Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

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struck to ensure an impartial role in conflict intervention. The strategic role NGOs can play in conflict resolution NGOs constitute an essential part of civil society and they have the potential to play key roles in resolving conflicts and restoring civil society. NGOs can support and form well knit local infrastructures or peace constituencies comprising of people from different sectors of civil society whose aim is to attain sustainable peace and whose activities are based on long term commitment. The major Achilles heel of NGOs working in resolving conflicts has been largely due to their failure to forge relations with indigenous partners, local leaders and so on. This has diminished their role in resolving conflict and this has exacerbated suspicion as to their impartially especially considering their foreign origins and source of funding. Thus NGOs can only be believed to be acting as impartial mediators to bring consensus among different conflicting groups with the help of local peace constituencies. There are a several roles that NGO's can play in the peace making process. NGOs should presume their traditional relief and rehabilitation activities with a long-term perspective. This implies that initial emergency relief responses should be neatly tied to a set of activities that leads to the transformation of those conflicts in a manner that promotes sustained and comprehensive reconciliation among the warring parties. NGOs should be cautions against the excessive use of external resources in relief and rehabilitation activities. Excessive use of external resources all too often fosters and cultivates dependency syndrome and passivity. This may also become a new object of contention, inadvertently fuelling the conflict. NGOs should mobilise local resources which empower the people and enrol new participants into their activities, especially women who have often been kept passive and sidelined in the peace process despite being the major victims in conflict situations as they are subjected to all forms of physical and emotional abuse. NGOs should continue to monitor human rights abuses and undertake the task of providing early warnings of potentially violent conflicts and should pursue conflict resolution activities. 113
Recommendations To work effectively in a conflicting situation NGOs should preserve their own identities and neutrality and should appear to be impartial. Of crucial importance is the need to forge local indigenous partnerships in attempting to resolve the conflict. NGOs should be mindful of their unofficial status and they should use it to gain more access to conflicting parties, which helps in the process of negotiation. However, these remain ideals which are not being practiced; what is required is to create truly indigenous NGOs which may be supported by regional African bodies that may be engaged in conflict resolution without the control and involvement of external western funding. The long-term commitments may enable NGOs to establish trust among the people involved in the conflict and NGOs may be able to attend to the goal of lasting peace. The guiding principles for NGOs that intend to be engaged in conflict resolution activities are that: (1) the NGOs must be very familiar with the country, issues and participants in the conflict; (2) the NGOs should have indigenous partners; (3) NGO staff must be well grounded in conflict resolution skills and knowledge; and (4) NGO workers must understand and accept the personal risk they run in attempting to intervene directly in the conflict. Conclusion The state is often perceived as one of the parties in a large number of conflicts in Africa. Therefore, it is imperative for NGOs to preserve their independence without losing trust of the conflicting parties including the state because loss of trust has often resulted in NGOs being labelled as instruments of the West. NGOs should work in co-operation and co-ordination with each other to reduce duplication in their activities and in the process NGOs should not lose their individual identities. Coordination and networking of NGOs is a key factor in lobbying and advocacy at a higher level. In the end NGOs should not limit their scope of work to mere conflict resolution, but expand to address the root causes of conflict and enhance the process of peace building. Only through maintaining impartiality can NGOs be viewed as friends rather than foes. The role of NGOs in conflict resolution should be based on their 114
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Sustainable peace and development a
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Sustainable peace and development a
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Contents Introduction: The primacy
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its work on community, with special
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in Africa. The paper highlights the
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1 Women's access to microfinance an
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all household members, especially i
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family well-being are often higher
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“[b]y plugging the gap left by th
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As at 30 July 2011 the country's ba
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analysis will also be as much infor
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not about bemoaning the limited acc
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approach the MFIs, is that “it wi
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d) Indicators of the social and eco
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Illiteracy creates a situation of d
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Disabilities: Lessons from Zambia a
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Abbreviations and acronyms CBNRM Co
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(Murindagomo, 1990). Its main appro
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percentages to the gross domestic p
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some trees were not supposed to be
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formulation will ensure their total
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the commons'. The concept of commun
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esources in these government estate
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management in Botswana and Namibia:
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Introduction This article seeks to
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esearchers come to study with backg
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the land US$750.00. Mudzi laid the
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case the chief's court sought the t
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The chief's personality This influe
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process of reporting a case is too
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and implies that offenders should r
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Cases reported to Chief Chounda bet
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4 The role of Indigenous Knowledge
Page 67 and 68: enlarging the range of their choice
Page 69 and 70: this also served to promote food se
Page 71 and 72: development strategies in Africa sh
Page 73 and 74: countries seriously questioned why
Page 75 and 76: especting their realities and prior
Page 77 and 78: competing knowledge systems, charac
Page 79 and 80: impressive in transforming poor peo
Page 81 and 82: must be recognised if it is to be i
Page 83 and 84: implications for sustainable conser
Page 85 and 86: Pretty, J. N. (1994) Alternative sy
Page 87 and 88: Introduction The United Nations Edu
Page 89 and 90: Science educators have failed in th
Page 91 and 92: education in this historical era th
Page 93 and 94: esult may be disastrous. The HIV an
Page 95 and 96: affairs and ultimately the adoption
Page 97 and 98: esources, increasing green house ef
Page 99 and 100: years, and yet it is less than 100
Page 101 and 102: Fuchs, S. (2000) A social theory of
Page 103 and 104: 6 Re-examining the role of NGOs in
Page 105 and 106: that NGOs are involved in when tryi
Page 107 and 108: to see the causes of conflict as go
Page 109 and 110: which the oil is located are disgru
Page 111 and 112: communities putting into question t
Page 113 and 114: The controversies surrounding NGOs'
Page 115 and 116: conflict ridden African states, whe
Page 117: in resolving conflict and peace bui
Page 121 and 122: Juma, M.K. (2008) Conflict Preventi
Page 123 and 124: Introduction The Zimbabwean land re
Page 125 and 126: Government or private agencies. Thi
Page 127 and 128: credit facilities, new farmers in Z
Page 129 and 130: control 49 percent in any business
Page 131 and 132: implementation of investment progra
Page 133 and 134: the ice-berg. Disadvantaged areas m
Page 135 and 136: eventual agreement on the implement
Page 137 and 138: they are simply recipients of polic
Page 139 and 140: the government embarks on a nationw
Page 141 and 142: farm ownership in the country. The
Page 143 and 144: 8 Community-driven conflict resolut
Page 145 and 146: approximately 800,000 Rwandans and
Page 147 and 148: their mediation skills.” The cell
Page 149 and 150: well as centre-periphery thesis whi
Page 151 and 152: justice In the post-genocide era, t
Page 153 and 154: marginalized and disenfranchised fr
Page 155 and 156: summarized and simplified versions
Page 157 and 158: In Rwanda for example, citizens cou
Page 159 and 160: Although the use of carrot and stic
Page 161 and 162: abunzi and the formal system beckon
Page 163 and 164: Kauzya, John-Mary. (2007) Political
Page 165 and 166: Conclusion All through the papers,
Page 167 and 168: About the editor Samuel Maruta is t
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