Interpeace's PREDIA project supported the implementation of “Cadres de Collaboration”, a highly specific and innovative social engineering approach to conflict prevention and resolution in Côte d'Ivoire.
Having long been plagued by instability, conflict, and war, the people of the Great Lakes region remain steadfast in their pursuit of peace. With this objective in mind, young people from Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi met for three days in Kigali from 11 to 13 December for a workshop organised by Interpeace and its local partners, namely Pole Institute and Action pour la Paix et la Concorde (APC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Centre d’Alerte et de Prévention des Conflits (CENAP) in Burundi, Vision Jeunesse Nouvelle (VJN) and Never Again Rwanda in Rwanda. This workshop was part of the ‘Cross-border Dialogue and Youth Empowerment for Peace in the Great Lakes Region’ programme. The aim was to exchange ideas on peace initiatives led by young innovators and peace fellows supported by the programme.
The main objective of this core initiative is to enhance the availability and accessibility of information regarding patterns and trends of local conflicts in Guinea-Bissau. To achieve this goal, Interpeace is supporting its local partner Voz di Paz in the development of a monthly reporting system which allows the identification of local conflict episodes and in the development of an online data visualization platform. Conflict trends and patterns identified through joint analysis are then disseminated through quarterly bulletins which content is shared and discussed with local, national and international institutions, as well as with civil society stakeholders.
These quarterly bulletins are available for consultation and download in Portuguese, English and French at https://www.vozdipaz.org/conflitolocal. The bulletins are also distributed via a mailing list which can be subscribed here.
How to work for peace? Around the world, dozens of conflicts are causing poverty, hunger, displacement, inequality, all while climate change is accelerating. The 2023 edition of the Geneva PeaceTalks wants to reflect on the official United Nations theme for the International Day of Peace, “Actions for Peace: Our Ambition for the Global Goals”. It is a call to action that recognizes our individual and collective responsibility to foster peace, which contributes to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This 11th edition of the PeaceTalks will take place on the occasion of the International Day of Peace, September 21, 2023, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, which coincides with the SDG Summit, marking the mid-point milestone in implementing the SDGs. A hybrid event, the meeting will welcome an in-person audience and will be broadcast live online.
Speakers from different backgrounds will bring their points of view and explain their actions for peace through a series of inspiring talks:
Through short 8 minute talks, speakers will share their vision and stories of peace with audiences from around the world. This will be the 11th edition of the Geneva PeaceTalks.
Co-founded in 2013, the PeaceTalks is a global platform dedicated to telling and sharing inspirational stories for peace. Harnessing the power of storytelling, the PeaceTalks creates a space encouraging dialogue, reflection and inspiring hope. Videos of previous editions at: www.peacetalks.net
WHO
The Geneva PeaceTalks are co-organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, Interpeace, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, with the support of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN.
This edition is made possible with the support of the Swiss Confederation, the Canton and City of Geneva, Mirabaud, Geneva Call and Fondation Hirondelle. The Musical Performance by César López is made possible through the Plan for the Promotion of Colombia Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia.
WHEN
The event is scheduled on the International Day of Peace, 21 September 2023, 16:00-18:00. It will be followed by a reception.
WHERE
In-person: Room XVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
Livestream online at http://webtv.un.org.
All in-person attendees need to have pre-registered online via the link https://indico.un.org/event/1001797/. For more information, www.peacetalks.net.
CONTACT:
Luvini Ranasinghe, Head of Communications at Interpeace / ranasinghe@interpeace.org / Tel : 079 475 64 95.
Can reconciliation be sustainable between communities that have experienced the most extreme forms of violence? This is one of the questions posed by 150 high-level stakeholders, during a regional forum held in December 2015 in Kinshasa, where they mandated Interpeace and its partners to conduct a research on the experiences of reconciliation in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda, to identify how these experiences can be leveraged to increase social cohesion and support peacebuilding efforts. The three countries make up a sub-region of the Great Lakes that has been marred by decades of violent conflict, including the Genocide against the Tutsi, the civil war in Burundi and the first and second Congo Wars. Our latest report presents results of a research conducted in Burundi, Rwanda and the provinces of North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to respond to this mandate by identifying the resilience capacities that foster reconciliation in the sub-region.
The report, entitled “Resilience Capacities for Reconciliation in the Great Lakes Sub-Region”, is the third published under the programme: Cross-Border for Peace in the Great Lakes Region, launched by Interpeace and six partners in the Region in 2011. As with the previous research, it employed Participatory Action Research (PAR), combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, and engaged more than 9,000 people in the region – 50% of the participants were women and more than 30% were people under the age of 30.
