TIPS Project | Stories of Change
Strengthening Mutual Collaboration Amongst Stakeholders in Chemba
Through capacity building initiatives and dialogue sessions between community members, local authorities, and mining companies, the ‘Towards Peaceful and Inclusive Societies in Mozambique’ (TIPS) project has strengthened collaboration amongst various actors in the district of Chemba in Sofala province in central Mozambique.
Tomás Chitsumba, aged 38, is a religious leader and teacher who has benefited from the project. He has observed positive changes both in the district and in the lives of the communities. He emphasises that after engaging in the TIPS training on ‘Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Mediation and Dialogue, and Advocacy,’ he returned to the district and asked the local authorities to provide a space to replicate the learning. “There has been a significant change in behaviour on the part of the population, the promotion of permanent dialogue between the authorities, companies that extract natural resources, and the community,” he explained.
Chitsumba continued to explain that the adoption of mechanisms for dialogue between civil society, the community, the private sector, and government authorities had brought about changes, namely because communities had a greater awareness of their rights regarding the mining of natural resources as well as mechanisms to host community –based dialogue sessions to avoid conflicts.
“During the trainings, I would highlight the method of dialogue between the community and the employer, which is seen as an example of conflict resolution in relation to natural resource management. Linked to this, we have the TIPS training that has influenced the day-to-day life of the community because it has brought knowledge and experiences for reducing conflicts and resolving conflicts through dialogue.”
Tomás Chitsumba, religious leader and teacher. “After the training, I carried out small group dialogue sessions in the communities and promoted debates on the local community radio.”
Training and publicising the law on natural resource management changed the paradigm of the relationship between the stakeholders.
As a result of the TIPS project, local communities in the district of Chemba now benefit from 20 percent of the right to explore natural resources for local development projects. This action is the direct result of advocacy and lobbying with government authorities and mining companies. Chitsumba strongly supported the idea of continuing to replicate the trainings by increasing the focus on legislation related to land use and mining. This will help to strengthen the relationship between the community and the authorities through the promotion of permanent dialogue and monitoring to reach a shared consensus to gauge compliance.
Training and publicising the law on natural resource management changed the paradigm of the relationship between the stakeholders, ultimately benefiting the community. Before the TIPS project, the relationship between the community and the companies was limited due to the lack of dialogue and engagement between the two parties.
“Thanks to our knowledge from the TIPS training, we were able to intervene to resolve conflicts. We set up quarterly forum meetings attended by government authorities, companies and communities.”
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).
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