The Leadership for Social Justice (LSJ) Institute held in Oaxaca, Mexico from February 12-17, 2006 was a landmark event for the International Fellowships Program (IFP). 46 Fellows from all five Latin American countries where IFP operates (Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Brazil) participated in the event, along with 11 Fellows from Mozambique. Twelve IFP alumni served as facilitators for five “thematic” groups: (1) Poverty and Development; (2) Human Rights; (3) Social Sciences, Public Policy, and Civic Participation; (4) Education and Communication; and (5) Environment. In addition, five “Special Guests” (“Invitados Especiales”) with expertise in each of these areas served as resource persons for the working groups, and a number of distinguished Mexican scholars, activists and local community leaders participated in several keynote lectures and round tables. In all, nearly 100 guests participated in the six-day event.

Planning Process, Program Objectives and Innovations

Planning Process
An Organizing Committee made up of representatives from the host institution, the Oaxaca unit of The Center for Research and Higher Studies on Social Anthropology (CIESAS-Oaxaca), IFP-Mexico (CIESAS-Mexico City), the Fundación Equitas (the International Partner for the Andean Region and Southern Cone) and the IFP Secretariat met in Oaxaca on August 24-25, 2005 to finalize the working groups, select the alumni who would serve as working group facilitators, and develop a draft agenda. On October 24-26, 2005, the Organizing Committee met with the selected facilitators and several representatives from the School for International Training to plan the final agenda. Also at that time, the facilitators were charged with contacting members of their respective thematic groups to begin exchanging information and ideas.

Objectives
Similar to other Institutes, the overall objective of LSJ XI was to forge connections among the IFP Fellows and alumni and stimulate reflection among them about how study and action come together in social justice work. It was also important to take advantage of the unique resources offered by Oaxaca, home to a number of indigenous communities as well as many engaged scholars and vibrant civil society organizations.

The specific objectives for LSJ XI were developed in the course of the preparatory meetings, as follows:

• Reflect on the ideas about social justice that had been discussed in previous LSJ Institutes
• Encourage the Fellows to recognize the important role of civic associations and international development agencies in public policy formation, and their impact on social justice
• Recognize the role of academic institutions in building new knowledge for social justice
• Provide an opportunity for Fellows to meet with their peers from other Latin American countries and from Mozambique, and encourage them to strengthen and broaden their networks through the interchanges of experiences and activities

Innovations
In the two years since the previous LSJ Institute in Oaxaca, a number of changes were introduced into the format and implementation of IFP’s LSJ programs. These included more space in the agenda for Fellows to share their personal and professional experiences, a greater role for IFP alumni in facilitating and leading the meetings, a stronger focus on the cultural and political reality of the host country, and site visits to international NGOs and other organizations dedicated to social justice work.

Underlying these changes is a growing understanding that many IFP Fellows are already leaders in their respective fields, and that they would therefore benefit more from sharing their experiences in an interactive format than they would from a traditional didactic, “top-down” approach. In addition, as more alumni complete their academic programs, they have become available to participate as facilitators of the LSJ Institutes, an experience which reinforces their leadership skills and “models” this behavior for current Fellows. Finally, the LSJ Institutes are increasingly seen as an opportunity for IFP Fellows to consider how academic knowledge can be applied to home-country development projects.

The organization of LSJ XI was consistent with these changes but added several innovations:

• The meeting was a Latin American Regional Institute with an African presence, since some Fellows from Mozambique participated
• The meeting was held in Spanish and Portuguese with translation provided for the plenary sessions only
• IFP alumni served as the primary facilitators for the thematic working groups
• “Special Guests” invited for their subject expertise and practical experience assisted each of the working groups
• In addition to the regular day of visits to community organizations and governmental institutions, Fellows participated in an extended site visit to an indigenous community, as part of an effort to give participants maximum exposure to Oaxacan culture and social conditions
• Discussion panels on global policies and democracy and indigenous rights in Latin America enabled Fellows to meet with local intellectuals and community leaders
• Local artists and Fellows presented and discussed videos reflecting conditions in their communities;
• CIESAS-Oaxaca, the local host institution, had responsibility for developing the program as well as for financial and logistical arrangements
• Prior to the meeting, participants were asked to submit essays about their social justice concerns rather than academic papers
• Specific products from the meeting were envisioned, including:
-- work plans or proposals from the thematic groups
-- evaluations by Fellows and facilitators
-- a video of highlights from the proceedings
-- a CD with all the materials, including Fellows’ essays, the keynote lectures, and local press coverage, among other items
-- an analytical report prepared by the Organizing Committee
-- a published “Memória” in Spanish and Portuguese
-- a special edition of “Aqui Estamos,” the publication of the IFP Mexico alumni, with essays by the Institute facilitators
-- a special edition of the Andean Region and Southern Cone online “Boletín,” with comments and articles by Institute participants

Key Themes and Organization
The Institute was dedicated to the overall theme of “Ensuring Equitable Access to Human Rights.” Given the Latin America regional framework and Oaxaca’s natural connections to indigenous questions in Mexico, there was a strong focus on indigenous rights seen from various perspectives. The topics discussed reflected this orientation, for example:
• endemic and increasing poverty in indigenous communities not as a lack of wealth but a problem of resource distribution
• educational problems of indigenous children
• how to improve public services and anti-poverty programs offered by government agencies to poor and indigenous communities
• the role of women’s groups and other civil society organizations in helping the broader society to acknowledge and address the problems of indigenous communities, including women’s reproductive health, the economic exploitation of women, and violence against women
• the role of the university and the social sciences in monitoring and preventing human rights abuses against poor and indigenous communities
• creative responses by indigenous leaders to out-migration, environmental devastation and lack of economic activity in their communities
• cultural heritage and its importance for living indigenous communities in Oaxaca and Mexico
• higher education prospects for poor and indigenous people.

