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India week one

Writing this on Sunday after delivering a four day foundation skills course to 30 participants here in Delhi. Training that many was quite a challenge for the three of us especially trying to remember that many names which aren't familiar to us!!!!! The International Centre for ADR (ICADR), which hosted the training is an impressive building from the outside and the participants were mainly senior lawyers with a few other professions as well as a retired judge.

One of the issues which come up here as it did in Pakistan, is how you encourage mediation in a jurisdiction that has no costs sanction at all, and relatively low costs. Therefore defendants have no incentive to settle, rather it encourages them to delay and therefore not to settle.

Out side of work, one of the funniest moments came at the hotel when we were having a drink reviewing the day on Friday , when this woman approached us and very deadpan said " I am the hotel tarot reader, if you want to know your future I am at the desk in the Lobby" she then turned around and walked away. All of us were silent for about 5 seconds processing what we had just heard and then all burst out laughing.......it had been a long day and that just rounded it off nicely!!!!

Had a day off today and was going to go to Agra and the Taj today but would have had to get up at 5am so gave it a miss. Did have a look around old Delhi and now going down to have a swim. Another 4 day course starting tomorrow.

2 weeks in India

Just writing this entry before the taxi arrives to take me to Heathrow. I am leaving today with 2 colleagues for 2 weeks in Delhi to deliver 2 courses in foundation mediation skills training. It is part of a wider project which includes us going back out for an advanced course next month which included assessment for CEDR accreditation. There is also a train the trainer schedule for June sometime.

Parallel to the training work stream is business plan consultancy for ICADR. This work stream is being run by Karl Mackie, CEDR's Chief executive and Graham Massie, a fellow CEDR Director.Time frames for both work stream are tight and must be delivered by June.

Thats all I have time for right now. Next post from Delhi. Never been to India before so looking forward to exploring the Indian culture as well.

James

This phase of the Pakistan Project finished..Dubai here I come!

Writing this at hotel after finishing the peer practice session with mediators and before I leave to go to the airport to fly out at 10.30 to Dubai for the weekend.

Had a really interesting session with the mediators at KCDR today discussing a number of the issues which are coming up in their mediations and how they might be dealt with by them. One issue in particular we worked through in some detail is parties wanting to adjourn mediations, resulting in the mediation taking place over a number of sessions. The group came up with quite a few ideas about how to address this, which the mediators and the centre will now move forward.

Better go and catch my plane and so ends this trip to Pakistan. it has been great fun and as always I have learnt so much myself about mediation, people and life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James

Preparing for the work in Pakistan

The next trip to Karachi, Pakistan is coming up on Saturday with myself and my colleague Heather Allen leaving to begin two of the work streams early next week. We will then be joined by two more colleagues to help us finish to deliver the work streams over the final week. This is our fifth visit in a two year project for the private arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The project has been to establish mediation as a means of resolving commercial disputes in the courts in Karachi. A mediation centre has been established, the Karachi Centre for Dispute Resolution (KCDR) and a group a mediators trained to the international standard of CEDR accreditation. The centre has begun to receive cases from the Karachi high and districts courts and resolve them through mediation.

This trip involves 4 different work streams:

• Mentoring of newly trained mediator: This involves observing actual mediation and providing feedback to the mediators on how to develop their practice
• A 6 day mediator skills training course: to train 18 new mediators in the skills ands process of mediation which will result in assessment for CEDR accreditation.
• Master trainers Course: 6 mediators will train as mediator trainers. These trainers will then shadow us on the mediators skills course above to gain practical experience in training delivery
• Developing an ADR Curricula for Universities.: A workshop to further develop the framework curricula drafted by CEDR.

All these work streams will be delivered in a 2 week period so it is is going to be an intensive period of work but will be extremely rewarding as well. Past trips have been interesting and rewarding and we have made very many friends in Karachi who I look forward to meeting up with again.

This trip has been 2 months in the planning , a stage which is crucial if delivery on the ground is to go smoothly. We are all ready now so the next post on this blog will be on Sunday from Pakistan.

Cheers

James

Starting out

I have started this blog with the intention of recording the many experiences I have during my work in many different countries to establish mediation in civil justice systems around the world.

I am one of these people who love what they do and feel privileged to be able to train others to resolve disputes in an effective and efficient way without recourse to the vagaries of litigation. The projects I work on assist many countries to incorporate mediation into their systems.

I look forward to sharing these experiences with this blog..... so the next entry will be about our preparation for a 2 week visit to Pakistan to deliver a series of training events.

Cheers James