TIPS Project | Stories of Change
Facilitating Inclusive Dialogue Between Communities with Disabilities and Local Authorities
The ‘Towards Peaceful and Inclusive Societies’ (TIPS) project has strengthened inclusive dialogue for the deaf community in the city of Beira, Sofala province. Luis Jaque, the President of the Mozambique Deaf Development Centre, shared how the TIPS project’s integration of deaf people in forums to discuss community problems has strengthened inclusive engagement throughout the district.
“Nowadays, in any programme or meeting, we have a sign language interpreter. Previously, communication was not accessible and deaf people were excluded by the authorities as well as by society.”
The activist notes that the project’s activities amongst civil society, the private sector, and government authorities have demonstrated the need for inclusive practices to be integrated in addressing natural resource management. It was only after these trainings that the government authorities began to work with deaf people as a form of inclusion.
Luis Jaque, President of the Mozambique Deaf Development Centre.
Jaque noted that the trainings ensured that development issues were discussed frankly and in a didactic way. It was at these project meetings that he learned the implications of natural resource management on local communities and surrounding areas. The TIPS project strengthened conflict management skills and has improved relations between the communities and the authorities. Both groups recognize dialogue as a critical mechanism to mitigate conflict.
“The trainings provided us with tools and strategies for negotiation, dialogue with investors and conflict management. Through sign language, I was able to strengthen the skills and engagement of various civil society actors in their participation and in the sharing of community benefits from the exploitation of natural resources.”
Additionally, there has been a shift in the paradigm of how the authorities manage revenue from the exploration of natural resources. The communities are now well-informed about the benefits, which has encouraged their participation in meetings between the authorities and the private sector for consultation on project or enterprise establishment.
“Today, the communities, and especially the deaf community, know that they have a right to receive 20% of the revenue of the mining undertaken in their lands, and that it is up to them to identify local needs in order to use the funds. And as a result of this engagement, deaf people have already been involved in various meetings concerning conflict management and natural resource management,” explained Jacque.
About the TIPS Project
‘Towards an Inclusive and Peaceful Society in Mozambique‘ (TIPS) is a European Union-funded project implemented between January 2021 to December 2023, which seeks to contribute to conflict prevention, crisis preparedness and response, and peacebuilding through an inclusive nautral resources governance and management in Mozambique. The project is implemented by a consortium of actors comprised of Finn Church Aid and the Peacemakers Network, Institute of Social and Economic Studies (Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos-IESE) and the Institute for Multiparty Democracy (Instituto para a Democracia Multipartidaria) in collaboration with the Council of Religions in Mozambique (Conselho das Religiões em Moçambique – COREM).
Follow the Network on social