CONFLICT SENSITIVITY (CS) PILOT PROJECT -CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE PROJECT (CAP) CARE –KABALA
LAUNCHING REPORT
23RD SEPTEBER 2010
VENUE: KABALACOMMUNITY CENTER
SUBMITTED BY: EDWARD SOPHIE
LAND TENURE ADVISOR
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The DFID funded project “The practice of conflict sensitivity–concept to impact” is intended to strengthen the practice of conflict sensitivity throughout and beyond a broad consortium of humanitarian, peace-building and multi-mandate development NGOs.
The project goal is to ensure greater impact of development and humanitarian assistance through improved and more widespread mainstreaming of conflict sensitive approaches (CSA). The project purpose is to improve policies and practices that support CSA across a broad network of NGOs, local partners and donor agencies. Key project outcomes include:
- Shared understanding of CSA across a network of international and local development, humanitarian and peace building organizations;
- Lessons and recommendations for mainstreaming effective CSA across a range of contexts and sectors disseminated to policy-makers, donors and practitioners;
- Strengthened expertise and capacity amongst member organizations and civil society partners to institutionalize and implement CSA, at HQ and local levels.
The project is piloted through the implementation phase of the Howard Buffet sponsored Conservation Agriculture project implemented by CARE international in Sierra Leone in partnership with The Future in Our Hands(FIOH –local partner)in Kabala.
On the 23rd September 2010 this pilot project was officially launched in the Koinadugu district head quarter town of Kabala.
Hundred persons drawn from all walks of life participated in the launching including representatives from international and local non governmental organizations (CRS, CAUSECanada, Sierra Leone Red cross society, PAGE, FIOH, ENCISSto name a few), Ministry of agriculture, forestry and food security (MAFFS), the Sierra Leone police, local leaders (paramount chiefs, mammy queens, youth leaders) Farmer Field School representatives, CAP project participants and representatives of the Koinadugu District Council.
The launching was particularly important as it marked the official kickoffof the pilot implementation to a wider audience. The CS program Coordinator Fred Goba vividly informed participants on the importance of the conflict sensitivity approach in the development and humanitarian effort and its impact in relation to the achievement of project goals across a wide range of development initiatives.
The program was chaired by the representative of the host paramount chief of the Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdom.
Participants gave various speeches following the introduction of the CS Project by the point person for the CS Programme in the CAP project-EdwardSophie. Key among the speech was that they are willing to embrace this type of programmes as it ensures a culture of transparency and accountability within and among development workers and project beneficiaries. And also ensures that project participants and other stakeholders are more involved in all phases of the project from planning to evaluation and they can take responsibility of success or failure without casting blames on others.
Deliberations from participants were aired through the local radio in Kabala for the audience of the entire district. Further more the CS brochure was shared among participants present for the launching.
The major challenge was the willingness of the district council staffto participate in the launching which serves as one key conflict sensitive indicator for the Programme to follow-upduring the implementation.
Opening courtesies
The meeting was called to order at 10:45 AM by the Edward Sophie; he welcomed all persons present for the occasion and thanked them for attending despite their busy schedules to witness the launching ceremony. This was followed by Muslim and Christian prayers. Introduction of participants was facilitated by the Agriculture and value chain coordinator CAP.
Mr. Oliver Mansaray Coordinator of the Sierra LeoneRed Cross Society in Kabala who was also representing the host Paramount Chief –P.C Gbawuru 111 of WaraWara Yagala Chiefdom chaired the launching. In his opening remarks, he thanked CARE- Kabala for organizing such an educative initiative for the people of Koinadugu district. He also appreciated the effort of other consortium members implementing the CS Programme in other country consortia. He requested that such initiative should be mainstreamed across all development programmes for greater impact in development effort. He pointed out that conflict sensitivity awareness is necessary because the most important thing needed for development is PEACE and he believed that any initiative that is well conceived with conflict sensitive best practices will ensure peace among and between project participants.
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Key deliberations:
Presentation of CSA - Edward Sophie (CS point person CAP Kabala)
Edward started by giving brief background of the Conservation Agriculture Project (CAP). He motioned that the CA project with Land tenure support for Women and Youth is a three year project funded by the Howard G.Buffet foundation implemented in 40 communities in four chiefdom (Folosaba Dembelia, Dembelia Sinkunia, Sengbeh and Wara Wara Yagala) in Koinadugu district..
He explained to participants that the CS project is not a stand alone project but to be piloted through the implementing phase of the CAP.
He further explained that conflict sensitivity is the underlying issues that divide the communities in which projects are implemented and the power relationships that underpin the divisions, so that they can target their work to promote peace.
He pointed out that to be conflict sensitive means in carrying out your implementation plan; you should put on a conflict sensitive lens.This will increase the chances of project success and minimize the chances of project failure.
