Renforcer la résilience du système alimentaire et soutenir une paix durable – Une histoire du Somaliland

Malgré une stabilité relative, le Somaliland continue de faire face à de multiples chocs et menaces, notamment une insécurité alimentaire aiguë récurrente et des conflits liés à des ressources naturelles limitées, en particulier les zones de pâturage et les points d'eau dans les régions de Sool et de Sanaag. Alors que la production animale constitue l'épine dorsale de l'économie du Somaliland, les sécheresses, la dégradation des terres et les chaînes de valeur fourragères sous-développées ont de graves répercussions sur la sécurité alimentaire, la nutrition et le bien-être général. Le conflit dans la région a entraîné l'insécurité alimentaire et la faim, en détruisant les terres agricoles, les fermes et les infrastructures, paralysant tous la stabilité économique. Le besoin récurrent d'interventions humanitaires démontre que la résilience de la population et de son système alimentaire est faible et que les réponses ne sont souvent ni suffisantes ni durables. Les actions visant à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition peuvent contribuer à renforcer la résilience et à maintenir la paix.

Formation sur la prévention et la résolution des conflits : une entreprise conjointe de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO) et Interpeace

En 2020, Interpeace, à travers son principal partenaire au Somaliland, l'Académie pour la paix et le développement (APD), et en collaboration avec la FAO, a organisé conjointement une formation visant à renforcer les capacités des dirigeants traditionnels et locaux en matière de prévention et de résolution des conflits. Celle-ci faisait partie du programme plus large de la FAO sur la résilience en matière de sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle (FNS-REPRO), qui vise à utiliser des approches fondées sur les moyens de subsistance et la résilience pour favoriser la paix et lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire lors des crises prolongées.

Elle a émergé des recommandations d'une analyse de contexte multidisciplinaire précédemment menée, qui a aidé l'équipe de la FAO en Somalie à identifier les principaux facteurs de conflit à Sool et à Sanaag, certaines des régions les moins stables du Somaliland et parmi les pires touchés par les crises alimentaires. L'analyse a souligné la concurrence sur les ressources rares (terre, eau et pâturages) comme facteur clé. Les chefs traditionnels et les anciens ont été identifiés comme jouant un rôle important dans la gestion et l'instigation des conflits liés aux ressources.

Les sessions de formation se sont déroulées sur six jours et ont réuni plus de 30 participants, représentant les communautés locales de Sool et de Sanaag. Elles visaient à renforcer la compréhension des conflits par les participants, à les former aux processus de prévention et de résolution des conflits et à les sensibiliser davantage à la nécessité d'y trouver des solutions plus durables. Suivant l'approche d'Interpeace, la formation a défendu des actions plus inclusives dans la résolution des conflits au-delà du rôle des chefs traditionnels et des anciens.

Interpeace's strategic engagement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to enhance conflict-sensitive and peace responsive programming

The work in Somaliland is a recent activity as part of the strategic partnership between the FAO and Interpeace. In 2017, FAO and Interpeace signed a Memorandum of Understanding – renewed in 2020 - with the overall goal of developing, promoting and strengthening joint programmes and initiatives in support of FAO’s contributions to sustaining peace and conflict prevention. Based on this framework, FAO and Interpeace have collaborated, both at the institutional and field level, in the design and development of projects that are more peace responsive.

Le travail d'Interpeace sur la réactivité à la paix comprend les efforts avec les acteurs du développement et humanitaires pour améliorer leur capacité à opérer dans un contexte fragile ou de conflit afin d'y être plus sensible et de contribuer délibérément à la paix à travers leur programmation technique. Basé sur une approche systémique, il préconise que toutes les composantes de l'aide commencent à travailler sur les conflits d'une manière qui améliore l'impact collectif, dans différents domaines ou secteurs, et se concentre sur les capacités de résilience et de paix déjà existantes dans une société.

 

 

Rwanda Genocide Remembrance Day 2020: Monica McWilliams’ message of remembrance and hope

In 1994, the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda claimed about 1million lives and left the country with the massive burden of overcoming this national trauma and building a fresh future.

The Chair of Interpeace’s Governing Board, Monica McWilliams, was in Rwanda recently and has spoken of her, ‘incredibly moving experience’ of visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

In this video recording, issued today in remembrance of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Ms McWilliams says Rwanda is doing better in rebuilding from a genocidal history and fostering social cohesion. She also talks about how Interpeace is supporting the Government’s efforts in trauma healing in the country. “Rwanda is holding out the potential that we can move on,” Ms McWilliams says.

Watch video below:

NGO Consortium members vote Interpeace to chair Somalia peacebuilding group

Members of national and international civil society organizations operating in Somalia have voted Interpeace as the chair of a multi-agency peacebuilding working group. The Somalia NGO Consortium made the announcement on 27 January 2020.

