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.

Related posts:

1. Youth Peace Club And Careers Training Beginning in 2007, ARF-Pattani have been running a peace training...
2. Discussion on the ethics of peace education in Muslim countries We recently posted a link to PRIO's new website, 'PeacE...
3. Sports for Peace in Swat Swat Youth Front (SYF) is a non-profit youth organisation which...

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.

Related posts:

1. Youth Peace Club And Careers Training Beginning in 2007, ARF-Pattani have been running a peace training...
2. Liberal peacebuilding and civil society in Sri Lanka Civil society organisations have played a very active and at...
3. My diary of Baghdad: sirens and music Annet Henneman is founder, director and actress of Teatro di...

• 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.

Related posts:

1. Youth Peace Club And Careers Training Beginning in 2007, ARF-Pattani have been running a peace training...
2. Discussion on the ethics of peace education in Muslim countries We recently posted a link to PRIO's new website, 'PeacE...
3. Sports for Peace in Swat Swat Youth Front (SYF) is a non-profit youth organisation which...

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.

Related posts:

1. Youth Peace Club And Careers Training Beginning in 2007, ARF-Pattani have been running a peace training...
2. Land Conflict Solved in Swima Swima is a beautiful village on the coast of Lake...
3. The Magic River Between Two Tribes From Conflict to Peace and Harmony The war that started...

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.

No related posts.

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.

No related posts.

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.

Related posts:

1. Sri Lanka: Conflict Profile The Roots of the Conflict Tensions in Sri Lanka first...
2. Sports for Peace in Swat Swat Youth Front (SYF) is a non-profit youth organisation which...
3. 18th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution We have recently added a new organisation to our Sri...

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.

Related posts:

1. ALAM (Teachers First for Training and Research) ALAM is a teachers’ association committed to educating the next...
2. Sri Lanka: Conflict Profile The Roots of the Conflict Tensions in Sri Lanka first...
3. Sports for Peace in Swat Swat Youth Front (SYF) is a non-profit youth organisation which...

Deepaloka foundation carries out three types of activities for this end:

• they provide language teaching programmes at the village level;
• they promote cultural exchange activities between different ethnic groups; and
• they organise sports events for youth from different ethnic groups.

Through their officers and the volunteers working at village level, the Foundation organises and carries out basic Tamil and Sinhala language classes to the monolingual ethnic groups. This is open to anyone in the village irrespective of age limits.

Deepaloka Foundation conducts cultural exchange activities among different ethnicities. The activities are organised at the village and regional level for one or two ethnic groups to travel to a village where most people are from a different ethnicity. In that village, the visiting group performs their traditional music, dancing and drama for the host village. These activities range from one to three days depending on the location of the villages in exchange. Another cultural activity promoting the different ethnicities to work together takes place during traditional festivals of each ethnicity. Cultural celebrations of one ethnicity such as the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year are opened to people belonging to the other ethnic groups, thereby giving them an opportunity to experience the culture of the other.

Deepaloka Foundation finds their approach to the conflict to be effective at the community level. They believe that the conflict loses its meaning when people get to know the other ethnicity at a personal level and engages in a dialogue with them. This familiarity is perceived as a precondition for peace.

Related posts:

1. Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) The Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) is a regional peace...
2. Doboj Rotor Doboj Rotor works in the Zenica-Doboj region stimulating economic growth...
3. Conflict Victims’ Committee (CVC) The Conflict Victims’ Committee (CVC) was established in 2006 with...

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.

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.

Related posts:

1. Doboj Rotor Doboj Rotor works in the Zenica-Doboj region stimulating economic growth...
2. Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) The Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) is a regional peace...
3. Conflict Victims’ Committee (CVC) The Conflict Victims’ Committee (CVC) was established in 2006 with...