African Woman and Child Feature Service - Capacity Building program with Local admininistration, NGO's
Overview:
This project will focus on building awareness of conflict management approaches at the community level and promoting indigenous and contemporary approaches to conflict resolution.
Community Mediation Councils will be established to strengthen community awareness of conflict prevention, mitigation, and resolution mechanisms. The Councils will also develop and enhance community members’ full and active participation in decision-making in affairs affecting peace in their communities.
The Community Mediation Councils will include respected members of each of the communities at risk, in equal numbers. Committee size will be limited to allow committees to function efficiently. While the specific types of members may vary from locale to locale, the committees will typically include elders, clan and religious leaders, members of the school community (teachers and/or parents), women, leaders of youth, and representatives of economic stakeholder group (such as farmers, herders or traders) who may have particular interests in the major conflicts, etc. As representatives of civil society, Community Mediation Councils will be separate from government administration. These Community Mediation Councils will have several goals: - To act as a proactive sounding board where incipient conflicts can be identified and, if possible, defused. - To serve as a community structure members who have acquired awareness and skills in conflict mitigation. - To form part of an early warning network and to act as potential intermediaries should conflicts erupt.
It is important to note that these Community Mediation Councils will not serve to replace traditional or formal conflict resolution modalities, e.g., councils of elders – indeed we envisage
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