Somalia NGO Consortium (SNC) is a voluntary coordination mechanism of national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in Somalia and operates in Somaliland. The Consortium was established in 1999.

Interpeace will lead the Peacebuilding Working Group for a period of one year, together with Saferworld as co-chair. The peacebuilding group is one of 6 thematic working groups established by the Consortium to effectively coordinate and conduct development and humanitarian support in Somalia.

NGO Consortium members in session. Photo credit: NGO Consortium.

Our team in Somalia and Somaliland has welcomed the news with delight and expressed their commitment to work closely with many other organizations to improve social cohesion, community safety interventions and effectively build sustainable peace in Somalia.

“We are indeed excited and pleased to be coordinating and working in a cohesive way with our peer organisations,” said Ahmed Abdullahi, Interpeace’s Somalia Country Coordinator.

“This platform gives us the opportunity to shape and advance innovative approaches to address the root causes of violence and work on restoring trust between communities,” said Mr Abdullahi.

We can only build a more peaceful future through collaboration. Working together as a group within the consortium strengthens our work as a peacebuilding community to effectively contribute to Somalia’s vision for change.

The Somalia Peacebuilding Working Group is an opportunity to consolidate partnerships, build a stronger peacebuilding community in Somalia and demonstrate to the world that we are more efficient when we work together.

NGO Consortium members in session. Photo credit: NGO Consortium.

Towards “peace responsive” programming – Interpeace and FAO continue partnership to better address and prevent conflict

Most severe hunger crises around the world occur in situations affected by violent conflict. Finding better ways to address and prevent violent conflict is therefore necessary to eradicate hunger. In this regard, the Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture - FAO developed a corporate framework in 2018 that outlines how the organization contributes to sustaining peace through its interventions. Moving forward, FAO intends to understand better the conflict dynamics in which its programmes take place, in order to ensure it does no harm, but also identifies where it can help strengthen and consolidate local peace.

In 2017, FAO sought the expertise of Interpeace, made available through Interpeace’s Advisory Team (IPAT), to operationalise this corporate framework.  Over the course of 2018, Interpeace and FAO developed and tested tools that will enable more systematic and robust conflict-sensitive programming. One of the most important products from this partnership was the The Programme Clinic Facilitation Guide. Following a year of testing in FAO field offices, this publication is a self-explanatory guide that helps users make their project or programme conflict-sensitive. The guide provides a multi-step process that empowers staff to effectively apply conflict-sensitive programme design in fragile and conflict-affected contexts; twelve FAO country offices have used this Programme Clinic approach to date, which is supported by a Guide to Context Analysis to inform FAO decision-making. The Programme Clinic Facilitation Guide is the first step in an ongoing process that will help further strengthen the contributions to local peace through FAO programmes aimed at strengthening resilience and achieving socio-economic development outcomes.

Interpeace and FAO are now embarking on a second phase of this joint work. IPAT will accompany FAO in further strengthening its internal capacities and processes for conflict-sensitive programming, as well as distilling typical pathways through which FAO programmes contribute to local peace impacts, within the scope of its mandate.

With this partnership, IPAT pursues the second part of Interpeace’s mandate, assisting the international community in playing a more effective role in supporting peacebuilding efforts around the world.

It is also part of IPAT’s wider efforts to accompany humanitarian and development actors in becoming more “peace responsive” so that international efforts collectively aggregate to greater peace impacts. This is based on the premise that peacebuilding is not only a set of dedicated activities undertaken by specialized organisations like Interpeace, but also a way of engaging in conflict-affected societies that, if adopted and applied by a larger set of actors, has the potential to really ‘up the game’ for peace and SDG 16.

For more background information about our partnership, read:

Tackling hunger through a peacebuilding approach: Interpeace partners with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

 

 

Re-conceptualization of violence in the Northern Triangle

L' Heinrich Böll Foundation has formed the Network of Civil Society Organizations of the Northern Triangle of Central America, as a space for analysis, reflection and contribution among organizations in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, with specialized knowledge on the issue of violence and insecurity in the region.

The book "Re-conceptualization of violence in the Northern Triangle" was written to challenge traditional approaches with which the problem of violence is tackled. In this document, the Network helps to re-interpret and re-dimension the issues of violence. Otto Argueta from Interpeace, writes about the: Transformations of gangs in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The Network is made up of Interpeace, Interpeace’s Regional Office for Latin America, Myrna Mack Foundation, Cooperativa Otra R.L., Plaza Pública, IUDPAS-UNAH, IUDOP-UCA et un CIPRODEH.

IPAT resource note: conflict sensitivity

This paper aims to refine the available framework for analyzing conflict sensitive aid by more explicitly differentiating where tensions and conflicts lie that can be aggravated by aid providers.