.

• Croatia:  The American Center for International Labor Solidarity, Croatia Trade Unions Strategic Planning Project, Designer and Facilitator: Facilitated separate strategic planning workshops for three of the largest nation-wide trade unions in Croatia.  The purpose of the workshops was to aid in the transformation of the national and local trade unions.  At the workshops, the participants received training in communication and negotiation skills, adopted a mutual vision for their union, developed a list of mutual goals, and agreed to a 5-year action plan for achieving a set of common objectives. Also conducted numerous training programs for trade unions in negotiations.

• Kashmir (US Institute of Peace)
  Training in conflict resolution for Azad Kashmiri parliamentarians and civil society leaders (in the United States).

• Guatemala (US Institute of Peace)
  Trained senior government officials and civil society leaders from Columbia, Guatemala and other Latin American countries in public dialogue and consensus-building processes.

• Dominican Republic (US Institute of Peace): Provided conflict management, negotiations and mediation training to senior military and political representatives of the region.

• Bosnia (US Institute of Peace): facilitation of initiatives on encouraging outside investment and disbursement of assets to returning refugees

• Greece: (US Institute of Peace) provided conflict management training to senior military and political representatives of the region.

• Sweden: Provided negotiations training to Swedish military peacekeepers and mediation classes at Lulea University

• Panama:  Facilitation of redrafting of the Panamanian Labor Law and assistance with creation of the Panamanian Mediation Service

• Thailand: Under a program with Rotary International provided conflict resolution and negotiation training to their conflict resolution fellows