Index
1. Some data
2. Conceptual Debate
3. General feelings and recommendations
4. Country specific contacts
5. Meetings on EU fundraising perspectives
6. UN-related matters
7. Contacts with other NGOs

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Some data
- More or less 250 participants, around 70 organisations.
- Many of them from Northern CSOs and governments, as well as New York Un offices and CSOs; few Southern European.
- Monothematic working groups alternating "panel" plenaries and "participating-facilitated" plenaries: impression of "open process"
- Regional Action Agenda to feed the Global Action Agenda, the procedure could be clearer.
- Governments financing the GPPAC are the "usual suspects" (Nordic ones, NL, Germany, Canada…)

Conceptual Debate
- Some concepts were generally recognised as future developments in conflict prevention, such as "early warning", "Conflict and Peace Impact Assessment" (see www.pcia.fewer.org), Human Security (as opposed to the pre-emptive approach of "War on Terrorism"), the gender dimension of conflict prevention
- Some speakers from the general panels quoted the need for "creative new possibilities such as PBI" (prof. Mari Fitzduff, N.Ireland) and the need of accompanying human rights defenders
- A working group has proposed a "public awareness" campaign, to culminate in a great event just before the July 2005 Conference in New York
- The working group on the World Conference debated a lot about which percentage of participants should come from CSOs, and among them which is the CSO definition to be taken (NGOs, Churches, Trade Unions, but then: business organisations too? Etc.)
- The final Action Agenda for Western Europe (around 7 pages) will be ready soon and I will forward it on demand.


General feelings and recommendations
- The Regional Action Agenda suffered from terminology problems and the research of the "minimal possible agreement", leaving less space than hoped to innovative concepts; our suggested phrase on international non-violent civilian peacekeeping could still be inserted in the final draft
- NP European members (80% already collaborating in the European Network for Civil Peace Services) arrived with a strong team-building effect after the meeting in Scotland; if NP gets similar "organised groups of participants" in the next regional conferences a real influence on the outcome seems possible
- After Tim’s and my interventions in the plenary, NP is clearly visible as an interlocutor of GPPAC

Country specific contacts
- Germany: they are producing a "conflict prevention plan" (80 pagg.), hopefully soon translated in English; NP should be one of their examples as Foreign Ministry; this Ministry tend to consider Civil Peace Service as a Development issue more than conflict prevention.
- France: talked with the Lady organising the "Fair of Peace Initiatives" in Paris, 4-6 June, who offered space for participation.
- Sri Lanka: talked with Prof. Sridhar K Khatri, Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo, Regional initiator for GPPAC in S.Asia and leading a SriLanka conference on CSOs an,d conflict prevention in April.
- Philippines: Augusto N.Miclat, Executive Director of "Initiatives for International Dialogue", very active on Mindanao
- A complete list of contacts will be ready soon for staff use.

Meetings on EU fundraising perspectives
&Mac183; Maria McLoughlin (Head of Conflict Prevention Unit in the European Commission: as non-violent civilian intervention is "not their priority", she suggested to wait 2007 for the new organisation of the EU budget, possibly with a chapter for "Peace and Security", and the possible new Framework Contract between EU and NGOs, extending it beyond humanitarian work. My note: these conditions will be applicable to NP only in 2-3 years, with an EU based consistent NP budget, a recorded long-standing field activity, etc.
&Mac183; Ernst Guelcher (functionnaire in the Green Group in the European Parliament: "follow officials with concrete proposals to solve their problems; don’t hope for money on alternative to military intervention or other "non-institutional" approaches to security")

UN-related matters
I particularly followed the working group on UN-CSOs relations in conflict prevention. Some "good practices" were illustrated:
- the Germany conflict prevention plan, with strong support to multilateralism;
- Ms.Felicity Hill (Unifem) illustrated the success story of the Resolution on Women and Peace, where decisive factors were timing, a committed and professional coalition of NGOs, a "champion" among Security Council governments (in that case Jamaica Ambassador, a Lady) and a coalition of really engaged governments within that SC, a feasible proposal;
- UNDP officials in the "Conflict Prevention and Recovery Unit" (Mr.Pardeshi) and Civil Society Organisation Team (Ms. Alejandra Pero) illustrated the new UNDP-CSOs partnership criteria, and announced that soon a small grant procedure will be launched in certain countries, especially for local NGOs, and Sri Lanka could be among the selected countries.
- Ms. Amanda Di Lorenzo (Early Warning Unit within Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN, N.Y.), preparing a website for early warning inputs from NGOs, listened with attention to my report on NP’s work.
- Ms. Antonella Verdiani (programme officer in UNESCO about "Culture for Peace" Ten-Years Programme) is very keen on collaborating, but the new UNESCO Director is not convinced about "Peace Culture".
- Ms.Heide Schutz (pro UNCOPAC): their proposal seemed not feasible to several UN experts, because subsidiary bodies of the General Assembly must be made out of Governments’ representatives and not CSOs.
- Mr.Peter J.Davis (Saferworld repr. c/o UN, N.Y.) gave a list of entry points for conflict prevention CSOs in the UN offices (I can send you some on demand)
- Mr. Jack Patterson (Quakers c/o UN, N.Y.)

Contacts with other NGOs
Mr.Ivar Ensmo (NORAD, about their work in SriLanka)
Ms. Sheila Cannon (Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in SouthEast Europe)
Ms. Samantha Chaitkin, VOICE, European network of humanitarian NGOs
Anne Palme (association of Finland Peace Associations)
o Many others… a complete list of contacts will be ready soon for staff use.

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