South Africa Creates Public Policy Dispute Resolution Capability

Pasadena, CA (August 17, 1998) -- A team of mediation experts from Western Justice Center is helping South Africa create a public policy dispute resolution capability based on the Statewide Office of Mediation (SOM) model that has been widely adopted in the U.S.

Christine Carlson and Howard S. Bellman -- both nationally known mediation experts and members of the Western Justice Center project team -- recently returned from a two-week mission in South Africa as part of Western Justice Center's ongoing program to help Provincial governments and the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) establish Provincial Offices of Mediation (POMs) in South Africa.

Carlson is co-director of the Policy Consensus Initiative, a consortium created to advance the concept of SOMs, and formerly executive director of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management. Bellman is a nationally prominent mediator, arbitrator and lawyer, and former Wisconsin Secretary of Labor and Industry. He also is the first Senior Fellow at Western Justice Center.

Bill Drake, Executive Director of Western Justice Center , was instrumental in establishing SOMs in the U.S. while vice president of the National Institute for Dispute Resolution. He has been working with ACCORD on adopting the SOM model to South Africa's needs, and has made numerous trips to South Africa to help launch the project.

"South Africa is building its democratic institutions from scratch," Drake said. "As democracy puts roots deeper into South African soil, we expected -- and have seen -- growth in public policy-related disputes. This is a positive sign, because formerly disenfranchised groups now have the ability to contest government policies through participation rather than violence."

Public policy disputes typically involve many parties, not all of whom always recognize the legitimacy of other stakeholders. They revolve around the development and implementation of public policies and related legal, regulatory, institutional and resource allocation issues.

"Such conflicts are an expected element of the Government's Reconstruction and Development Programme, which covers everything from jurisdictional boundaries to electrification, housing, local government structure, and delivery of basic services. These conflicts are the product of diverse but deserving community needs vying for a share of limited resources," Drake said. "The predictability of conflicts intensifies the need to create effective means to deal with them. Western Justice Center and ACCORD view POMs as the most effective potential means to achieve that end."

The Western Justice Center project team is assisting South African Provincial and civic leaders to examine, assess and adapt the concept of SOMs and plan for creating POMs in each of South Africa's nine Provinces. Western Justice Center has been working intensively with senior Provincial leaders in two of South Africa's Provinces

--KwaZulu/Natal (the nation's most populous province) and Northern Cape (the largest geographically). As POMs are established in those two, their experience will facilitate the growth of similar institutions in other Provinces, Drake said.

"South Africa finds itself in one of those rare situations in which there is enormous opportunity; but also great uncertainty about outcomes," Bellman said. "Successful implementation of collaborative problem solving systems can greatly enhance South Africa's ability to secure its future. During our mission, we found a strong appetite at all levels of government for dispute resolution systems. That is most encouraging."

"Collaborative problem solving to implement established policy has very little history in South Africa, if any at all," Carlson said. "In the past, negotiation has typically been limited to narrowly defined issues with only two parties, such as labor-management matters. Based on what we learned in our recent mission, we believe that the State Office of Mediation model can be adapted to assist in introducing collaborative approaches to dealing with disputes over policy implementation in South Africa."

In South Africa, Bellman and Carlson conducted consultations and training workshops for Provincial officials, reviewed progress toward establishment of POMs in KwaZulu/Natal and Northern Cape, and recommended strategies for expediting and reinforcing that development.

An ACCORD delegation of senior Provincial leaders and mediation experts from KwaZulu/Natal and Northern Cape has previously visited the U.S. for a five-day workshop conducted by Western Justice Center at its Pasadena, CA, headquarters. It included a general orientation to the U.S. governmental system, American society, political processes, the legal system and major developments in dispute resolution. Following the workshop, the delegation visited SOMs in three states and met with several Federal agencies. SOMs in Oregon, Ohio and Florida were chosen to represent a wide array of approaches to establishing state mediation services.

At least two additional Western Justice Center delegations are scheduled to visit South Africa later this year. The next team will go in August -- Peter Adler, president of the Hawaii Justice Foundation, independent mediator and current president of the International Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution; and Wallace Warfield of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

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