Islamabad, August 13: PILDAT held an exclusive Skills Building Workshop on Conflict Management and Negotiation Strategies for selected members and senior secretariat staff of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Assembly of Northern Areas at Islamabad today.

The workshop, which was conducted by Ms. Nina Sughrue, Conflict Resolution Expert/Workshop Resource Person has been part of an overall PILDAT project to orient and build the capabilities of elected legislators on conflict resolution. Earlier PILDAT had held similar but separate orientation workshops for Members of Parliament at Islamabad and Members of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh at Karachi on February 24, 2009 and February 26, 2009 respectively.

Elected legislators engage in the resolution of many conflicts � in their constituencies, at the local level, within legislatures, regionally and nationally and internationally. The basic objective behind PILDAT�s programme of building conflict-resolution capabilities of elected legislators is to equip them to play their role as mediators in various conflicts in the society. It is envisaged that by building the conflict-resolution capabilities of elected legislators at all levels, our efforts should contribute positively towards Pakistani legislators� long-term ability to respond and diffuse conflict at all levels.

A background paper on Conflict Resolution and Negotiation Strategies has been especially prepared by PILDAT for the participants of the Skills-building Workshops in addition to workshop materials and exercises developed by the resource person.