Insight on Conflict » Development

Organization of Active Women in Ivory Coast (OFACI)

Joel Gabri — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:10:56 +0000

Organisation of Active Women in Ivory Coast (OFACI) formed in 1999 when a group of young women who share a love of liberty, equality, justice and welfare in general and women in particular found themselves in a think tank working towards creating programmes that would uphold these values.

The organisation focuses on:

Promoting and protecting the rights of women;
Promoting the political empowerment, economic and social status of women;
Taking an active part in the democratisation process within the country;
Fighting for the dissemination of a culture of peace;
Organizing literacy activities for girls;
Designing and implementing development projects that benefit women;
Promoting the spirit of unity and solidarity between women.

They have taken an active part in the Truth and Reconciliation process, including attending and providing information at the Installation Ceremony and the hearing and collection of evidence of victims for the District of Abidjan under the direction of the International Criminal Court, as well as setting up and promoting a National Day of Peace.

In addition to these activities, OFACI sets up seminars and peace training sessions to create awareness for and reduction in violence against women, civic education and citizenship responsibilities, transparency in justice, human and women’s rights training, capacity building for civil society organisations, promoting a culture of peace, and monitoring and documentation on violations of human rights.

The women of OFACI launched television and radio programs in coordination with the Ivorian Radio Broadcasting Television station on good citizenship, along with caravans of discussion forums on good citizenship in public places in major cities across the country.

During the height of the crisis, the women of OFACI were instrumental in preparing reports on the status of women’s rights and democratisation within the country, by conducting field surveys in areas of extreme violence on cases of violence against women, including rape, torture, summary executions, ill treatment and the cessation of economic activities due to destruction or loss of livelihood. OFACI then pleaded with the Ivorian authorities to help provide medical, psychological, and legal assistance to these affected women regardless of their religious, political or ethnic affiliation.

OFACI has 10 rights observation locations across the country that produces monthly reports on the state of women’s rights within the country. They are instrumental in pushing for the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; the commitment to see at least 30% representation of women within elected positions; and the prohibition of the use of torture.

In the future, OFACI intends on advancing their capacity building through education and assistance programs for women and young voters on issues of human and women’s rights; creating a broader structure to monitor and promote human rights and democracy; fighting against Female Genital Mutilation; and opening centres of peace in conflict areas.

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Centre for Research and Action for Peace (CERAP)

Joel Gabri — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:10:45 +0000

The African Institute for Economic and Social Development (INADES) was established in 1962 at the request of the Bishops of West Africa to work on issues of economic and social development, specifically agricultural training programsme. In 2002, INADES expanded to develop into the Centre for Research and Action for Peace (CERAP) that consists of four main branches:

The Institute for Dignity and Human Rights (IDDH): Research centre and private university with studies in areas of peace, ethics, human rights and governance.
The Documentation Centre (CEDOC): A library of resources on issues of peace, human rights, democracy and good governance.
Social Action in Urban Areas (ASMU): Free professional apprenticeships for disadvantaged young people.
Editions of CERAP (EDICERAP): Publishes and encourages intellectual papers, editions, books, etc. by Ivorian authors targeted for youth dropout or illiterate underprivileged families.

The Centre runs highly popular public conferences on Fridays on topics of tolerance, peace, human rights, good governance, democracy and such, given by experts on the subjects. CERAP also runs surveys and opinion polls that focus on the values and lifestyles of Ivoirians.

In 2007, CERAP launched youth programs in 41 “peace villages” around the country, training 179 teachers and supervisors in citizenship and conflict management. These teachers then created clubs within their schools and communities, a newspaper and an annual camp that spreads ideas of good citizenship and conflict management. The children in these programmes ran their own electoral commissions to elect a village head and ministers, teaching them the importance of good democracy. The project was so successful that it was replicated in Chad and Burkina Faso and is being proposed to the Ivorian Ministry of Education to be included as part of the national education curriculum.

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African Union Club – Ivory Coast (UACI)

Joel Gabri — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:10:31 +0000

The African Union Club was established in June 1998 with the intention of bringing African civil society together to appropriate the values of the pan-African organisation such as democracy, human rights, promotion of gender and youth, the fight against poverty, economic and political unity of Africa.

The African Union Club runs campaigns for civic education and awareness on the electoral process, human rights, social cohesion, against the use of child labour on farms, education for peace and non-violence in schools, knowledge of the land code, division of lands of the villages, issuance of land certificates, and securing rural land rights.

The Democracy and Good Governance programme conducted election observations in Ivory Coast as well as civic education campaigns on the use of the ballot, training women for active participation in the electoral process and education for school age children on good citizenship.

The Human Rights Campaign promotes awareness of rural land codes, support for young women to protect their rights, rights of women and their access to land, against female genital mutilation, support to women victims of sexual violence and torture and capacity building of security forces in international humanitarian law.