Advancing reconciliation in the Great Lakes Region
The report sheds light on how the population of the sub-region defines reconciliation as well as the enabling factors and obstacles to reconciliation. It highlights a number of existing capacities in the sub-region that enable people to overcome the distrust left by years of conflict and to live together peacefully. These capacities manifest through individual, relational, cultural and institutional practices, allowing communities to cope with the consequences of violent conflict, and more importantly, to positively and sustainability transform relationships. The report also presents recommendations and priority actions, formulated by stakeholders themselves, to advance reconciliation in the region.
Among the key findings, the study highlights the importance of peace education for changing attitudes of individuals and structures, deconstructing prejudices and stereotypes, and developing the capacity to live together in a shared regional space. Consequently, stakeholders recommended promoting peace education that builds upon the existing efforts of members of the community and that is aimed at building a regional identity and sense of belonging.
The report also demonstrates how cross-border relations have played a major role in building resilience to conflict, despite geopolitical tensions. The efforts of women and youth to maintain these relations despite and during times of conflict as well as during times of peace were perceived to be a potential strength to build upon. Therefore, stakeholders recommended amplifying these efforts through the expansion and strengthening of inclusive economic projects of women and youth.
According to the research, approximately two thirds of the population in the region have experienced some form of violence related to conflict. The report highlights how trauma stemming from past and ongoing conflicts play a large role in the lives of the people of the Great Lakes sub-region. As such, stakeholders recommended initiating and expanding national and regional trauma healing strategies that are designed to heal wounds of the past as well as foster reconciliation and social cohesion.
Furthermore, insecurity, and in particular the proliferation of armed groups in eastern DRC and its regional implications emerged as a significant challenge to the sustainability of reconciliation efforts,. Stakeholders recommended cross-border learning and collaboration on demobilization and socio-economic reintegration of ex-combatants.
A key take-away from the report is that recognizing, strengthening, and building upon the resilience capacities that exist across Burundi, DRC and Rwanda has the potential to enhance efforts to foster sustainable peace and reconciliation throughout the region.
Cross-Border for Peace in the Great Lakes region programme
The Cross-Border for Peace in the Great Lakes Region programme was launched in 2011 by Interpeace and its partners to address key challenges to peace and reconciliation. The programme is currently in its second phase and is implemented by the following partners: Interpeace, Réseau d'Innovation Organisationnelle (RIO); Action Pour la Paix et la Concorde (APC) in South Kivu; Pole Institute and Centre d'Etudes Juridiques Appliquées (CEJA) in North Kivu; Centre d'Alerte et de Prévention des Conflits (CENAP) in Burundi and Never Again Rwanda (NAR) in Rwanda. This report is the third published under this programme. The first, published in 2013 focused on "Stereotypes and Identity Manipulations” and a second report on "Land, Identity, Power and Population Movements" was published in 2016.
Seven years ago, Mali came into the spotlight as violence broke out following an attempt by armed groups to seize control of the North of the country and a military coup. While democracy was returned one year later, instability remains. Since then, Mali has consistently commanded international attention. The United Nations has over 13,000 peacekeepers stationed there and spends over $1 billion dollars a year on what’s officially its deadliest peacekeeping mission. And yet, despite the UN’s efforts, despite those of the Malian government and the rest of the international community, levels of violence continue to rise, as insecurity spreads from the North to include large sections of the center of the country.
Interpeace had been working with the Institut Malien de Recherche-Action pour la Paix (IMRAP) since 2014 and had discovered along the processes carried out at a national level that one of the critical missing pieces was the failure to meaningfully include local communities. The pioneering work of Interpeace and IMRAP—a self-portrait of Mali—had deliberately taken the national conversation on peace and security to Malian communities to help ensure their perspective was adequately taken into account. The work of IMRAP and Interpeace is an ongoing process that aims to sustain and deepen their engagement at country level. Doing so, we will continuously bring our support to the communities not just to talk, but to take action; to launch a national conversation to make sure peacebuilding was no longer an elite business, but an imperative for all.
Today we’re excited to announce the launch of “Vestibule de la Paix” a long-term, multi-partner initiative with the goal of supporting a community based and led approach to peacebuilding in Mali. Led by IMRAP, Interpeace, the Institute of Development Studies and Humanity United (with the acronym H3I), we will be working with communities in the North, Center and South of Mali to supporting them in managing the conflicts without violence and help them build social cohesion. We will also be channeling that experience into conversations with the Malian government and key international players to see how they could shift their practices to harness the power and agency of local actors and build lasting peace.
As part of the partners’ commitment to supporting locally led peacebuilding, we’re proud to be part of this multi-stakeholder initiative that will enhance not only a four-way partnership collaboration but also will engage local, national and international actors at a same stage to propose sustainable solutions for lasting peace. We believe these efforts can be transformative for Malian communities and they can help fundamentally change approaches to peacebuilding in Mali and beyond.
For more information read -
Involving local communities in peacebuilding in Mali
Vestibule of Peace: New peacebuilding initiative in Mali launched