Interpeace - Fredsbyggande genom försoning och inkluderande styrelseformer

The results presented here concern the second year of implementation (June 15, 2022 to June 14, 2023) of this Interpeace contribution. Since its inception, this project benefitted from clear support from Congolese political decision-makers, particularly at local, provincial as well as at central level (mainly from the Ministry of Interior). While in Mai-Ndombe the relationship with local government was in its early stages, in the provinces of Kasai and Kasai Central it was well established and the participation of local and provincial authorities in the activities testified to their interest in working with the project to improve governance for peace, security and reconciliation in their provinces. The support of actors at national level eased work in Mai-Ndombe Province. In Mai-Ndombe Province, conflict management/transformation processes (research, analysis, dialogue and/or mediation) as well as awareness-raising and capacity-building of community members, civil society players and authorities have been carried out. Another concrete result is that 9 Permanent Dialogue Groups (GDP) and 3 Inclusive Working Groups (GTI), made up of representatives of political and traditional authorities and civil society, served as platforms for the community dialogue sessions. These same platforms served as a framework for the design and implementation of local action plans for peace and reconciliation. This level of design was participatory from the ground up, giving it a basis for ownership and sustainability. These platforms also played active roles in conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution. They act as catalysts for building up of ad hoc multi-actor partnerships based on identified conflict situations. The project's action plans and results are used in advocacy efforts at national level to ensure that the needs of the three target provinces (Mai-Ndombe, Kasaï and Kasaï Central) are better considered in the policies and programs of decision-makers. Also, the results achieved by the project are helping to advocate within the international community, notably the European Union delegation, United Nations agencies and other embassies in the DRC, to increase funding for various interventions in Yumbi and Kwamouth for displaced people, and in Kasai to reinforce peacebuilding activities as one of the pillars of the nexus committee in coordination with UNDP in its stabilization pillar. In addition to the dynamics of conflicts in the two Kasais (Kasai and Kasai Central) and in Yumbi territory in the Mai-Ndombe Province which were included in the initial project proposal, the events in Kwamouth have had an impact on peace building in the target areas. To this end, Interpeace requested the Embassy to include this area (Kwamouth) in the implementation of this second year. INTERPEACE and its implementing partners, along with other Peacebuilding actors, began several community outreach initiatives. This is how that Sous-Proved (provincial authority of the education division) took the decision all schools in the region to integrate peace education activities and the fight against tribal-ethnic discrimination in schools after participating in awareness-raising sessions on the fight against tribal discrimination and conflict prevention in schools. INTERPEACE's deployment in this area enabled us not only to assess conflict dynamics, but also the appropriateness of our programmatic positioning in this area. The mission report was shared with the "Conflict resolution and structural problems" working group for Mai-Ndombe, which is made up of non-governmental actors and donors working on conflict resolution and structural problems of Mai Ndombe crisis. A concept note was drawn up to support the submission of project proposal for mediation and peace-building advocacy in Kwamouth. - Responding to the GTIs advocacy note on the empowerment of police officers, the Congolese national police reform program under ministry of interior organized a training workshop for fifty judicial police officers, including eight female judicial police officers, over a period of 60 days, i.e. 2 months: from April to May 2023 in Tshikapa. This training was organized with the facilitation of the Inspectorate General of Police and other experts in the field of security and justice; - Concerned by the resurgence of violent conflicts in their area, the notables, community members and traditional chiefs of the town of Kananga organized a social dialogue in their village in June 2023 to discuss possible solutions to put an end to these conflicts. 