Mano River Union

West Africa is a region in which ethnic, cultural and social relationships extend across national boundaries. Similarly the sources and effects of conflicts are not bound by state borders and are often highly interlinked – they can be viewed as conflict systems, featuring shared political, economic and social insecurity across a transnational space.

In the Mano River Union (MRU) region specifically, conflict has led to more than 300,000 deaths, displaced millions of people and contributed to widespread economic underdevelopment.

Interconnected conflict systems

The region’s conflicts have been and remain intertwined – fighters, conflict finance and refugees have all flowed across borders. Conflict has eaten into the social fabric leaving weak political, communal and familial structures. Liberia and Sierra Leone have experienced political transitions through the ballot box, albeit with tensions and some politically motivated violence. Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea have experienced more pervasive political violence.  

The underlying drivers of conflict persist – unresolved legacies of previous conflicts, unclear and porous borders, a lack of accountability and transparency in administering the rule of law, as well as marginalisation caused by poverty and unemployment (particularly affecting women, youth and rural communities).

Underpinning all this is a culture of power that disempowers women socially and politically, and more broadly allows violence to be regarded as an acceptable means to resolve disputes.

Working together for peace

Conciliation Resources supports civil society and government efforts to address threats to peace by promoting good governance, peaceful elections and community security in the region.

Responding to these issues, our specific aims are to:

• Build peace by engaging with and empowering affected communities – especially poor and marginalised communities and excluded groups such as women and youth.
   
• Strengthen the links between certain communities and civil society with an aim to promoting a more secure environment in the MRU’s border areas and creating beneficial linkages across borders.
   
• Increase understanding and information exchange between ordinary people and those involved in local governance.
   
• Support communities to hold the security forces to account and increase human security.

We believe that initiatives giving MRU border communities opportunities to voice their aspirations, identify solutions and create bridges – with urban centres as well as across the borders – are central to ensuring that rights are respected, accountability upheld and future violent conflict prevented.

Our work is founded on the belief that concerted and strategic civil society engagement, based on solid analysis, can influence policy makers to address bad governance and corruption as factors influencing poverty in the MRU countries.

What we do

Conciliation Resources has been working in the region since 1996. Collaborating with a range of national and local NGOs, international NGOs and government bodies we focus on supporting a sustained policy dialogue between civil society and governments. We use a variety of means, for instance by supporting research into the way governance operates at community levels as well as through production of films and subsequent outreach programmes.

We pay particular attention to border communities, cross-border dynamics and the way in which border insecurity has acted as a critical driver of local conflicts. In partnership with local NGOs and border communities we promote awareness of the problems, to enable the voices of people in these communities to be heard and to facilitate engagement between communities and the authorities; working together they can shape more constructive policies for the future.

The difference we make

Our long-term regional engagement with community groups, NGOs and governmental authorities underscores the important role we believe local people play in transforming violent conflicts and achieving lasting peace.

Conciliation Resources' work in the region over many years has enabled us to build creative and lasting partnerships through which we have helped organisations develop confidence to confront the challenges their societies continue to face in the transition from war towards a more secure future.

Sustained relationships with both government and civil society, especially in Sierra Leone but increasingly in other MRU countries, have also meant that we have the credibility to work on challenging issues. Promoting the endeavours of civil society organisations in the region has highlighted the importance of working with communities to actively bridge the gap between them, the local authorities and the political centre.