WANEP-CI runs six main programmes:

1. WANEP’s WARN programme provides accompaniment for the West African ECOWARN Early Warning conflict prevention programme, that monitors, collects and analyses indicators of conflict on a continuous basis to try and anticipate and mitigate problems before they escalate into direct conflict. Regular situation and incident reports are produced to inform policy makers on options for response as well as WANEP’s response strategies.
2. WANEP-CI’s Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) runs programmes for mobilising women and reinforcing their capacities through educational programmes, forums, conferences and training workshops that work on capacity building for victims of violence as well as women’s involvement in the electoral process. This programme seeks to increase the number of trained women practitioners in peacebuilding as trainers, researchers, mediators and advocates, as well as promoting mainstreaming of gender perspectives into peacebuilding and conflict prevention frameworks at community and national levels.
3. The Justice Lens programme executed a mission to demonstrate that conflicts are related to the violation of human rights by running a series of capacity building activities to contextualise the early warning indicators of the WARN program. The program ran an evaluation of the Ivorian conflict with a delegation of civil society workers, as well as radio and television programs that invited leaders of civil society to talk about peacebuilding in coordination with the local RTI station.
4. The Program of Democracy, Good Governance and Elections began in 2008 by establishing an observatory of the Ouagadougou political agreement and producing monthly reports and statements in major newspapers and on the internet, as well as providing deployment of at least 150 observers during the Presidential election.
5. The Peace Education and the Rights of Children programme began in 2003 to help strengthen the non-violent actions in children and young people, encouraging them in their ability to resolve their own differences without adult intervention. Peace clubs were set up in several secondary and primary schools as a result.
6. The Capacity Building programme began in 2003 to help build the capacity of civil society in Ivory Coast.

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Working with a two-pronged approach aimed primarily at transforming conflicts non-violently and allowing for constructive social dialogue on key issues, SFCG started moderate radio programmes able to reach the entire country that promote peacebuilding and positive changes in attitudes and behaviours. Dialogue in the Ivory Coast is often highly politicised, with moderate voices marginalised and rumours that run rampant. These radio programmes focus on themes of tolerance, reconciliation and building bridges across divides, as well as providing positive news information, empowerment programming for children to discuss childhood issues and other programming aimed at discussing current issues in more moderate ways.

A television program called “The Team” was created in 2008 to dramatize cooperative ways of overcoming ethnic, religious and socioeconomic divisions and change the way Ivoirians think about their neighbours and themselves. An estimated 3.4 million people in the country watched the first season each week and mobile cinema screens brought the program to five cities, reaching some 15,000 viewers.

In 2008, SFCG began to hold a series of Solidarity events throughout the country that worked to encourage and catalyse local peace initiatives that would help to prevent and manage conflict. The sessions worked on exchange and dialogue between conflicting groups through the use of conflict-provoking questions, games, interactive theatre and sport, intended on encouraging local solutions of peace.

As well, SFCG send in training and mentoring groups to help local peace activists refine their peacebuilding skills, so that they can effectively intervene in community conflicts. Individuals, who are in a position of influence, as well as youths, are particularly targeted to receive this mentoring, so that their inter-generational voice of reason can be all the more effective within their home communities. They work on perfecting their mediation and listening skills, learning how to reframe angry statements and elicit constructive responses and to analyse the causes and symptoms of upcoming conflict to try and deal with aggressiveness before it manifests in violence. These peace leaders are then encouraged to transfer their skills and knowledge onto others and train others in their home communities to assist them in conflict resolution skills.

“I settled a land conflict between two Burkinabe who were fighting over a plot of land. They were about to use machetes to kill each other. I ran into them randomly in the field. Thanks to SFCG training on conflict management, I was able to analyze the situation, listen to each person, take them to compromise and finally, they dropped their machetes. It was a great joy. I felt like a new person.”- Youth Focus group participant

Alongside this mentoring and training programs, workshops and dialogue groups were set up in particularly vulnerable communities, allowing divided groups a chance to face each other and use role-playing, dramatisations and other guided interactions to discuss areas of disagreement or conflict. It also allowed them to develop mutual trust and begin to reconcile with each other in a relatively safe environment where voices would all be heard. Together they began to develop joint action plans to deal with regular types of conflict between the different groups, to allow for the reintegration of refugees or ex-combatants back into the community and create their own local solidarity events that celebrate common interests such as art or culture.

Following the training, young people in several areas set up “Listening Clubs” or Peace Clubs in their schools or communities where they could gather to listen to radio programs and encourage respectful dialogue, or sensitise their peers to non-violent ways of mitigating conflicts, governance and democratic participation.

SFCG’s program ‘Mobilizing Ivorian Women for Constructive Participation in Governance and Leadership’, runs trainings, workshops and tailored radio programming to women’s needs and in 2007 set up a series of Women’s Leadership Symposiums, two at the regional level and one at the national level that brought together leaders from across the political, ethnic and identity spectrum to share experiences and build collaborative strategies toward women’s leadership.

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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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• 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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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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The centre has encouraged and promoted inter-faith harmony through awareness and dialogue. In this regard, CHRE initiated its programme “Religious Tolerance and Social Harmony Week” in 2010, which brought together leaders and common people of different faiths in the country. The centre has been active in peace movements in the country and also participated in the 2011 peace rally organised by the Aman Ittehad in Lahore.

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In the area of peacebuilding, or rather a sustainable approach to promote peace in South Asia, the organisation has launched the ‘Exchange for Change’ programme involving school students of Pakistan and India. For the implementation of this project, CAP has formed partnership with Routes2Roots, an Indian organisation working for peace and dialogue between India and Pakistan. There are few schools selected from both countries because the idea of this project is to reach out to link 2,400 school students from ten schools in India and Pakistan.

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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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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.

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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To achieve this end, CELSS works in a number of different ways. They organise sports events between Tamil and Muslim youth to bring these two ethnicities together. This facilitates the youth to get to know each other at a personal level. Further, CELSS brings these communities together through Shramadana (community activities where everyone gets together to complete a common task, such as repairing a road or digging a communal well), livelihood programmes for women, awareness programmes and workshops on peacebuilding. After the Tsunami, CELSS started providing development assistance to affected communities. In these too, CELSS worked through mixed ethnic beneficiary groups to further its vision of peace and mutual coexistence.

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