The Institute was organized with a mix of different formats, each designed to complement the others, including:
• A visit to Monte Albán, a major archeological site near Oaxaca
• Two “stage setting” lectures by leading Mexican experts, one on “Social Justice: Where Does Latin America Stand Today” and the other on “Poverty and Development in Latin America and the World”
• Thematic working group sessions facilitated by IFP alumni
• Two panels with local experts and community leaders, one on “Global Policies” and the other on “Changes and Transformations in Democracy, Social Justice, Citizen Participation and Education in Latin America”
• A full day of visits to civil society groups and governmental organizations in Oaxaca and the surrounding area
• A day and a half trip to Benito Juárez, an indigenous community one hour away from Oaxaca city and 1,300 meters higher in altitude
• Optional video screenings and debates
• Plenary presentations and reporting out; concluding sessions
• Traditional LSJ Cultural Night and Farewell Dinner

Evaluations and Reflections
The facilitators and participants submitted evaluations of the Institute. The facilitators’ evaluations are in the form of narrative reports, while the participants completed quantitative surveys with some open-ended questions.

While opinions among the facilitators and participants differed on a number of points, there was a strong consensus about the benefits of the Institute:
• The opportunity for exchange of experience and building of personal and professional ties among the Fellows and alumni
• The opportunity for the alumni facilitators to exercise leadership among their peers, which provided them with valuable professional experience and helped to stimulate a collective learning process
• The opportunity to learn first-hand about local conditions, problems, and responses
• The opportunity to interact with dozens of local scholars, activists, and community leaders
• The opportunity to reflect on academic knowledge and its relationship to practical development work, and the effort to formulate concrete proposals for collective work
• The opportunity for the Latin Americans to bridge the language divide between Spanish and Portuguese, and to learn something about Mozambique, and for the Mozambicans, to learn more about Latin America
• Exposure to the substantive knowledge of the many experts who spoke and contributed to the deliberations
• The video sessions that stimulated learning and reflection about social justice, particularly the opportunity to meet the filmmakers.

At the same time, a consensus emerged about several aspects of the Institute that need to be taken into consideration when planning future events:
• Time management needs to be more uniform so that the agenda can be followed as written
• The number of activities needs to be at a comfortable level; resist the temptation to over-program!
• Reducing the number of activities would allow for more understanding and follow-through on the ideas discussed
• The facilitators and the organizing committee (or their representatives) need to meet daily to make sure that input from the participants can be systematically considered, and issues can be addressed in a timely manner
• There need to be clear rules about who will make changes in the agenda, and under what circumstances
• Participants need to understand the logistical challenges that are involved in transporting a large group to a remote community such as Benito Juárez, and the pressures that a visit such as ours may put on the local hosts
• The facilitators could have benefited from clearer instructions about the expected outcomes from the thematic working groups
• The “special guests” could also have benefited from clearer instructions about the role they were to play in the thematic working groups
• More diversity of viewpoints and background could have been achieved in the panels, provoking more comparisons among different countries in the region as well as international comparisons between Latin America and Africa (and other developing regions)
• Better use could have been made of IFPOnline prior to the event

Implications for LSJ
The 2006 Oaxaca Institute was an intense learning experience for the participants and for IFP. Despite the time management problems and some coordination issues that arose, the Institute provided a number of insights that will be useful in planning LSJ events in the future:
• Contact with local reality like that found in Oaxaca is powerful and helps Fellows to discuss their own social justice concerns and ideas
• The “regional” focus is useful and relevant for many Fellows, but the global nature of IFP can be preserved if regional issues are presented in a global framework by international participants who represent a cross-section of the Fellows’ countries (e.g. avoid over-representation of topics and speakers from the host country)
• Local host institutions have the contacts and expertise to design and implement the whole LSJ program
• With proper coaching and preparation, IFP alumni can take on a full facilitator role
• Alumni or Fellows could be included in roundtables and panel discussions, along with outside guests; this would provide an additional space for them to share their knowledge and expertise
• Many Fellows are very busy with their thesis work or other academic obligations, and may benefit more from participating in Institutes once they are alumni and have concluded their academic programs
• Holding in-country Institutes for alumni should encourage participation in IFP alumni networks and enable participants to develop more practical plans for collaboration
• All Institutes should have tangible products such as a CD with the materials, a video, analytical reports, or special publications
• Video and multimedia formats are excellent teaching and learning tools
• IFPOnline still appears to be underutilized, both as preparation for the Institutes and for follow-up.

Conclusion
The Oaxaca meeting was an intense learning experience not only for the participants but for the International Fellowships Program as well. We will continue to foster connections and meaningful exchange among those who attended, and attempt to incorporate the “lessons learned” into the planning and execution of future IFP events.