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.
The findings underscored a commendable degree of resilience across all assessed levels, demonstrating a significant milestone three decades after the Genocide against the Tutsi. Recommendations emphasised the need for intensified efforts in societal healing initiatives, infrastructure development, and facilitating access to finance and employment opportunities.
Read the Executive Summary here.
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.
The power of sociotherapy in prisoner rehabilitation and reentry
In Rwanda, Interpeace, along with its local partners, utilises Sociotherapy to provide psychosocial support care to prisoners and facilitate their reconnection with those they offended, before their release. This approach fosters social cohesion and successful reintegration of prisoners into families and communities, a crucial endevour in nation still grappling with the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi, a tragedy that occurred three decades ago.
Young people’s perspectives on the 2024 summit of the future
The report “Voices of Youth: Young People’s Perspectives on the 2024 Summit of the Future & the Acceleration of the 2030 Agenda” is a consolidation of inputs from young people, gathering their innovative ideas and bold action needed to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation. This report was prepared in anticipation of the Summit of the Future and aims to enhance coordination amongst all actors supporting youth engagement and consultations in the context of SDG implementation and review. It spotlights promising practices, solutions, and recommendations.
Interpeace welcomed the opportunity to contribute some brief lessons from our in-country and policy work to the “Voices of Youth: Young People’s Perspectives on the 2024 Summit of the Future & the Acceleration of the 2030 Agenda” report. It is our firm belief that the Pact for the Future should not overlook the needs of young people in the present in favour of future generations yet unborn: it is the agency and leadership of youth now, as well as of future youth cohorts, that will determine the shape of the future. Young people are concerned about a wide range of issues and their voices should not be confined to a specific chapter. The Pact must therefore reflect the cross-cutting reality of young people’s lives. To support youth in a systematic way, we suggest that the Pact adopts two approaches. First, young people must be at the heart of designing and owning the words of this Pact so that it carries their voice, conviction, and legitimacy. Second, this cannot be a document set in stone, but instead it must incorporate built-in opportunities for reflection, review, and revision by the generations for which this Pact will be intended. This is what will keep the Pact alive, relevant, and responsive.