The Youth and Development Programme seeks to improve the participation of young people in national and community structures and has organised numerous workshops, capacity building exercises and forums of discussion on issues of youth. They have also set up a platform for the youth for lobbying and advocacy for youth rights within the government.

The Rural Land Programme grew out of the desire to lessen the numerous conflicts over territory and understand the reasons for these crises. The UACI conducted several field investigations to discover that nearly 95% of conflicts in Ivory Coast were related to land issues, and decided to thoroughly study the rural land laws and invest in public awareness and training of village management committees to try to mitigate land conflicts.

The Conflict Prevention Programme looks to significantly reduce conflicts in Ivory Coast by running outreach projects on community cohesion in rural areas, awareness and education campaigns on peace, citizenship, social cohesion and peace education in schools.

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Lok Vehar Development Organisation

Joel Gabri — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:59:56 +0000

Lok Vehar Development Organisation is a development and peacebuilding organisation based in the district of Faisalabad, Punjab in Pakistan. Since its inception in 2007, the organisation has been engaged in various activities focusing on the welfare of women and children; however, peacebuilding at the grassroots level is a key goal of Lok Vehar.

With the purpose of spreading awareness on the issue of peace, Lok Vehar organised an event to celebrate the International Day of Peace in 2011 involving over 500 participants.

Lok Vehar is works closely with several other local organisations, such as PakCare, WAYDO, STAR, Ideal Foundation for Women, and the Harmony Foundation for the purpose of joint projects on peacebuilding.

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National Ethnic Unity Foundation (NEUF)

Constance Buerger — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:05:24 +0000

National Ethnic Unity Foundation (NEUF) stated working in the early 1990’s and registered as a non-governmental organisation in 1996. They have 6 members of staff based in the office in Batticaloa and organised groups at the villages where they work.

In their early years, NEUF had worked to raise awareness about the need for a political solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. In this regard, NEUF conducted awareness-raising programmes to promote unity and co-existence among the different ethnicities living in Ampara.

NEUF uses environmental and income issues as a bridging point to encourage businesses across ethnic boundaries.

However, today NEUF believes that awareness raising programmes themselves are not sufficient to bring unity and co-existence amd has embraced a different working principle in the past years. Nowadays, NEUF works for peace by bringing together different ethnic groups to address social issues that affect all of them. Taking environmental and income issues as the gathering point, NEUF brings together Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim groups to work with each other. They form multi-ethnic committees of farmers and are encouraged to form businesses between different ethnic groups.

Creating a context for peacebuilding through social issues brings unity and co-existence into everyday practice, reducing the chances of a relapse into conflict.

NEUF finds that community peacebuilding through this strategy is more productive and efficient than attitude change or awareness-raising programmes. They believe that peacebuilding can easily get caught up when it is addressed as an intellectual topic. Creating a context for peacebuilding through social issues brings unity and co-existence into everyday practice, reducing the chances of a relapse into conflict. Because the shared social issues are not related to ethnic difference, NEUF finds that people are more willing to work together with people from other ethnicities.

In this inter-ethnic cooperation which has not existed in the region for a long time, unity and co-existence between different ethnicities emerges for real.

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Jeeva Jothy

Constance Buerger — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:54:14 +0000

Jeeva Jothy was established in 1992 primarily for the rehabilitation of female former Tamil Tiger (LTTE) child soldiers. With the vision to work towards ‘Happy Children’ irrespective of their ethnic identity, Jeeva Jothy has continued taking in former female LTTE soldiers and orphaned children from war into their children’s home in Batticaloa.

Jeeva Jothy has the vision to work towards ‘Happy Children’ irrespective of their ethnic identity.

Jeeva Jothy has taken a multidisciplinary approach towards the rehabilitation of former child soldiers, giving them the opportunity to live with other war affected children, providing education, counselling and vocational training. Taking on a “Community Based Rehabilitation” approach, Jeeva Jothy encourages its beneficiaries to integrate into the normal life of the community around them. This holistic approach is seen to be sustainable and productive in the long term.

Jeeva Jothy works at the national level, offering human rights programs, psychosocial counselling and empowering women and widows. The members from its children’s home for child soldiers form an important part in these programmes.

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Unity Community Organization and Enlightment Trust (UCOET)

Constance Buerger — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:23:00 +0000

A community able to support its stability and development through local initiatives, behavior changing through testified exposures.

Unity Community Organization and Enlightment Trust (UCOET) is a developmental, humanitarian organization. It is an independent, non governmental, non-partisan and nonprofits organization. UCOET is dedicated to mobilization and enlightenment among the communities in Unity State toward self-driven development approaches, skills provision through trainings, peacebuilding through mediations and dialogues, and enlightenment through dissemination of basic rights of citizens as stipulated in the transitional constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, international humanitarians’ laws. Unity Community Organization and Enlightenment Trust is registered with RRC in Unity state.

