Program Description

The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) helps stabilize and revitalize war-torn communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by facilitating community-level reintegration of war-affected youths and increasing broad awareness of key transition issues. OTI's objectives are achieved through its Synergie d'Education Communautaire et d'Appui à la transition (SE*CA, pronounced "C'est ça!") program. The program, implemented by Chemonics, focuses on community reintegration and revitalization and consists of: basic life skills and vocational training (Youth Education and Skills/YES) provided by Master Trainers; small grants to participating communities, providing a chance to put learned skills into practice; and Transition Awareness and Participation (TAP) grants intended to reinforce YES messages through media-focused information campaigns. OTI also supports the Switzerland-based Fondation Hirondelle, in collaboration with the United Nations Mission in the Congo (MONUC), in a project aimed at strength ening Radio Okapi (a network of community radio stations providing key information to target populations) and improving the professional capacity of indigenous community radio stations.

Country Situation

Security - Tensions are rising as the DRC nears June 30 (the two-year anniversary of the transition government and the date on which many had expected new elections to be held). As the country slowly comes to terms with a delay in the vote, security incidents are taking place not only in some major cities in eastern DRC but also in the center and south of the country. In the Ituri district, one MONUC soldier was gunned down during an attack on his patrol unit May 12. In Nindja town in South Kivu Province, 18 people were killed and 50 others kidnapped, reportedly by rebels of the Front Democratique pour la Liberation du Rwanda. On May 18, MONUC headquarters publicly raised once again the issue of continuing violence in Walungu territory in South Kivu Province, listing 177 executions, 320 rapes, 465 kidnappings, and 748 violations of detainees' human rights in the last year. In Kisangani, capital of Orientale Province, gunfire broke out on May 24 when members of a Mai Mai militia group, led by a militiaman nam ed "General Michigan," were attempting to loot the central market and were stopped by presidential guards. The national army drove the group out of Kisangani, but two people were killed and one was seriously injured. In Mbuji Mayi, chief town of the Kasai Oriental Province, demonstrations against the likely extension of the transition government beyond June 30 led to the destruction of several political-party headquarters and 7 deaths. The demonstrations took place after President Joseph Kabila's address in which he supported the approval of a new draft constitution by the Parliament. In Katanga Province in the southeastern DRC, 30 people were arrested for plotting against the national government. They are said to belong to a military and political movement called Liberation Movement for Katanga ("Mouvement de Liberation du Katanga") that reportedly is supporting the secession of the province from the DRC.

Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) - The Disarmament and Community Reintegration process in the DRC is progressing at a faster pace than normal, particularly in Ituri district in northeastern DRC, where up to 12,500 militias have been disarmed to date. There are reports of formerly demobilized soldiers protesting against the United Nations Development Program in Kindu for allegedly being in arrears in the payment of their salaries for public works projects they had completed.

Transitional Government and Elections - The National Assembly adopted a new draft Constitution on May 13, followed by the Senate's final approval on May 17. The draft Constitution will be put forward in a national referendum in late 2005. It states that the minimum age for the president is 30, and it gives the president the power to appoint the prime minister and dissolve the Parliament in case of political crisis. The new setup also keeps the country as a unified state, but creates a highly decentralized system with 26 provinces instead of 11. South African President Thabo Mbeki and Congolese President Joseph Kabila attended the ceremony to adopt the draft Constitution. President Kabila took the opportunity to address the Parliament and Congolese population on the successes and failures during the transition period. He emphasized his determination to lead the nation through the election process, while stating that the draft Constitution provides more authority to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) t o pursue election preparations. As positive results of the transition government, President Kabila cited the reunification of the country; the end of the civil war except in isolated pockets such as Walungu in South Kivu Province; the peaceful collaboration of former fighting factions, as illustrated by the vice presidents, formerly with the opposition, and himself; low inflation; positive economic growth, and rising annual budgets since 2002. Shortcomings that he identified included substantial delays in enacting certain laws both at the government and Parliament levels; multiple cases of embezzlement, and corruption.

USAID/OTI Highlights

A. Narrative Summary

At a SE*CA team retreat in Kampala, the team examined lessons learned from the first YES (Youth Education and Skills) cycle and from more than a year of the program's operation. The gathering was also an opportunity to plan and coordinate at the national level the exit strategies being developed for first-cycle communities, as well as planning for the second cycle of training. Decisions that came out of the meeting included that: management of the database had to be decentralized to allow the field offices to enter data directly; YES reserve Learning Facilitators were no longer necessary; first-cycle communities for which final surveys were conducted before the end of training had to be revisited to ensure that the effects of the last modules were reflected in the evaluations; second-cycle training modules were to be presented in a different order than those in the first cycle, with the "Reaffirmation of Values" module followed by "Conflict Management" and "Democracy," since these modules were the most favored during the first cycle.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the Media/TAP team to present an election-sensitization guide to be used in the field. The sensitization stage of the training is considered critical to assuring the success of the SE*CA program. The TAP (Transition Awareness and Participation) team also presented a copy of the Independent Electoral Commission fliers produced by SE*CA and transition-related sensitization material from other SE*CA partners to be used in forthcoming elections.

After the Kampala retreat, the YES program completed community mobilization, setting up regional community meeting and information centers and recruiting Learning Facilitators (LFs) in the new training sites, as the table below presents:

Almost all Learning Facilitators were trained during the second half of the month. This is the case for some sites in Maniema, mainly Punia and Kalima, where the training started May 19 and lasted for a week. For the next three weeks, Learning Facilitators trained community participants on the "Reaffirmation of Values" module.

