At a time when news headlines are dominated by war, let’s take a moment to breathe — and celebrate an example that shows how conflict does not have to result in violence. During a period of just 15 months, participants in our Building Climate and Conflict Resilient Communities collaboration emerged as leaders of reconciliation in areas hit hard by resource conflicts.

This project is also a testament to the importance of investing in local capacity, and empowering communities directly impacted by conflict with skills for leading peace themselves. Funding for this project ended earlier than planned due to cuts to U.S. foreign aid — but we know that this project has already created the means for peacebuilding to continue without us. Our local peacebuilding partner in Benin, Association Coexister, continues to lead the way.

Here are some highlights from Benin that give us hope:

✨ Locally-led dialogue has transformed violent conflict:

Our first training for new community dialogue facilitators, in April 2024, came at a very tense time. Local herder and farming communities had just endured a traumatic cycle of retaliatory clashes at one of the four project sites. Contact between local leaders of Dendi farmers and Fulani (Peuhl) herders had completely broken down. However, thanks to the good reputation of our local peacebuilding partner in Benin, Association Coexister, local Dendi and Peuhl leaders agreed that community members could attend our training in dialogue facilitation together. The training experience was healing for both sides and started a process of reconciliation that led to ongoing cooperation.

The project team supported and mentored the community dialogue facilitators—including farmers and herders, women and men—as they gained confidence and skill. Over time, the community dialogue facilitators became able and trusted to lead conversations in their communities without external support. The project led 67 community dialogues with about two dozen participants in each: first working within each group and then holding dialogues across divides.

Photo: a May 2024 community dialogue held as part of this project

“We really want to live in harmony with the farmers, but we didn’t know how to go about it. Your project is very welcome, and we will do everything we can to make it work.”

– A project participant from a semi-nomadic herder community

✨ The dialogues gave rise to community peace committees:

Out of the locally led dialogues, communities decided to create their own peace committees — Comités des Sages, or “committees of wise people,” with diverse representatives inclusive of farmers and herders. The committees went through a process of introduction and approval to ensure they had legitimacy and were recognized both by local authorities and the communities they represent.

These joint farmer-herder peace committees acted quickly when tensions rose. They resolved a farmer-herder dispute by using 2 intra-group dialogues and 1 inter-group dialogue, and then successfully de-escalated tensions following a deadly clash in November 2024 between community members and security forces in a town on the Benin-Niger border.

Photo: A meeting of dialogue facilitators and Association Coexister with the local mayor’s office

“I swear, if someone had told me that the Peulhs and the Dendis would sit together and form a committee, I wouldn’t have believed it. But what we have just done is extraordinary, and we will do everything we can to make it work. We will raise a lot of awareness among people.”

– A farmer who participated in the project

✨ Herders were included in the peacebuilding process:

Throughout the West African Sahel region, the marginalization of Fulani (Peuhl) herders plays a significant role in conflict dynamics. For that reason, we adapted our plans to include herders who live a (semi)nomadic lifestyle and were not yet in the area at the project’s start.

In June 2024, a Fulani team member conducted 20 interviews in a nearby herder encampment to introduce the project and understand their concerns. The herders spoke with clarity about the effects of climate change — 95% pointed to shrinking grazing lands as their biggest challenge, along with longer travel distances and concern for their animals’ health.

If the project had continued without interruption this year, the next step would have been to work with regional authorities to build their capacity for dialogue with herder communities.

Photo: Data collection interviews in a Fulani community, June 2024

✨ Climate data helped prevent violent conflict:

One of the project’s objectives involved using climate data to prevent conflict. However, making the data usable was a challenge in areas with low literacy or numeracy rates. Our project team, which included a climate analyst, bridged the gap between people and the data by issuing short-term bulletins over WhatsApp networks of more than 650 locals, explaining the likelihood of severe weather in plain language with recommended actions to take. The project’s periodic radio shows incorporated seasonal climate bulletins as well.

Once people had access to weather information, they began modifying their behavior to proactively avoid conflict. For example, when heavy rains were expected, herders did not put younger youth in charge of the cattle, because poor visibility and unstable terrain could lead animals to stray into farmers’ crops without a more mature herder at the helm.

Photo: A radio show of the project in May 2024