Learning How to Identify Key Conflict Drivers at the Community Level

Events | July 2023
On July 10-14, the Community Social Cohesion Project, led by the Peacemakers Network, Aga Khan Foundation, and Associação Progresso, hosted a Training of Trainers (ToT) course that was offered to community facilitators and other project staff that work directly with Village Development Organizations (VDOs). Participants deepened their knowledge and skills on conflict analysis, prevention, and mediation, gender dynamics in peacebuilding, intergenerational power dynamics, inter- and intra-faith dialogue, and community mechanisms of early warning. They further learned how to identify key conflict drivers at community level and discussed how to put their learning into action to equip rural community members with conflict mediation and resolution skills.

Building on the ToT course,  government officials from the target districts participated in another two-day conflict training on July 17-18. The objective of the event was to promote a horizontal learning opportunity between government members and target communities and to raise awareness about conflict management and inclusive peacebuilding.

Disctrict authorities analyze community-level conflicts with the Conflict Tree tool.

The facilitator of the Training of Traners (ToT) course presents how conflicts can be both destructive and transformative.

District authorities present a case study of conflicts over access to water.

Community facilitators in the ToT course.

Finally, on July 19, a multi-stakeholder conference on access to land for internally displaced persons was arranged. The conference provided an opportunity for host communities, internally displaced persons, government officials, and project partners to engage in constructive discussions addressing land and community conflicts between host communities and displaced populations.

Seen together, the three events are expected to contribute to a conducive environment for productive interaction between communities and government on conflict prevention and mediation, and to strengthen the coordination between community development actions and district planning processes.

About the Community Social Cohesion Project
Together with lead organization Aga Khan Foundation and Associação Progresso, in 2022, the Peacemakers Network began implementation of a new project in Mozambique titled ‘The Community Social Cohesion Project (CSP)” which aims to identify the incentives that drive violent extremism (VE) and discover best practices to support Village Development Organizations (VDOs) in countering VE. The project draws from the Peacemakers Network’s experience on conflict prevention, and also provides technical expertise and capacity support to the project team, communities, government, and other stakeholders on interfaith dialogue, peacebuilding, and social cohesion.
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