50 people took part in this dialogue, including 15 women, 30 notables, two group leaders, 8 young people and 10 community members, including teachers, economic operators, and others. The two parties agreed to split the groupement" in two to avoid a resurgence of violence. Meanwhile, the complaint lodged by Chief Katanga Ngakola against Katanga Kasanzu was withdrawn as soon as the dialogue ended. - In collaboration with the Kasai provincial government and the Consultative commission to resolve customary conflicts (CCRCC), the members of GDP in the area undertook, in June 2023, the process of dialogue between the chiefs of the Katanga Ngakola and Katanga Kasanzu groups. At the end of the dialogue process, the parties in conflict agreed to split the groupement in two to put an end to their conflicts. This proved to be the best course of action for the time being, because at least the parties who didn't want to hear about dialogue on this issue were able to work out a solution themselves. It's safe to assume that this approach will not work out well if the authorities fail to officially recognize the new grouping under the circular issued by the VPM of the Interior prohibiting the creation of new groupings. In a dialogue format, members of the Permanent Dialogue Group (GDP), supported by those of the Inclusive Working Group (GTI) and local authorities, organized a campaign to raise awareness among ruling families of the provisions of the law on the status of customary chiefs. During its third year, the project was subject to a few programmatic changes, including the shortening of the activity period by 6 months due to budgetary constraints. Despite this, the project made significant progress towards its objectives. The greatest achievement has been the appropriation of the project's approach by state and non-state actors. Accordingly, 22 peace initiatives have been carried out by the government, civil society and community groups independently of the programme's technical/financial support; the head of the Katanga groupement and his notables have set up a Permanent Dialogue Group (GDP) to resolve conflicts in their entity; state and non-state actors refer to the conflict maps updated by the project's stakeholders; integration of pction of specific circulars: (1) one on respect for the powers of the decentralised peace priorities from provincial action plans into provincial government programmes; provincial services and territorial entities and; (2) one reminding of the instructions relating to the key for distributing local revenue between tax departments of the Direction Generale des Recettes du KasaiKasai (DGRKAS). Both ad hoc meetings and field visit have shown that the project has made a real contribution to peace-building in the intervention areas, which is very appreciated. One priority recommendation emerged is that the P-DDRCS should be extended to the project areas of Kasai, Kasai Central and Maindombe to better consolidate the project's achievements. Local ownership of the peace initiatives by both state and civil society actors showed that the risk of limited local ownership due to unresolved conflicts had been properly addressed by Interpeace, enabling the project's objectives to be achieved. In terms of security risks, there was no major incident that affected the smooth running of the operation in the Kasai and Maindombe areas. The risk of political instability in the run-up to the 2023 general elections has been well managed, and Interpeace and its partners have worked hard to overcome the political tensions that usually exacerbate communal tensions. For example, in Maindombe, as a result of the project's actions, the 2023 elections were held peacefully and without major incident between the rival communities of Tende and Nounou. Clearly, this is one of the project's undeniable added values.

The main goal of this project is to stimulate the will, capacity and relations of authorities at all levels to meet the complex challenges of peace in the provinces of Kasaï, Kasaï Central and Yumbi and even in all the DRC. This will set the preconditions for structural changes that must translate into new attitudes and practices of governance for peace. The project is based on an observation that in the current fragile situation - despite this kind of stability, where the interests of the people and the institutions don't match, it will be difficult to ensure the active participation of state actors to invest in participatory governance which is the main guarantee  for sustainable peace. This project will focus on the Kasai and Yumbi region, in order to reduce violence in the communities to the state actors but also to support peacebuilding efforts relying on a conflict scan before undertaking any specific initiative in the communities. Through this option, research and analysis, combined with capacity building, will create the building blocks to change governance as a channel of peacebuilding in a more structural way. In addition, the present rulers of the DRC are focusing on the next elections in 2023. The opportunity should be offered to mobilize political actors around the culture of peace and to bring together the authorities, communities and civil society to lay the foundations for peaceful elections. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthened inclusive peace governance by state actors and non-state actors in the DRC, particularly in Kasai, Kasai Central, Mai-Ndombe and at the national level. The specific objectives of this intervention are to: Outcome 1: Increased understanding of peace governance by government and non-government actors ;Outcome 2: Increased capacity for peacebuilding governance among government and non-government actors ;Outcome 3: Enhanced inclusive peace governance at the provincial level ;Outcome 4: Improved framework for peace governance at the national level ;