PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITIES (2019-present)

Early Warning-Early Response (EWER) committees identify, track, and resolve local incidents that could spark broader conflict. To tackle problems like bandit attacks, they also build relationships with local security forces. The EWER committees have resolved over 460 incidents to date across all 18 project communities.

Dialogue facilitators within each community are building relationships of trust across ethnic and religious divides—and collaborating with EWER committees to resolve disputes. Community dialogue facilitators have held more than 220 dialogues over the past year (while the project has held more than 1,000 dialogues total, to date) on topics such as farmer-herder relations, land disputes, drug use, inter-religious conflict, and managing harmful rumors. The dialogues have gained a reputation as so useful that facilitators are receiving more requests than they can currently fulfill, and we are working to expand the initiative.

The project holds regular call-in radio shows and shares success stories over social media—allowing a much broader community to learn about and discuss themes related to building peace. Community drama performances further educate and engage community members about the project’s peacebuilding systems.

Community-based peacebuilders are uniquely positioned to understand and navigate complex regional conflicts. To build local peacebuilders’ connections and leadership, the project held an inter-state dialogue forum and co-hosted a National Conference on the Management of Farmer-Herder Relations in summer 2022 (photo above).

Psychological trauma can be widespread in communities impacted by violent conflict and insecurity. The Protecting Our Communities Initiative has provided counseling to more than 650 people impacted by trauma, and trained 195 peer counselors so far. Photo above: participants practice mindfulness through weaving.