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• Our contribution to peace: a patchwork of complementary actions.

Introduction

The Civil Peace Service Programme (CPS) of the EED, the Church Development Service of the association of Germany’s Protestant Churches, in cooperation with its partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in the Mano River region of West Africa, seeks to strengthen, in a lasting way, civil organizations and groups – governmental and
non-governmental, local, regional and national – around two important objectives. These are:

1.To contribute to efforts to move beyond conflicts that are regional, ethnic,
political, religious, etc.
2.To strengthen local initiatives by working together with populations as
active players, rather than victims of change.

These objectives emerge from contextual analyses, as well as visions of peace and stability that are developed together with our local partners. In light of the wealth and diversity of the efforts of CPS partners, we decided that we would provide in this booklet an outline of the many approaches to peace building. To do so, we first need to redefine what we mean by the concept of peace, and to reflect upon the perceptions of CPS and its intervention rationale. Next, the contributions of various partners will permit the reader to explore the diversified universe of peace work. Lastly, we return to the links among us and our attempts at networking that, for us, constitute essential elements in peace-building in Africa, a fragmenting continent in a globalized world.

We thank all our colleagues in partner organisations and all the professional support persons who contributed by providing descriptions of their peace work during the workshop of October 2008 in Goma, notably Jessie Bohr, Willy Bongolo, Odile Bula Bula, Birgit Embalo, Pierre
Kahenga, Emilie Lukombo, Lyn Lusi, Hortence Kavuo, André Masiala, Zeffy Mata Bantala, Angèle Mazimi, Murhega Mashanda, Ibond Rupas A’nzam, Donat Tunamau Vema and Desirée Zwanck.

We hope you find this an interesting and useful read. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your comments and suggestions.

Christiane Kayser, Marie José Mavinga, Flaubert Djateng
Goma/ Kinshasa /Bafoussam, February 2009

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Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2. Peace: a used and abused concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Civil Peace Services: perceptions and rationale of intervention . . . 16
4. The work of CPS in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC):
margins for action and legitimacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5. Civil Peace Services: multiple and diverse efforts,
one common objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A. HEAL Africa in North Kivu and Maniema: women move forward…
without leaving the men behind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
B. The Congolese Centre for the Child and Family (CCEF) in Kinshasa . . . . . 30
C. The Regional Centre for Support and Training for Development (CRAFOD)
in Bas Congo: dialogue among populations and decision-makers . . . . . . . . . . 35
D. The Network for Organisational Innovation (RIO) in South Kivu:
peace education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
E. The Centre for Training in Management and Organisational
Development (CEFORMAD): instruments of governance in the
municipality of Kinsenso in Kinshasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
F. The Service for Regional Support and Integrated Development (SADRI)
in Katanga: the “peacemakers” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6. Advocacy and Research-Action: two essential axes in peace efforts . . 47
a. How to be more effective in our effort to end the culture of violence
against women in our societies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
b. Conflict prevention and peace-building in Guinea –Bissau
(B. and I. Embalo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7. Partner organizations and professional support persons:
an effective complementarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8. CPS networks: pathways of synergy and complementarities . . . . . 75
9. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

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• International cooperation in Crisis Zones : Multiple identities and shared commitment

The Civil Peace Services engage participants from numerous cultures to work together in peace-building, whether to prevent conflict, transform it or stabilize the situation to bring lasting peace. This multiculturalism is perceived as an opportunity in the sense that it permits participants to learn with and from each other, contributing experiences and methods that have been effective elsewhere. The professional support persons from the Civil Peace Services bring their own contribution, transform and stabilize conflicts to build sustainable peace. This learning process is always reciprocal. Nevertheless, reality has shown that it is this same multiculturalism that is often ignored or viewed as an obstacle in the peace-building process. It can also be reduced to a mere clash between two cultures; that of the people sent from outside and that of the people from the host country. Without dwelling on it too much, we also believe that in Africa this can involve an implicit collision between the cultures of "Black" and "White". Without saying it out loud because such things are taboo, we reduce the "other" in our perception to an identity that is almost a caricature. Our prejudices can subconsciously shape our behaviour and that of others.

