The GHfP Institute facilitates and coordinates the UNESCO Collective Healing Initiative, in partnership with the UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Sector.
Inspired by UNESCO’s medium-term (2022-2029) priorities (e.g. Africa, gender equality, and youth empowerment), and committed to the UN Decade of People of African Descent (2015-2024), the overarching aims of the Collective Healing Initiative are:
- to break the silence about historical brutality of slavery, colonialism, genocide and continued structural violence, and confront socio-economic deprivation, exclusion, and vulnerability
- to challenge gender inequality, social injustice, and structural racism
- to address intergenerational trauma and ill-being
- to advance politics of dignity towards social transformation
These objectives draw on updated knowledge of the interconnection between collective healing, social justice and global well-being. Ongoing research highlights that collective healing can contribute to “de-racialising” our vision and “decolonising” our conception of humanity. It does so by deconstructing racist discourses and ideology, recognising and addressing the harms of slavery’s legacies, transcending the antagonism of ‘us-vs-them’ mentalities, and co-envisaging a common future for all. More importantly, it can help communities (re)discover the gifts of (indigenous) knowledge, wisdom and practices, and enrich our collective resilience, well-being and co-flourishing with nature.
Currently, the Collective Healing Initiative consists of four mutually reinforcing iterative processes:
1. Collective Healing, Social Justice and Global Well-Being:
- To launch intergenerational dialogue & inquiry pilots in communities in four continents and explore historical wounds connected to the legacies of slavery and colonialism.
- To invite and gather narratives of resilience and examples of indigenous knowledge, wisdom and practices of collective healing.
- To co-develop a bespoke Collective Healing Programme based on learnings from the inquiries.
- To pilot the Collective Healing Circles in the community facilitated by women and youths.
- To convene and host a UNESCO webinar series on Collective Healing.
2. Empowering Women and Youths:
- To support a youth-led research to understand what constitutes future-forming leadership with youth and for youth.
- To establish an innovative UNESCO Leadership for the Future Academy
- To offer co-created transformative leadership programmes for women and youth facilitators – the driving forces of the bespoke collective healing programmes in different communities.
- To nurture, enable and support women and youth to become change-makers of their communities who will collaborate in confronting systemic discrimination and advancing social transformation.
3. Research, Evaluation and developing UNESCO Policy Brief:
- To develop academic and interdisciplinary research for understanding and evaluating participating communities’ experiences of collective healing, well-being and regeneration.
- To analyse meaningful impacts across the different communities involved in the Project.
- To understand the psycho-relational and spiritual harms of dehumanisation
- To propose a UNESCO policy brief that characterises institutional conditions for social transformation.
4. Implementation and Dissemination:
- To improve and implement collective healing programmes in relevant communities.
- To mobilise NGOs and partners to provide continuous support to women and youth facilitators and offer leadership opportunities for them to introduce collective healing to wider societies.
- To distribute and share research findings and disseminate policy briefs and learnings through publications, webinars, and conferences.
You must be logged in to post a comment.