TAP activities for the month of May focused on

1. Monitoring the implementation of the emergency communications plan of the IEC;

2. The development of a strategy for the reinforcement of community / information centers and of listening clubs in SE*CA project zones that benefited from the first cycle of YES training and community projects;

3. Supplying equipment to partner radio stations;

4. Discussions on the editing of a film on the transition process in the DRC;

5. Production of an information document on the transition process; and,

6. The development of a third hour of radio broadcast on Radio Okapi Short Wave service.

In efforts to implement the emergency communications strategy of the IEC, the president of the IEC went to Kinsangani to meet with local populations, including students from the University of Kisangani, representatives from civil society, political parties and women's groups. SE*CA organized the events and produced 100,000 fliers to help the IEC in its sensitization efforts. Apart from these actions, the TAP team visited the field offices to work on the execution of the SE*CA network supported by regional community meeting and information centers, and listening clubs that will foster election-transition awareness and participation among communities. Results from the field visits allowed the following operations to get started toward the end of the month:

• In Kisangani, 40 listening clubs and three information centers were being established.
  
  
• In Bunia and Ituri district, four information and professional training centers, as well as 13 listening clubs, were being implemented in communities that took part in the first cycle of YES training.
  
  
• In Kindu, two information centers, as well as 17 listening clubs, are benefiting from SE*CA support.

No grants were signed during the month of May since the team is focusing on executing grants that were signed in April and on starting up the grant discussion process with new communities.

B. Grant Activity Summary

C. Indicators of Success

In Bakoko and Ngezi communities near Bunia, the "Conflict Management" module of the first YES training cycle led to the resolution of conflicts that arose from past civil war. During a focus-group discussion held recently in Ngezi community, one woman said that her husband had been killed by people from a different tribe as a result of the ethnic-based conflict in Ituri district. Since then, she has had problems relating to anyone from that tribe. She said that through the "Conflict Management" module she had learned to separate the people from the problem, understanding that her husband was killed in a specific situation that made his assailants behave as they did. Another member of the focus group said that the war had left behind many people who wanted to avenge relatives killed during the conflict. He stated that SE*CA's presence not only meant that the war was over, but he also felt that the "Conflict Management" module helped people let go of revenge and seek peaceful settlements. The SE*CA program has clearly helped to interrupt the spiral of violence, thereby contributing to the stabilization of this particular community and Bunia town to a certain extent.

A similar focus-group discussion in Bakoko, a Lendu community in the suburbs of Bunia, also revealed the critical role that SE*CA has played in helping stop community violence. The neighboring village of Tshere (ethnic Hema inhabitants) looted Bakoko village during the civil war, and, even after the war, tensions remained between the villages. As a result of the "Conflict Management" module in the YES training, Bakoko villagers now permit villagers from Tshere to pass peacefully through Bakoko on their way to and from Bunia. Hidden agendas to continue conflict have now been halted, thanks to the SE*CA program, thereby contributing to a peaceful and stable environment in these communities surrounding Bunia town.

D. Program Appraisal

After 13 months of operations, both quantitative and qualitative indicators disclose consistent information of how the program has reduced instability in some areas of the country, increased the number of reintegrated people and eased the process at the community level, and improved the level of political awareness of community members. Indeed, for quantitative indicators, during final evaluations in communities held in March 2005, stability indicators in all sites showed substantial improvements either from their June 2004 baseline positions or from their December 2004 estimates. In Kindu, when community members were asked if SE*CA had helped them cohabit peacefully with ex-combatants and helped reconciliation in the community, 70 percent responded affirmatively, while 53 percent said that the program had helped them prepare for elections. Attitudes toward women who have been raped and ex-combatants have shown steady improvement since SE*CA's intervention. The number of people who would accept women who have been raped back into their communities reached 80 percent in Maniema Province compared with 50 percent before the program began. Similarly, the level of transition awareness has gone up exponentially in all sites. For example, in Bunia, where only 2 percent of residents stated that they had had formal discussions on key transition issues in June 2004, at the end of the first training cycle, the figure soared to 60 percent.

The impact of the program can also be looked at qualitatively through stories such as those of the Bakoko and Ngezi communities, or by reading the quotes from YES training participants as they were going through the final evaluation. One participant stated in Kiswahili: "I am very happy (with SE*CA) since it has opened my mind and helped me stabilize my own life." Another participant wrote in French: "I would like to thank SE*CA for contributing to a new consciousness and for bringing lots of information about politics and on the transition process and for lifting us from the world of the blind." Many participants wished that SE*CA could be spread throughout the country. Moreover, some people declared during training sessions that seeing SE*CA in their communities was a sign that their towns were stable and that the war was far from returning because, if conflict were returning, the American government would not be spending its money in their communities.

Next Steps/Immediate Priorities

• Decentralize database and grants management to streamline the process and provide more autonomy to the field offices.
  
  
• Continue developing collaborative initiatives with CONADER (the Congolese entity charged with implementing the national demobilization plan) in Ituri and elsewhere in DRC.
  
  
• Develop visibility and community infrastructure rehabilitation projects in Buta and Isiro.
  
  
• Continue to support TAP initiatives in order to communicate the legitimacy of the election process.
  
  
• Review and adapt existing emergency action and security plans for any eventuality that might occur on or about June 30.

For further information, please contact:

In Washington, D.C.: Galeeb Kachra, Program Manager, e-mail: gkachra@usaid.gov; telephone: (202) 712-1905