Restored - Ending Violence Against Women

Mandy Marshall / 09:22 / 31 Aug 10

By Desiree Zwanck

While the ongoing crisis in Eastern DRC cannot be resolved without strong international commitment, well-directed military interventions and humanitarian support to the population; it is important that we do not loose sight of community development. Local communities are the nucleus of social change and that we need to start with them. Grassroots activists, and especially women, can bring important solutions to the table. Yet we need to ensure that peace-building initiatives do not create new conflicts.

The Congolese state is of an unstable and hybrid nature - it exists, but it doesn't. State institutions are present in scenarios of monetary revenue (taxes, customs, school fees, legal fines) but absent when it comes to protecting its citizens or providing infrastructure and social services. Civil society, economic and military agencies fill the vacuum left by the state in different ways, creating their own order. The relationship between state and ‘traditional’ authority is multifaceted. The two systems often overlap but also enter in conflict over resources and the loyalty of communities. Human rights defenders, journalists and members of the political opposition are brutally repressed. Add to this the ongoing presence of aggressive rebel groups, and you get a protracted conflict in a failing state the size of Western Europe.

So in order not to get overwhelmed, we must pick our piece of turf and start working at it. As an agent of the EED/Civil Peace Service (www.peaceworkafrica.org), I am focused on working with civil society. Here are some of the best practices I have come to appreciate in my work with HEAL Africa (www.healafrica.org/cms).

1. Carry out in-depth research projects that focus on local communities. Publish these widely. Invite participation from Congolese scholars. Promote differentiated context analysis.
2. Invest into Congolese students, especially into girls' education. Provide them with school fees, survival money and life skills.
3. Provide microcredit and training to women and men. Economic incentives of this kind can go a long way in DRC, despite the conflict. International media and NGOs may be pumping up the mineral trade In the East, but agriculture remains the main economy in this region. Investing in agriculture and trade is essential. Investments into road infrastructure are a prerequisite for successful trade. It may not sound fancy, but it is what local communities need.
4. Support local development and peace-building initiatives. Vet them according to professional organizational standards. If they do not meet these standards, provide them with the training and guidance they need. Make sure that this process is participatory at every level.
5. Work with civil society, the churches and traditional leaders to change perceptions about gender within the communities. Promote cooperation between men and women as well as positive, indigenous concepts of mutual respect and women's sound leadership (they exist!).
6. Work with these same stakeholders in order to mediate conflicts  - especially land conflicts - within the communities. Install legal clinics that cater to the actual needs of the population.
7. Offer psychosocial counselling to survivors and perpetrators of war, torture and rape.
8. Keep drawing attention to what we know to be the real issues, and keep putting pressure on the government. Encourage the population to demand that the state fulfils the basic task of protection against human rights abuses. Get the story out, but promote a balanced view that does not eclipse people’s capacities and strategies for positive change. Tell the success stories, the best practices. Quit locking Congo into its past.

These are just some of the steps that need to be taken at the local level in order to create a strong base for peace. Even after Congolese families come back from refugee camps, they still have a long way to go until they can come home to themselves. No other can complete this journey for them. None of us foreigners can tell them how peace and security feel, or what their world would be like without corruption. It’s still a long way to go until there will be security, but even then, peace will depend on a shift in consciousness and on what people will know to be right.

Desiree Zwanck is presently deployed to Eastern DR Congo through the EED/Civil Peace Service, a German government program that supports local peace building initiatives. In her role as Gender Advisor to the Congolese NGO HEAL Africa, she engages in field research, consultancy and gender-sensitive development programming.

TOPICS: Churches, For corporate members, Men, Peer groups, Women, Youth
LOCALITY: Africa