And yet, the reality in this era of globalization is far more complex:

In each person there are multiple identities at play, identities that are defined not only by their geographical origins or skin colour. Around the world, there are numerous forms of discrimination associated with this or that identity.

In many African countries, the identities that people peive and/or experience become an important factor in acute crises; in the context of lost values and identities each group claims to be "native" and designates the other as "a foreigner", "an immigrant". Gulfs develop between the so-called original inhabitants and the non original ones, which constitute the fault lines that are opening in a growing number of countries.

The professional support persons engaged to work in peace-building by CPS are of diverse origins and their identities cannot be reduced to clichés about "the expatriate" or "the African from the West", even if sometimes their own perception and that of the others locks them into that.

In this booklet, we put forward factors in and examples that illustrate our work in order to:

- Recognize and value the identities of everyone

- Reveal and confront stereotypes and prejudices that influence us

- Develop on the basis of our diverse cultures and identities the elements of a common culture to promote peace and a better future This complexity and the diverse reactions that result from it are at the heart of the relations between people working in a local organization that receives professional support personnel from outside. The quality of the collaboration that ensues affects the performance of the organization in its peace-building work.

Your experiences and opinions are of interest to us. Let the debate begin!

The Coordination and Assistance Team of CPS/EED in the Great Lakes Region.

Flaubert Djateng
Christiane Kayser
Marie José Mavinga

• Demystifying impact : Our Work for Change

English version of the first CPS booklet in the series : Constructing Peace

Impact is a key concept regarding peace-building activities. But it has also become a myth in a jungle where every attempt of looking critically at your own work seems shaped by donors’ demands and actually ill-adapted to field realities.

In this booklet CPS/EED proposes methods, examples and techniques for demystifying impact and develop your own way of measuring and analysing change.

Your reactions and experiences are very welcome!

Demystifying Impact: our work for change

“Advancing the peace in DRC and the Great Lakes Region demands permanent reinforcement of civil governmental and non-governmental forces and institutions on the local, regional and national level. This is a long-term effort that must originate from the local level. It is a necessary condition for putting initiatives for non-violent conflict management into practice and for seizing opportunities for lasting peace.” (Strategic paper of the Civil Peace Service in DR Congo, authorized by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ. See the full text in the annex to this brochure).

In an increasingly complex context, stabilization and peace efforts, emergency relief and development work intersect frequently in one single terrain. In this setting, local activists become the focal point of plans and actions that they are gradually less able to control. On the base of several decades of aid mismanagement and inefficiency, donor agencies and other decision-makers require progressively more normative monitoring and evaluation procedures that fit in with their own systems and their own language. Impact has become a key-concept and a myth in this jungle, where the entire way of looking at your own work seems remote-controlled and barely adapted to daily reality. It is high time that local stakeholders demystify impact and take control of this vital matter: they need to devise well-tailored, personal ways to analyse and measure the desired and undesired changes that they induce. This is an essential condition for developing appropriate strategies and increasing efficiency.

Concerning the Civil Peace Service, professionals who are sent to conflict zones support local agencies and institutions and they are supposed to make work more effective. Their work may be carried out in a wide variety of domains, (and not only in mediation or detraumatisation), provided that it becomes a stakeholders' effort and enables progress towards transformation that encourages or fortifies stability and peace. We must constantly question the purpose of what it is we are doing wherever we are. It is then absolutely indispensable for our entire CPS program to look at impacts so that we can evaluate the orientation and progress of our work. The impacts of networking and exchange between stakeholders are as important for a country as vast and war-torn as the DRC as they are for the region.

In this first publication of our series “Constructing Peace”, the Civil Peace Service in the Great Lakes Region presents you with methods, examples and techniques that should help you demystify impact and develop your own way of measuring and analysing change. The assistance team of CPS has worked with these methods in different parts of the DRC and would like to share them so that you may apply, improve and adapt them in your various fields.

Enjoy the read and contact us with your experiences, comments and suggestions.

Flaubert Djateng
Christiane Kayser
Marie-José Mavinga