Aabha Shouche, Charlotte Vincent, Emily Copple and Nike Naemi Helmerich discuss the experience:
Could you walk us through your project? Principally, the methodology and research?
Our project centred on positive peacebuilding in the Balkans. SANCHILD International's flagship project, called Project Harmony, was a novel approach to personal and community healing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which remains a deeply divided society several years after the Dayton Accords were signed and the Balkan Wars ended. The approach involved working with members of various communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, practicing values like self-healing, empathy amongst others and then acting as trainers to bring this approach to their own communities, in what they termed Ripple Projects. Our task was to evaluate the working of this project and examine whether it is possible to scale and expand this approach to other Balkan countries and potentially beyond as well. For this purpose, we conducted desk research on positive peace, working in post-conflict societies and community healing as a concept, to name a few of our focus areas. We also spoke to participants of the first phase of the Harmony Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to understand their feelings towards the project and the impacts it had on their own lives and those of their communities.
How did you approach conducting interviews on sensitive topics? Were there any language barriers or obstacles you had to overcome?
We were aware from the beginning that peacebuilding in the Balkans can involve sensitive topics, so we prepared accordingly by following standard research ethics, including anonymising participants and considering alternatives such as note-taking instead of recordings if needed. In practice, however, our interviews focused more on how the project operates than on highly personal or conflict-related experiences, so these concerns rarely arose. Our local partners selected participants, which meant language barriers were not an issue. What stood out most was that a shared commitment to peacebuilding quickly created trust and made communication across cultural backgrounds feel very natural.
What is an aspect you found interesting during your research?
One of the most interesting findings for us was how important emotions were for the Harmony Project. We expected to learn more about methods or dialogue formats, but what stood out was that the project first creates a space where people can acknowledge and understand their own emotions. Afterwards, they come together to connect with others and reflect on what happened and how to move forward. It showed us that peacebuilding is not only about technical approaches. Before people can rebuild relationships with others, they often first need to reconnect with themselves.
One of your visions was to address if the approach by Harmony Project could be scaled to other Balkan countries. Did you find that your project was successful in assessing this?
This project was successful in ways that we initially did not anticipate. After conducting our initial research, we realized the gravity and scale of the changes Project Harmony was enacting and how it can be expanded regardless of contextual limitations. By maintaining the core elements of focusing on individual growth and healing, it can be scaled by adapting it to the post-conflict situations where it is being implemented.
How was your experience preparing for the project work? How did you go about the logistics and what was the support you received?
Our initial experience was not so much relating to the academic preparation but learning how to work alongside each other and to complement our different backgrounds to support this research. On top of this, we had the urgency to produce quality research, for which the faculty and staff from the Geneva Graduate Institute provided much-needed guidance and advice. Imagine having highly qualified graduate students working together to decipher the meaning of the Theory of Change on a white board. Despite these qualifications, we received the grounded and foundational support we needed, from both expected and unexpected places.
What were some key take-aways or conclusions you drew from this experience and how does it support your overall learning experience in the MINT programme?
From a professional and academic background, there is generally a requirement for keeping an emotional detachment to, or distance from, the research. However, the success of this project revealed that emotional involvement was necessary to understand the complexity of the human dimension, thus benefiting our project. Rather than this being just another academic project, the team became emotionally invested in helping SANCHILD achieve the best outcome possible. It drove home the fact that sometimes, emotional connection with one’s research can greatly improve the outcomes, something that we will carry with us during the remainder of the MINT programme, if not our careers in general.
The ARP encourages team work. How did you approach working collectively?
Having an effective team is not always a given. This comes especially when the gravity of the project puts a lot of pressure on meeting expectations, deadlines and a unified outcome. To add to the pressure, our team’s success was contingent on real world implications for an NGO (SANCHILD) that was actively working in a post-conflict setting. Every team member came from a different country, culture and experience in academia. This produced a diversified lens on analysis but also generated intense interactions that required diplomatic skills to navigate. Imagine the hardship of being an American and working with a Canadian when the USA team beat them in hockey during the Olympics: at times it became very difficult to see eye to eye! Another example is being Indian and explaining to a German that their definition of spicy is a whole lot different. But more seriously, it can get hard and requires a lot of honest communication, understanding and compromise. Teamwork takes time and effort to build and with our group, it progressed beyond the classroom to sharing meals and remaining friends to this day.
Could you share with us a fun or important moment that occurred during this experience?
One of our favorite moments was grappling with the concept of the Theory of Change (ToC). This ended up being long nights spent with a whiteboard and arguing in circles that left a colourful art of confusion. The ToC was often treated like a ‘hot potato’ that nobody wanted to catch and it tested the limits of our understanding of reality. However, through much of the mental strain that went into brainstorming the ToC, we were saved by the silent hero, a PhD candidate and our advisor, Franca. While there were multiple nail-biting sessions spent with her – and often more questions than answers – we eventually unlocked a ToC that impressed her and our partners. For that, we will always be forever grateful to Franca for helping us very early on with this difficult task. Another important point to mention is our great relationship with our partner, Sanela and Amb. Walter, which was built over the course of the year. Throughout many meetings that sometimes brought tears – and laughter – we were able to develop this amazing relationship with them, which our research clearly benefited from. This led us to the final presentation; rather than having the typical final presentation where everyone is serious and stressed, we got a beautiful sharing moment with our partner and our faculty advisor.
