Conciliation Resources: What we do in West Africa

Manu River Women's Peace Network

Members of Mano River Women's Peace Network.

Conciliation Resources has over the past decade supported local peacebuilding organizations in eastern and southern Sierra Leone. The idea is to build and sustain a culture of peace by supporting people to develop their own conflict prevention and resolution systems.

“The work of the volunteer peace monitors has been so valuable to us. Because of them we now have detailed information about the various conflicts in the district in the palm of our hands."
Alex Nallo, BPRM’s senior field office

A main achievement has been the creation of community peace monitors who mediate in conflicts ranging from domestic violence and land disputes to ex-combatant reintegration and longstanding chieftaincy disputes. In 2005 alone, 187 of such disputes were handled in Bo and Pujehun districts. Of these, 141 were resolved and 31 were partly resolved.

Once they have resolved conflicts, BPRM do regular follow-up work and make sure local communities are trained to keep an eye on the situation. This is done through Peace and Reconciliation Committees, made up of volunteer peace monitors whose work complements BPRM’s part-time paid peace monitors. They monitor the impact of resolved conflicts in their own communities and act as an early warning system for new or potential conflicts. They also help ensure tensions do not reach boiling point.

BPRM have since extended their peace monitoring work to neighbouring districts and communities.

In a country where the relationship between civilians and the security sector remains strained and national apathy towards the justice system prevails, there has been considerable need for projects that involve citizens in their own security.

BPRM and SFCDP have held community peace and reconciliation events and raised their profile among formal institutions such as local and national government, courts and the police, who are increasingly involving the peace monitors in their work. BPRM was asked to join the Joint District Security Committee and SFCDP is involved in the Border Security Committee around the Mano River Union bridge.

BPRM has made some real inroads into strengthening the justice system where they operate. Despite the challenges, collaboration with the police and the local court system has yielded some positive results for resolution of community conflicts.

In 2007, CR began the Strengthening Citizens' Security pilot project which seeks to address the gap in citizens’ involvement in their own security and oversight of the security sector. The initial stage of the project formed part of CR's work with its partners to reduce tensions around the 2007 elections in Sierra Leone and increase debate and discussion on the security elements of the elections.

Additional work to reduce election-related conflict in 2007 included holding workshops which brought together stakeholders in peacebuilding around Bo, including the National Electoral Commission, the formal security sector, local administrations, police, young people and various civil society representatives. One of the initiatives that came out of this process was the Youth to Youth Campaign for Violence Free Elections which allowed young people to learn more about the electoral process as well as campaign against election-related violence.

Recent conflicts in the region have shown how instability on one country affects others bordering it. CR has been working on issues of sub-regional stability around the Mano River countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Together with International Alert, we supported the Mano River Union Peace Forum in strengthening crossborder initiatives between civil society groups. The Forum worked on building sub-regional peace through media, youth and women-focused training workshops. Meetings were held to develop stronger local leadership of the forum’s strategy and activities and to examine critical issues about the border dispute at Yenga in Guinea-Sierra Leone and determine strategies with key NGOs and parliamentarians to diffuse tensions and resolve the conflict.

CR supports gender equality as a means to achieving lasting peace through the strengthening of women’s group participation in peace processes, supporting them to develop organizational conflict advocacy strategies and contribute to decision-making processes in their communities. Through our community peace building work we are able to support women to demonstrate the importance of their participation in decision making processes and make their voices heard.

Working with UNDP and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Youth and Sports we also piloted income-generating activities across the country for young women affected by violence during the war. These aimed to develop their lives beyond exploitation and dependency. We supported visits by the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) to build solidarity and conflict advocacy strategies among women from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and are working with MARWOPNET on the Strengthening Citizen's Security project.

Reintegrating former combatants into communities is a lengthy and delicate process, because of the resentment that remains towards those connected to war crimes. BPRM attributes its achievements in this area to the ongoing support it provides, which heals broken relationships and encourages cohesion in the community. In a recent case, BPRM reintegrated an ex-combatant who had been captured by rebels at the age of five. Only by piecing together his fragments of memory were he and the community able to trace his family and help him discover his real name.

"Media professionalism was a casualty of Sierra Leone’s war. If you reported against the government you were jailed. If you reported against the rebels you were killed. Reportage depended on which side you were on. This was the first time for them to see society as it really is ... not just from sitting in Freetown.”
CMET Director David Tam-Baryoh

In 2004,CR in partnership with UNDP, The Centre for Media and Technology (CMET) and the Sierra Leone Journalists Association (SLAJ) helped media institutions and practitioners (journalists and editors) to develop their skills and institutional capacities to be able to report in a conflict sensitive manner on Sierra Leone’s first local council election for 30 years.

Sixty journalists received conflict transformation training and were sent into all districts to report constructively on local people’s views. Historically, news has not gathered from further afield than the capital city.

BPRM has made important contributions to developing chiefdom histories, which will provide a key resource in preventing and resolving future conflicts.

In 2006, the building of BPRM’s Resource and Documentation Centre was started. The Centre will house books, reports and videos and will be a resource for local community members, local government and staff and students from the university.

BPRM’s success in resolving some long standing conflicts has been recognized by Njala University which has requested its peace building materials for inclusion in their peace building course.