On June 11-15 2018, the Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy (EECMD) has organized the Core Mediation Training in Georgia.

Training was commissioned by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). Alumni of the Democracy Schools as well as other interested individuals were able to participate in the training.

Training was led by two highly qualified and experienced trainers from Dutch organization “Result Mediation”. Trainers have delivered professional training on the ways of understanding conflict dynamics and equipped participants with skills to align differing interests and to bring parties together through mediation.

First half of the five-day long training was devoted to the theoretical aspect of the subject. Theoretical part of the training addressed the issues such as conducting negotiations, defining the interest and communication models. Furthermore, the training also touched upon the ways of dealing with difficult situations during negotiations and conducting mediation. In the second part of the training, participants themselves became mediators and stakeholders.  Multiple cases were role played and all the different phases of the mediation process were discussed.

 “Training was really important for me. I have learned how to detect behavior and listen to the parties. Most importantly, I am inspired to learn the subject more thoroughly and contribute to the development of mediation practices in Georgia”, – remarked Tamar Mikeladze, one of the participants of the training.

According to Nino Jintcharadze, the knowledge acquired during the training will be useful for her to solve personal, work-related and other types of conflict situations. She remains hopeful that mediation will become as popular in Georgia as it is in the Western countries. This would provide win-win solutions to various disputes without the need of taking the case to the court. Participants expressed the wish of conducting mediation training systematically for the representatives of various spheres, especially for the politicians.

The Core Mediation Training is officially certified by the Mediator Federation of the Netherlands and has been conducted in many countries since 1998.