PROGRAMS
"Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts." Margaret Mead
Programming and community engagement are at the core of our strategy. We invest heavily in supporting the development of integrated solutions and delivering reliable tools to those who need them most. Discover more about our innovative campaigns below and get in touch to stay up to date regarding our latest efforts.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAM
For the past ten years, David Kartozia and the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy (IMTD) have been working on an economic recovery project for the Republic of Georgia, and later also Ukraine. Uganda and Zambia joined in 2023 and 2024. Specifically David built networks of teams all over each country. The teams recruited people to join a massive co-op, one in each country. The co-ops are not industry specific or product specific. They recognize that entire economic systems are necessary for the economic growth of the country.
They are co-ops in the true sense of the word though in that they are designed to encourage members to help one another. If a member needs to transport a crop to cold storage, but doesn’t have the truck, another member can help. They should be mutually supportive.
The co-op concept allows small and medium farmers and manufacturers to pool their product to be able to supply large domestic and international markets.
Further, the project would provide small grants, up to $20,000, to help members overcome hurdles to getting a product to market. If a subsistence farmer needs a tractor to farm a larger plot of land in order to have surplus to sell, the project would provide the tractor. This allows more people to enter into the economy.
Along with recruiting members the teams around the countries also provide training that is useful for local members to maximize their access to markets and the benefits that come with it. They also help with grant applications for the project funds, and even with larger grants from other sources when necessary. They are on site to verify the applicant can and does use the grant as intended.
In Ukraine there is also a security branch run by retired police and military officers. Because of the high pressure of corruption security protects the co-op members from threats by corrupt influences. They also ensure our own teams act according to policy and don’t abuse their positions. Finally, they ensure co-op members keep their promises, so as not to compromise the spirit of cooperation in the project.
They also have a Trade Association component. The trade association helps bring their goods to international markets. They provide licenses when possible, or at least assistance in obtaining necessary licenses and certifications. They find buyers and distributors.
We expect to see a rise on GDP over time, and in the short term a rise in member’s average household income.
THE SOLUTIONS ACCELERATOR
IMTD partners with Sovereignty First to offer the Solutions Accelerator dialogue processes to clients worldwide. The the Solutions Accelerator assesses the strengths of a country and the challenges it faces and helps decision makers use that information to design internal strategies for growth. The Solutions Accelerator is a wide spectrum dialogue process developed by Dr. Eric Wolterstorff to help actors at any level of social and political development secure their State’s sovereignty, and to take control of their infrastructure, economic, and social development.
PRINCIPLES
The Solutions Accelerator principles are rooted in systemic trauma theory, family therapy, organizational development, and general peacebuilding theory. The Sovlutions Accelerator effect is to facilitate broad-scale systems change at accelerated rates.
THE SOLUTIONS ACCELERATOR
Sovereignty First’s idea of the Solutions Accelerator touches on the best of a country, the things its citizens love, and partners it with an “all in this together” spirit, so the country’s future development is not undermined by divided segments of the population. It is extremely useful in a post-conflict setting to sort out power struggles.
SCALABILITY
Although the Sovereignty Accelerator was developed for use at the national level, the tool can be adapted and applied with equal expectations of success to provinces, cities, and small communities.
For instance
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A city in crisis is experiencing serious unemployment, a declining tax base, rising crime rates, and crippling strain on social services. We can help the city develop step-by-step plans to restore quality of life and to attract new business.
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A minority population is experiencing discrimination by the majority. The minority wants to declare independence. We can help increase their internal autonomy, build their economy, and develop strategies for improving their relations with neighbors to enhance the quality of life in their region whether or not they ever choose to seek independence.
PARTNERSHIP
IMTD partners with Sovereignty First in all Solutions Accelerator projects. The partnership allows us to bring depth of experience and insight to a variety of settings.
MORE INFORMATION
TheSolutions Accelerator can be grant funded, but it can also be contracted on a fee-for-service basis.
TENTS
Tents is not an acronym. It recognizes liminal spaces set apart to consider deeper things.
There is not a county in the world which has not experienced mass trauma. It happens through war, terror attacks, natural disasters, etc. Many countries have both suffered trauma and caused it for others. The after-affect in either case is fragmenting of society. The more trauma is experienced, even by previous generations, the more fragmenting occurs. Unified visions for the country become more and more difficult to plan and to implement.
The same principles apply on city, state, or regional levels.
IMTD has recently agreed, quite enthusiastically, to join the Shifting Culture constellation by taking on the Tents program. Working with mass trauma expert, Dr. Eric Wolterstorff, we will be taking on the responsibility to work with both recent and historic trauma on a national scale.
Common concepts on taking on national scale trauma use one-on-one or small group therapeutic approaches. When you think how many people would have to participate in even a small country it is easy to see how that is not practical. We have better models, and are eager to test them with rigor.
Although they have many other uses this is a useful set of ideas for a transitional justice program. They help the country factions understand the complexity of their own humanity thus allowing room for the “other” to also become human. Enemies become neighbors. Justice and reconciliation programs can be much more effective from that point.
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
Most transitional justice programs are like most justice programs, two-sided. They search out victims and offenders and try to establish a degree of accountability between them.
IMTD, along with Sovereignty First, look at a broader picture, including victims, offenders, bystanders, and saviors. These are the common roles produced by any act of trauma, whether in a school shooting or a civil war. In a prolonged conflict most people will have played at least some, and maybe all of these roles at some point.
Often, overnight conflict roles become caricatures. Over years and then generations the roles become hardened divisions within societies and tend to replicate more violence.
Through a process of storytelling and response, focusing on the noted acts of brutality, IMTD and its partners can help generate a braided truth, elements of which are agreed upon by all participants. The better story will reflect the nuanced ethic of the complexity of the conflict. The braided story humanizes both the “monsters” and the survivors. It engages the innocent. It honors the best efforts of true heroes without deifying them.
The braided story provides for accountability but allows for prosecution if necessary.
This transitional justice process can be used a local, city, regional, or national levels. It would be very useful after a school shooting or other similar community tragedy.
IMTD’s transitional justice work can be grant funded, but it can also be contracted on a fee for service basis.
LOUISE DIAMOND COMMITTEE TO PROTECT NEXT GENERATIONS
The Louise Diamond Committee to Protect Next Generations is based in Vermont as a tribute to Dr. Diamond who lived there.
John McCormick, a life-long advocate for environmental causes, works through the state legislature and the Governor's office to develop and enact policies which will protect the state's natural resources, mitigate climate change threats, and serve the needs of the people living in Vermont.
Successful programs will be promoted as models for other states.