Capitalize local resources to mitigate poverty, ignorance, insecurity and incapacities within communities with whom we work

UCOET is an organization providing behavior-changing opportunities among the communities with whom they work. They advocate and lobby at all levels: within the communities themselves and at government levels and they work together with humanitarian and development actors. UCOET aims to identify, plan and implement projects that benefit communities. Their projects intend to mitigate conflicts and provide peacebuilding and consensus-building among the Nuer and the Dinka in Unity state and Warrap state as well Dinka Ngok in Abyei and Misseriya in Southern Kordofan. UCOET strive to mobilize possible resources for peacebuilding in the region and across border mainly conflict involving Dinka, Nuer with Misseriya in Southern Kordofan. These projects will help to avert constant insecurity created by cattle raiding and denied access to Misseriya during the seasonal migrant along the Abyei Area and Unity State.

At the moment, UCOET is seeking donors to start human rights and gender sensitivity awareness among the communities and the government of Unity state.

Current Projects

support a sustainable peace among different ethnic groups in the border areas of Warrap and Unity States, located in Mayom county in Unity State and , Twic and Lietnhom in Warrap state
Road to Co-existence and stability, located in Abyei and Mugled
Villages Assessment for returnees, located in Abyei Area
Peace-building (Community Dialogues for Peace and Development), located in Unity State, Panrieng County

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Sri Lanka Unites (SLU)

Constance Buerger — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:13:15 +0000

Kegalle SLU Workshop 2011

The Sri Lanka Unites movement brings together young people, aged 12 to 30, from different ethnic and religious groups to rise up, to give them a voice and to unify their efforts to strengthen the peace-building process in Sri Lanka.

Emerging out of decades of great adversity, and a culture of suspicion and divisiveness, the end of the war finally marks a window of opportunity to rebuild one nation. Sri Lanka Unites aims to correct the wrongs of the previous generations and promote a culture of hope and reconciliation. It takes a multi-pronged approach to empower young people and give leadership to inter-community reconciliation initiatives in their localities.

To unite the youth of Sri Lanka from all ethnic and religious groups in a movement which provides hope and facilitates reconciliation in Sri Lanka, paving the way for a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka for future generations.

Activities of SLU:

Annual Future Leaders’ Conference for Hope and Reconciliation
School tours and leadership and reconciliation seminars in every district
Mentoring weekends and in depth training on reconciliation , community development and leadership for student leaders
Reconciliation Centers: youth led centers for development, education and reconciliation
adopting and rebuilding schools in rural Sri Lanka
rebuilding and contributing liberaries in former war zones
Sri Lanka Unites academic syllabus and work book
Sri Lanka Unites Dance troop, Fusion music band, drama team
Sri Lanka Unites Cricket team

SLU Ocober School Relations visit

School Tours

Sri Lanka Unites motivates young leaders in schools across the country to understand the need for reconciliation in post-war Sri Lanka, and empower them to undertake and give leadership to inter-community reconciliation initiatives in their localities. They believe that reconciliation comes not from the cosiness of a capital, but from the grassroots of a nation.

To listen to the voices of Sri Lanka’s young people and to read about their experienes with Sri Lanka Unites, visit SLU’s Blog.

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Movimiento de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado (MOVICE)

Constance Buerger — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:50:35 +0000

The Movimiento de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado (MOVICE; ‘Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes’ in English), was born in 2005 in response to the continuation of the armed conflict and impunity for crimes committed during the conflict in Colombia. The movement seeks to highlight the plight of the victims, to give the victims a voice, and to affirm the rights of victims to truth, justice and full reparation.

For MOVICE, the respect for these rights and as such an end to impunity is a necessary condition for the emergence of a lasting peace and a true democracy.

MOVICE is made up of over 300 organisations representing victims of various crimes committed in the context of the conflict, including victims of forced displacement, massacres and political genocide. In addition to a central coordinating body, MOVICE is made up of a series of regional groups carrying out activities across Colombia.

(Interview with MOVICE conducted by Insight on Conflict Local Correspondent Hasan Dodwell)

MOVICE demands the dismantling of all of the structures perpetuating the war, an end to the militarization of civilian life, and it seeks a negotiated political solution to the armed and social conflict in Colombia. It supports the signing of humanitarian agreements that reduce the impact of the armed conflict on the civilian population.

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Institute of Peace and Development (INSPAD)

Joel Gabri — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:58:14 +0000

The Institute of Peace and Development (INSPAD) formed in 1995 and is committed to undertaking peace initiatives in the areas of: protection and promotion of human rights; peacebuilding; social justice; inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue; conflict resolution; women’s empowerment; youth counselling; poverty elevation; tolerance; sustainable development; community welfare; and religious co-existence.

INSPAD organises events to promote dialogue on issues relating to peace and conflict. In this regard, INSPAD organised a Kashmir Peace Seminar in Rawalpindi (May 2002). To initiate and encourage inter-faith harmony in Pakistan, in 2007 INSPAD organised an International Conference on ‘Peaceful Religious Coexistence towards Global Peace’.

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