Project Description:

Prevention of violent conflict relapse through support to immediate measures of political reconciliation, political parties professionalization, promotion of peace across country and support to non-partisan media

Main Goal: 

As a complement to initiatives supporting democratic institutions and ensuring the implementation of the Joint Communiqué ^[1], this project aims to address critical drivers of the first major upsurge of violence since the end of the war in 2002, so as to prevent further escalation of violence and ultimate relapse of conflict in a country where peace remains fragile.

Immediate Objective: 

1. The first immediate objective is to ensure that political parties and their supporters engage in a respectful and professional attitude towards their opponents, state institutions and policy issues and that the general public is cognisant of these efforts.
2. Moreover, this project will focus on bringing the youth groups involved in political activism back to having a non-violent attitude towards politics. Finally, media will be targeted with a view to address the issue of partisanship and the role media played in further exacerbating the conflict.

Outputs/Key Activities: 

1.      Supporting actions enabling a shift in the way political leaders approach politics and fostering a consensus on the critical issues of national interest. To this end, a two-tiered approach was agreed to by and among the stakeholders: activities of political dialogue and further professionalization of political leadership.

2.      Accompanying measures of sensitization, trust building and promotion of peace, which will ensure that the efforts of the political leadership are backed up by a general consensus within the public opinion - in particular the youth - and a general understanding of and support to the inter-party initiatives

3.      Supporting immediate interventions to enable the monitoring of non-partisan broadcasting by the regulation institution, the Independent Media Commission