Societal Healing Programme in Rwanda - Brochure
In Rwanda, Interpeace collaborates with the government and non-governmental actors to implement a comprehensive societal healing initiative that encompasses mental health and psychosocial support, social cohesion, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners, while also promoting collaborative livelihoods. This program addresses the latent psychological scars left by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, including the heightened prevalence of mental health disorders as identified in the Rwanda Mental Health Survey (2018). This brochure provides an overview of the programme’s interventions and methodologies, as well as the significant impact they are generating at the individual, community, and national levels.
30 years making peace possible
Interpeace’s 2023 annual report, 30 years making peace possible, takes a look back at our origins and the foundation of our five core principles, which are the bedrock of sustainable peace. Three decades of experience tells us that when applied conscientiously, these principles represent the most effective way to define a shared purpose and a common, inclusive, and legitimate way forward: local ownership and leadership, building trust, reaching out to all groups, long-term commitment and recognising peace as a process, not a destination.
These five principles have provided a strong foundation for developing solutions to conflict-related challenges globally. There is an imperative to halt the rising and unprecedented trend in violent conflicts requiring significant creativity and innovation. The peacebuilding sector must evaluate and rethink its foundations, approaches, and operational models, including the current validity of its principles. These five principles may need to be expanded, nuanced, or even redefined.
2023 marked the third year of progress in Interpeace’s five-year strategy, A Resilient Peace, and the organisation was able to make practical and powerful advances towards the three principal aims of that strategy: to rethink the ways we build, asses and fund peace; to enhance resilience for peace, and; to embed peace in state behaviour and sustainable peacebuilding strategies.
In 2023, Interpeace reached 2.4 million people through its project activities, which included dialogues, training sessions, media campaigns and collective action, strengthening the capacities of societies to manage conflict in non-violent, non-coercive ways by assisting national actors in their efforts to develop social and political cohesion. Interpeace reached 26 partnerships with state institutions in countries and territories including Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Somalia and Yemen, among others, embedding peace at national and institutional levels. Altogether 8,400 people participated in research designed to better understand how to measure resilience for peace by assessing factors such as trust, resilience and inclusion. Moreover, Interpeace achieved significant progress in the development of innovative financing solutions for peace – through its Finance for Peace initiative – by launching a Peace Finance Impact Framework and global standards for Peace Bonds and Peace Equity.
A Community-based Participatory Framework for the Assessment of Resilience in Rwanda
Three decades after the Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda continues to navigate the complexities of rebuilding the social fabric and strengthen resilience of its population. The Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE), in collaboration with Interpeace has released a new research titled: A Community-based Participatory Framework for the Assessment of Resilience in Rwanda. The objective of this study, conducted across all 30 districts of Rwanda, was fourfold. Firstly, it aimed to formulate and validate resilience indicators for structuring future research activities, policies, and programmes related to community resilience in Rwanda. Secondly, it sought to devise a participatory, multi-level methodology for assessing resilience indicators, drawing from existing frameworks, while tailoring them to Rwanda's specific context. Additionally, the study aimed to establish a baseline for community resilience across all districts of Rwanda and to propose actionable policy and programmatic recommendations for enhancing resilience nationwide.
Involving a significant sample of 7,481 individuals, the study adopted a mixed-methods approach, integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods. Resilience was evaluated across four levels—individual, household, community, and institutional—using a comprehensive set of 38 indicators.
Les résultats ont souligné un degré louable de résilience à tous les niveaux évalués, montrant une étape importante trois décennies après le génocide contre les Tutsis. Les recommandations ont souligné la nécessité d'intensifier les efforts en matière d'initiatives de guérison sociétale, de développement des infrastructures et de facilitation de l'accès au financement et aux opportunités d'emploi.
Read the Executive Summary Cliquez ici.
Summary of findings and recommendations: Entry-Points for Peace-Positive Investments in Northern Kenya’s Frontier Markets
An exploratory study of prospective peace-aligned investments in Elgeyo Marakwet, Mandera and Marsabit counties
This report has been produced by Interpeace’s peacebuilding team in Kenya in partnership with its Finance for Peace initiative. It is a pre-feasibility study aimed at providing the first step analysis required to map a potential pipeline of investment approaches that can positively impact peace and conflict dynamics in the north of Kenya and contribute to sustainable development. The study focuses on the counties of Elgeyo Marakwet, Mandera and Marsabit where there has been a legacy of conflict dynamics that have intersected with development needs.
The Societal Healing Programme in Rwanda - Summary of The Annnual Report 2023
This summary highlights the key results, lessons learned and challenges of the Societal Healing programme in Rwanda, implemented by Interpeace and its local partners during the period between January and December 2023. This programme covers Musanze, Nyabihu, Nyamagabe, Nyagatare and Ngoma districts. Overall, 5 163 people were reached (2 540 men; 2 623 women) through various interventions such as 153 healing spaces established in communities, health centres and correctional facilities; activities aimed at strengthening capacities of mental health professionals; social-emotional skills and trauma-informed leadership skills training for local level decision-makers; and interventions focused on improving livelihoods. The programme contributed to fostering mutual healing, reconciliation and community cohesion, promoting economic empowerment of individuals and communities and mitigation of the intergenerational transmission of genocide and other negative legacies.
Consolidating peace and social cohesion in Rwanda - “Knowing the past, building the future”
30 years after the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the rebuilding of the social fabric is still hindered by its psychological wounds, affecting young people, including those who were born after the genocide. Interpeace works with local partners to organise intergenerational dialogues on history, genocide, and its consequences, as well as the reconciliation process, to address intergenerational genocide legacies, foster social cohesion, peace, and resilience. This video highlights the latest dialogue organised on June 1, 2024, in collaboration with Rotary Club Kigali Seniors in Kigali city.