He asserted that during project implementation, development practitioners can consciously or unconsciously set communities or groups apart. He supported his statement with an example; ‘a conflict sensitive field staff will distribute input like tools or seeds to a group openly in the presence of all group members while a non conflict sensitive field staff will talk to few people, deliver the inputs and go away leaving most members blind about the quantity and type of input he delivered’. Hefurther reiterated that the more conflict sensitive one is the greater the impact of development initiative all things remaining constant.
He encourage other develop practitioners to institutionalize this approach in their day to day activities.
He said that the pilot phase will be implemented in ten communities in two chiefdoms through FFS and local authorities including councilors form Koinadugu District Council. The pilot implementation period with the CAP will run from July 2010 through March 2011.
He concluded that field staff will be engaging all stake holders in their activities and document conflict sensitive issues which will be compiled and circulated mainly for the purpose of learning.
Overview of CS -Fred Goba (CS Program Coordinator)
Fred explained that CS is a five year pilot project starting from July 2008 through March 2012. In Sierra Leone the consortium comprises of nine agencies including world vision, CARE, International Alert, Plan international, Action Aid, CAFOD and Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, ENCISS and SLANGO. The project is located in UK, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, the contract holder is CAREUKand lead agency in UK and Sri Lanka and the lead agency in Sierra Leone is World Vision, with Action Aid as lead in Kenya.
He pointed out that the goal of the conflict sensitivity project is to ensure greater impact of development and humanitarian assistance through improved and more widespread mainstreaming of conflict sensitive approaches and purpose was to improve policies and practices that support CSA across a broad network of NGOs, local partners and donor agencies.
He mentioned the expected out comes as:
- Ensuring shared understanding of the conflict sensitive Approaches(CSA)across a network of international and local development, humanitarian and peace building organizations
- Documentation of lessons and recommendations for mainstreaming effective CSA across a range of contexts and sectors disseminated to policy makers, donors and practitioners
- Strengthening of expertise and capacity amongst members organizations and civil society partners to institutionalize CSA at head quarter and local levels
- He affirmed that the project aims at measuring general institutional capacity for conflict sensitivity including identification of weak institutional capacities and then undertake institutional capacity building and advocacy
Fred further explained that overseas organization (donors) provide money to ensure that peace prevail in communities to enhance development. However in the process of project implementation conflict most times arises, that often lead to division in the communities. The conflict sensitivity project /approach thereforeseek to understand and learn from the underlying causes of conflict inproject communities and generate best practices to promote peace and enhance positiveimpact. Heinformed project participants that conflict sensitivity was not peace building but in an event of conflict we can give advise to the conflicting parties or facilitate engagement towards a resolution of the conflict.
STATEMENTS FROM OTHER PARTICIPANTS
CARE- Country Director (CD) REPRESENTATIVE
Mr. Sayoh who represented the CARE CDgavea brief overview of conflict situation around the world. He mentioned countries like Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone Liberia to name a few as countries who have suffered from the negative effect of conflict that affected especiallychildren, women and youth. He blamed the cause for conflict in this country as conflict blindness in dealing with state affairs. This was related to developments around the world. We should be very conscious as development practitioners of what and how we do and say things because of the sensitivities such actions may have for the work we do.
He concluded that CS awareness is necessary in project implementation in our communities and pointed out that the pilot phase will only succeed and enter into expansion phase based on participation of the targeted communities. He concluded that the project will be a success story as Koinadugu people are very hardworking and are ready for change.
Mr. Edmond Kposowa- PROJECT OFFICER - FIOH
Edmond stated that the CSA is unique and will enhance the success of the CAP. He said since CS ensures peaceful coexistence amongst community members it will bring about an atmosphere of cooperation among project participants, local authorities and implementing agencies which will inturn give way to development in our communities and the country at large. He made mention of the aged conflict between cattlefarmers and crop farmers in the district.Had there being conflictsensitive awareness among them there would have been peaceful co-existence among these groups of farmers.
CRS -REPRESENTATIVE
He expressed his profound appreciation toward the CS initiativeand that they will try to mainstream similar approaches in their day to day implementation. He asserted that the practice of conflict sensitivity is not new but development workers sometimes ignore the approaches “little wonder why most development initiatives are not successful”
LOCAL UNIT COMMANDER (LUC) - KABALA
The local unit commander of the Kabala police divisional head quarters started by defining conflictas “clash of interest that exists among, between people or within someone.” He mentioned tribalism, favoritism,lack of respect for policy and law, misunderstanding as some causes of conflict in our communities. He said they are all involved in the process of conflict prevention and that if the practice of conflict sensitivity is institutionalized, adopted and adapted there will be less conflict incidents reported to the police. He gave an example of cause of conflict in relation to land acquisition. He said people misunderstand the role of paramount chiefs (PC) in land administration. “ the paramount chief is only a custodian of the land but the land is owned by land holding families- this misunderstanding sometimes spark off conflict in some communities. Heconcluded that the police is ready to work with the project when need arise and thatpeace is a necessity for developmentto be enhanced.
