Academy for Educational Development

New Mediation Program Promotes Civil Society in Guatemala

Guatemala has suffered from decades of civil war. In many areas tensions are still high and conflict is a part of daily life. But many people in the country are looking at new ways of settling disagreements.

Over the course of the past 12 months, AED has led a project in Guatemala aimed at promoting mediation as a way of peacefully resolving disputes.

“Building up mediation is necessary if one is going to be effective in getting conflicts solved by peaceful means,” said Michael Kott, vice president and director of the AED Center for Civil Society and Governance. “It is impossible to eliminate conflict altogether, but you can help people learn to resolve their differences peaceably.”

In its effort to help Guatemala increase its use of mediation, AED looked at how the practice was infused into the Mayan culture. The resulting framework is uniquely Guatemalan.

Land Conflicts

Through mediation, two conflicting parties meet privately with a neutral third party to discuss the issues and come to a peaceful solution. The alternative is a long, drawn-out, and public court battle. Or, in some cases, the parties resort to violence.

Martina Ban, who headed up the project for AED, uses two examples to illustrate the positive potential, and frequent failure, of conflict resolution attempts in Guatemala.

In the case of Finca Maria Lourdes, groups of campesinos—or rural agricultural workers—invaded a privately held farm after they repeatedly tried and failed to receive payments due to them.

Following eight months of mediation from INTRAPAZ, a group AED partnered with in Guatmela, the campesino groups and landowners were able to come to a mutually beneficial accord for the payment of past services and the campesinos peacefully left the land.

In contrast, in the case of Nueva Linda, the parties involved chose to invoke private- property law rather than dialogue. The landowners attempted to forcefully eject the campesinos from the land, which resulted in violence and led to the deaths of seven campesinos.

“The bloodshed there caused nationwide strikes in protest of the violence,” Ban said.

‘Fresh, New Approach’

The Guatemala Conflict Prevention and Resolution project was a two-pronged effort, the first of which focused on nationally disseminating information on the effectiveness of mediation.

AED staff members conducted an assessment of the existing mediation resources in the country and compiled their findings into a report. Officials in Guatemala can now use that directory to access existing mediation professionals.

In the process, the AED staff included government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and indigenous practices. “The Mayan culture is still very much alive in Guatemala,” said Ban. In the “Mayan Code,” or law, there is a strong emphasis on using mediation, she added.

But including the Mayan Code in mediation directory was groundbreaking. “It was a fresh, new approach,” Ban said.

Best Practices and Quality Control

Along with the mediation directory, AED compiled a set of best practices into a report. That report, “Mediation in Guatemala: An Analysis of Institutional and Traditional Experiences,” was then used as the basis for a national plan for establishing a quality-control system in Guatemala. 

Candles are part of some traditional Mayan ceremonies, and were used during the conference.

The quality control system is a framework for what can be done to improve the quality of mediation in the country, said Ban.

A conference was held in September that brought together a broad spectrum of professionals from campesino groups, religious groups, civil society, and government to discuss mediation practices.

Using an innovative conference style, called World Cafe, the participants worked together in small groups with individuals they normally would not have met.

To ensure that mediation capacity continues to improve in Guatemala, the team from AED also worked to strengthen INTRAPAZ by helping them create a strategic plan for institutional organization and financial sustainability.

“By implementing this project with AED,” said Ban, “INTRAPAZ has made so many contacts and had such visibility, that they are now really in a position to take the lead in pushing for a quality control system for mediation in Guatemala.” ________________________________________________________________________

For more information on AED’s work in civil society and governance, contact Michael Kott.