SFCG in the Great Lakes Region

SFCG has developed a regional strategy in the Great Lakes, across its Rwanda, Burundi and DRC programs. The strategy takes into account the dual character of the conflicts in the region: both local/national and with regional dimension. SFCG in the region seeks to inspire key people from diverse groups to become actors for social change and actively contribute to both peace and reconciliation in their communities.

SFCG is currently participating in several projects with a regional dimension, including:

• a project funded by USAID that aims to strengthening repatriation, and reintegration through information and conflict transformation in Burundi, and Eastern DRC; and
• a project funded by USAID entitled Supporting Trading For Peace in the Great Lakes, which overall goal is for trade routes between Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda to be more secure for regional economic activities;
• a media and outreach initiative funded by the Swedish government that aims to support civil society engagement in peace and security issues in the Great Lakes.

Génération Grands Lacs (GGL)

This 60-minute live phone-in talk show for youth is simulcast on five radio stations in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo every Saturday afternoon, providing young people an unprecedented opportunity to talk, listen, and learn about the issues and challenges facing their region.

Each week GGL addresses a different theme such as identity, manipulation by leaders, gender, violence, youth participation in political life, issues of ethnicity and nationality, etc. The format includes invited studio guests, pre-recorded interviews, voice-on-the street interviews, music, and audience call-in. Listeners participate by calling in, sending SMS (text messages), or by email. Listening sessions, organized in collaboration with a university student’s network, are held in high schools and universities in the three countries, encouraging youth to listen, phone in, and discuss the subject after the program ends.

Each week the place of broadcast rotates between Kigali, Bujumbura and Kinshasa. The radio station webstreams the live broadcast, which is then picked up by the other four stations who broadcast it on FM. Young journalists from the partner radio stations host the program, and invite callers to phone-in in any of the six major languages of the region. GGL was launched at the end of 2006 and a recent survey showed that 63% of students from the three countries regularly listen to the program.

In collaboration with the Great Lakes Inter-University and Youth Forum, listening sessions are organised in universities and secondary schools each week during the broadcast of GGL, followed by a facilitated discussion. Forum members then gather ideas and concerns from the listeners and feed these into joint planning sessions with the GGL journalists from the partner radio stations.

Read an early press release about Génération Grands Lacs: English [pdf] | Français [pdf]