Rwanda Programme Intervention Protocols

Interpeace has been working with the government and non-governmental actors in Rwanda  for over 20 years, focusing on societal healing and participatory governance. Currently, Interpeace is implementing a holistic peacebuilding programme titled ‘Reinforcing community capacity for social cohesion and reconciliation through societal trauma healing in Rwanda’. This programme has four pillars: mental health and support; social cohesion and reconciliation; collaborative livelihoods; and prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration.

Interpeace and its partners have collaborated with national and international experts to design structured psycho-social interventions, scientifically known as ‘protocols’, which aim to support healing and peace processes. These protocols include resilience-oriented therapy, adaptations of sociotherapy, multifamily therapy, the collaborative livelihoods (COLIVE) protocol, the prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration curriculum, and the socio-emotional skills curriculum.

These protocols guide interventions in healing spaces for Genocide survivors, Genocide perpetrators, former combatants, and their descendants. They facilitate mutual healing and reconciliation, strengthen the mental resilience of individuals and communities, promote family cohesion, and address the intergenerational transmission of Genocide legacies. They also underpin initiatives to develop collaborative livelihoods and skills development, and the psychological rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners, particularly those convicted of Genocide crimes.

End-line Evaluation Report of the Rwanda Societal Healing Pilot Programme (2020 -2022)

From October 2020 to September 2022, Interpeace, in partnership with Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR), piloted a holistic peacebuilding programme entitled “Reinforcing community capacity for social cohesion and reconciliation through societal trauma healing” in Bugesera District, Eastern Province of Rwanda. The programme, funded by the European Union, aimed to support the government’s efforts to build a resilient, cohesive, and inclusive Rwandan society.

The programme sought to address mental health issues, strengthen social cohesion and reconciliation, and promote sustainable collaborative livelihoods among Genocide survivors, perpetrators, their descendants, and prisoners.  Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) tools, also known as “Protocols,” were developed and contextualised to guide programme interventions and make the approach more relevant, effective, and efficient.

According to the final evaluation and the endline survey to assess its impact and effectiveness, the programme led to significant individual, family, community, and institutional changes. A total of 7,313 people, including 3,323 males and 3,990 females, were reached by the programme through community-based healing spaces created across Bugesera District, as well as institutional capacity-building initiatives.

Regarding effectiveness, the evaluation found that the programme largely achieved its targets. Cumulatively, 84% of targets were fully achieved (100% or above), and 10% of the targets were substantially achieved, falling between 75% and 99%.

For more information, download the report below and visit the Rwanda Societal Healing Programme’s specific webpage: https://www.interpeace.org/mhpss-rwanda/

The Ethiopian Peace Index

Peace in Ethiopia has long faced significant challenges, with recent events in the Northern as well as other parts of the country exacerbating the already delicate situation. To promote social cohesion and reconciliation, reflection internal to the country is needed, along with an appraisal of the native, existing capacities that could promote lasting peace at the local, regional and national levels. This pilot study presents the first deployment of the Ethiopian Peace Index (EPI), a participatory, quantitative research tool designed to measure a broad range of peace factors and the relationships between them. With its evidence base grounded in statistical analyses, the Ethiopian Peace Index seeks to inform peacebuilding design and improve the focus and effectiveness of work in this area by identifying the drivers of peacefulness and cohesion and so proposing entry points for transformative interventions. The EPI is a flexible tool which provides a quantitative evidence base that can (and should) be revisited and reanalysed as new needs and research questions arise. This report provides in-depth analysis of peacefulness and conflict, food security, mental well-being, and gender equality outcomes in the regions under study. In each case, the underlying drivers of these outcomes are drawn out, outlining the way forward with optimum impact. For this pilot study, the EPI was deployed in three regions in the south of Ethiopia: Sidama, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP), and the South West Ethiopia Peoples’ (SWEP) regions. Surveys were used to collect data from randomly selected participants: 808 citizens, 101 traditional leaders and 101 Kebele administrators.

Mediation Learning Report – Video

 

The mediation experiences of National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and Interpeace in Mandera Country and the North Rift Region of Kenya have been documented in a research paper  that explores the processes and interventions that resulted in two ceasefire agreements in Kenya’s Mandera County and the Suguta Valley in the North Rift Region. In this video, Interpeace’s Kenya Country Representative, Hassan Ismail, provides a breakdown of the factors that substantially reduced violence between communities.

No longer an outcast

 

The family of Diogene Uwimana was about to break up due to his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. After his release, he faced rejection and mistreatment from his wife and children, who were not ready to live with a genocide perpetrator. The good relationship and trust were restored after the couple and their children attended a community-based multifamily healing space created by Interpeace in Bugesera District, eastern Rwanda as part of its societal healing programme.

Mukaremera’s story of new hope

 

Mukaremera Francoise is a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. For over 28 years, she suffered from major depression, which led to somatization, and social isolation due to the atrocities she experienced. She was able to heal after voluntarily joining a sociotherapy healing space created by Interpeace in her community. Her story serves as an extraordinary inspiration.