Alternative Conflict Management Principles and Community Protocols to Resolve the Natural Resources-based Competition and Allocation in Ethiopia Case - Gambella Region

The Gambella region has been plunged in ethnic driven conflicts, which claimed and continue doing so thousands of innocent lives since 1950s. The Gambella regional state of Ethiopia, situated in the western part adjacent to South Sudan, is home of Nuer, Agnuak, Mejenger, Opo, Komo and other highlanders. This lecture proposes alternative conflict management, a multidisciplinary field of research and action that seeks to address the question of how people can make better decisions together, particularly on difficult, contentious issues. The voluntary problem-solving and decision-making methods most often employed are conciliation, negotiation and mediation. Conciliation, negotiation and mediation processes are found in traditional as well as modern local level dispute resolutions. Many traditional leaders have extensive experience in dealing with disputes within their own communities or between a particular community and outside interests, though not enough information is available about how these and other processes are carried out by local political systems in addressing disputes. In addition, in many countries, the terms conciliation, negotiation and mediation refer to processes that have been formally institutionalized and are increasingly conducted by professionals. In the process, a body of information is being developed about what works best in managing various types of contemporary conflicts through collaborative rather than adversarial means. The goal of research in the area of dispute resolution is neither to impose a model of alternative conflict management nor to define a process. Rather it is to anticipate ways in which specific existing systems of dispute resolution or conflict management can be adapted to other cultural contexts. These approaches complement these more adversarial strategies, and broaden the range of tools available to communities and interest groups who are involved in conflict.

Key words: Gambella, ACM, conciliation, negotiation and mediation, knowledge management

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