"I am now in Bangkok in my 3rd week of the course. It is truly inspiring to be interacting with the world's leading experts in this field along with practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds. We are still in the initial phase of learning the basic concepts of conflict analysis but we will soon progress to applying this knowledge to domestic and international case studies.
Our class will study a resource based conflict in northern Thailand and another ethnic based conflict in Indonesia.
Sierra Leone was an excellent experience in that it provided a close look into the challenges and opportunities associated with inter-agency and inter-governmental collaboration. My agency's focus on gender and protection issues positioned us to advise key players on a regular basis on the evolving needs of the most vulnerable and attempt to proactively address gaps in aid provision.
I have attended a couple of Rotary events here and should be visiting my club soon. The challenge of course is that they run their meetings entirely in Thai!"