Nansen Dialogue Centre Mostar

We support the Nansen Dialogue Centre Mostar to scale their work to bring children from different ethnic backgrounds together

The Partner

The Nansen Dialogue Centre (NDC) Mostar operates in a part of Bosnia-Herzegovina where relationships between the different ethnic groups are still fragile. For almost twenty years, the organisation has been working towards rebuilding relationships and trust in divided communities.

NDC Mostar has focused its effort on schools, aiming to provide opportunities for children from different ethnic groups to get to know one other, and to play and learn together. In this way, personal experiences and relationships make them less prone to divisive narratives and prejudices.

This is particularly important because in these ethnically diverse and heavily conflict affected parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, children are subjected to segregated schooling (referred to as “two schools under one roof”) and have no opportunity to get to know each other. NDC Mostar provides the space for integrated education, trains teachers to conduct such sessions and engages the broader community in joint activities.

Our Support

PeaceNexus started working with NDC Mostar in May 2017 in view of NDC’s unique positioning in the field of inter-ethnic dialogue and collaboration. We recognised early on that NDC Mostar manages to achieve results in some of the most challenging environments through its extensive experience and quality programmes. However, it was also clear that the organisation could achieve even more with a strategic approach, particularly when it comes to scaling the work and influencing at the policy level.

With this in mind, we accompanied NDC Mostar through a participatory process to:

• Develop a new strategy with ambitious programmatic goals
• Improve internal planning and coordination
• Develop monitoring and evaluation tools to accompany the implementation of the strategy

Currently, we are in a second phase of support, helping NDC Mostar to manage growth by:

• Reviewing and adapting monitoring and evaluation tools
• Supporting the development of a communication strategy
• Making targeted investments in internal systems and capacities

The Results

In 2018, NDC Mostar signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Ministry of Education and secured financial support to implement the organisational strategy we helped develop. As a result, NDC Mostar will implement integrated education and social cohesion projects in new communities, and is preparing to engage in policy dialogue on inclusive education with relevant educational institutions and local authorities.