CHRISTIAN EXTENSION SERVICE REP. – MICHAEL S. TURAY
Like the CRS representative, he also mentioned that the practice of conflict sensitivity is not new but is often over looked in our work. He emphasized the conflict sensitivity message be spread across a wide range of programmes so that people will be aware to ensure peace and development.
ENCISS REPRESENTATIVE (Joseph Bass Kamara)
Joseph mentioned that to be conflict sensitive we have to be conscious of early warning signs in communitiessuch as civil disobedience, Mob actions, lack of participation, etc. In our homes, work place and communities, these early warning signs should not be underrated. He pointed out that recognition of early warning signs will help in addressing conflict at an initial stage before it escalate out of proportion. He concluded that development workers, local authorities, district council and community members should come together to promote peace in our communities.
MAMMY QUEEN -WARA WARA YAGALA CHIEFDOM
The chiefdom women leader commonly called mammy queen gave a short and brief statement.She stated that “Peace is very important.Without peace we cannot live or work together”. but most of the times women are left out when it comes to decision making in the communities. Menfolk claim“na woman dem le dem wait wi go tel den later”(they are women. They should wait and will be informed later) She concluded that people therefore need to work together to promote peace in their communities and should be transparent and accountable to each other.
PARAMOUNT CHIEF REPRESENTATIVE - SENGBEH
The paramount chief representative in Sengbeh chiefdom express the need for peace to prevail in their communities to enhance development he said “the need for peace cannot be over emphasized as it is a pointer for development” he concluded that they appreciate the project and that they are always ready to provide support in diverse ways to make this project a success.
FASINNEH KABBA -KOROMASILIA
Fasineh Kabba is the chairman for one Farmer Association (FA).He mention that “NGO workers are also sometimes the sources of conflict in our communities as they are sometimes not transparent in dealing with community people and this brings about discord” he supported his statement with an example that most times field staff are selective in dealing with project participants as they carry out their activities. They tend to concentrate on few people in the communities and discriminate othersand that is one of the major sources of conflict in their communities. He stated that if the development is for them then they need to be involved in decision making at all levels.He concluded that this project is the first he has seeing that is attempting to address such anomalies.
KOINADUGU DISTRICT YOUTH CHAIPERSON
The representative of the district youth chairperson pointed out thatbefore now they were always left out in development programs; however, after the war they are now given some attention. She described this pre war attitude as conflict blindnessand it ran through government, local leader and development agencies. She supported the initiative of CS and that they are ready to give their support to the project always. She concluded that “they do not recognized our role as providers of a large part of the labour force in development”
VOTE OF THANKS – Mr. HENRY SANDY PROJECT SUPERVISOR -FIOH
Henry expressed his sincere thanks to all present for the launching and admonished them to put into practice what they learnt. He requested that stakeholders like local authorities, district council and community participants to always open their doors to development partners and to hold each other accountable for program success and failure.
He concluded by saying that community members should understand that we are now moving from relief to development and that there is no free money any more.“ we should now work hard to survive.”
CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE PROJECT CAP
PROGRAMME FOR OFFICIAL LAUNCHING OF CONFLICT SENSITIVITY PILOT PROGRAM IN KABALA
DATE:23rd SEPTEMBER 2010
VENUE:KABALA –COMMUNITY CENTER
TIME:9:30AM
NO / TIME / ACTIVITY / RESPONSIBLE PERSON1 / 9:00-9:30am / Arrival of guests / FIOH
2 / 9:30-9:35 / Prayers-Muslim &Christian / Muslim-
Christian-
3 / 9:35-9:40 / Welcome address / CARE/FIOH
4 / 9:40-9:45 / Introduction of chairperson / To be determined
5 / 9:45-9:50 / Chairpersons opening remarks / Rep. from Koinadugu district Council
6 / 9:50-10:00 / Introduction of project staff and high table members / Ahmed Ajiran Kamara
7 / 10:00-10:15 / Presentation of project / Edward Sophie
8 / 10:15 – 11:45 / Overview of CSA / Fred Goba
9 / 11:45-12:00 / Statements
1.Host Paramount chief
2.KDC Deputy Chairman
3.CARE CD/Representative
4. IP-FIOH representative
5..WVI representative
6. MAFFS rep.
7.Police-Local Unit Commander(LUC)
8.Women’s leader-Koinadugu
9.Youth representative
10.Private sector representative
10 / 12:00-12:05 / Vote of thanks / Edmond Kposowa
11 / 12:05 - END / Refreshment
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