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SFCG East Africa
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Democratic Republic of Congo
Success Stories
Peace treaty signed between the Enyele and the Munzaya communities
SFCG has spearheaded a historic peace process in Equateur province, where violent conflict in 2009 resulted in 130,000 displaced persons and refugees. Attempts to resolve the conflict were complicated because of inaccessibility into the forest areas and tight security restrictions in the region. SFCG undertook its first mission in February 2010 at the request of MONUSCO. Working in collaboration with MONUSCO, UNHCR, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), SFCG established an office in Dongo by October, to work more closely on confidence-building between the disputing communities. SFCG conducted peace building activities that included the participatory theatre, joint activities, film screenings, and the creation of a joint management committee of the disputed fishing ponds, all designed to present alternative ways of dealing with conflict. This culminated in the signing of a non-aggression pact between the two ethnic groups on March 31st 2011. In mid-2012, after two years in refugee camps in Congo-Brazzaville, refugees started to return home in large numbers. UNHCR helps the refugees cross the river, and SFCG assures that the refugees are given a hospitable welcome and are accepted into their home communities. In May alone over 1500 refugees returned, and there are plans for another 49,000 people to be repatriated before the end of the year, and an additional 32,000 in 2013. For SFCG it is the culmination of two years of hard work involving mediation, negotiation and encouraging disputing parties to find common ground.
Tomorrow is a new day – SFCG works hand in hand with the Congolese military
The Congolese military is frequently cited as one of the worst human rights violators amidst the conflict that has gripped the nation. Rather than condemning the military, SFCG works with the Congolese military in order to prevent human rights abuses. We regularly see positive results. For instance, in Ituri, 37% of the respondents stated at the start of the project that the FARDC was a source of insecurity. Halfway through the project, and after hundreds of sensitization sessions with mobile cinema screenings, comic books, radio dramas, and joint civil-military activities, this percentage was reduced to 18%. Similar effects were seen in other provinces where we are active with our army program. Joint activities between soldiers and civilians in particular are a powerful tool. Our evaluation of the community field near the military base in Nyamunyunyi locality found that 87% of residents said that they had witnessed a change in behavior in the military, citing a reduction in cases of theft, forced labour, extortion, and rape by soldiers. In Bunyakiri in South Kivu, local leaders told us that if a brigade that we had worked with were to leave their community, then they would follow them.
 Military-civilian "rapprochement activities" are a cornerstone of SFCG's work with the military. |
Community dialogue changes attitudes on violence towards women
SFCG has released an evaluation report of a project to ‘Inform Refugees and Returnees on Gender Based Violence’. With support from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, this project implemented a sensitization and dialogue strategy to reach out to returnees and adolescent youth, employing a series of activities that included Mobile Cinema Screenings and a radio program, Uishi na Upende (Live and Love), that dealt primarily with youth-related issues. The project evaluation report details numerous positive results. For instance, after witnessing the Mobile Cinema, 93% of those surveyed believed that victims of rape should speak out. When young men were asked if women were raped because they dressed too provocatively, 61% of non-viewers said yes, as opposed to only 11% of viewers. Lastly, the results also provide a compelling illustration of the merits of a “common ground approach to ‘sensitization’”. This approach does not involve transmitting ‘new’ knowledge from an elite vantage point, but rather recognizes that anti-violence attitudes are present in the community, and that through dialogue, a consensus can be built around those attitudes. The complete evaluation and a key findings report can be found here. The Mobile Cinema tool is also supported by Amnesty International and the UNHCR, and the “Live and Love” radio programme is also supported by IMC.
Thousands attend SFCG’s mobile cinema activities. Over 1,500,000 in total have taken part since we began working in the DRC.
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Evaluation by Channel Research finds numerous benefits to SFCG’s “toolkit” of activities
In March, Channel Research released an independent external evaluation of the results of SFCG programming in the DRC. The evaluation examined a range of different tools applied, including radio programming, mobile cinema, town hall forums, and military/civilian engagement, visiting project sites in both the East and West of the country. The evaluation found that SFCG’s method of employing this range of tools in various projects has been particularly effective. It found that this multifaceted approach was well-suited to diverse topics ranging from violence against women, to good governance and security sector reform. The evaluation stated that “working with the same or similar tools over many years allowed the organization to develop its expertise and to increase staff capacities consistently”. It also cited this toolkit as a reason why SFCG is “able to work at a fast pace, which can be a key success factor for good results in a fast changing conflict context”. Channel Research gave the example of SFCG’s work in Dongo, which has been covered in previous Updates. The table on the right demonstrates some of the positive results of SFCG’s work regarding military-civilian relations in that part of country. Moving forward, the evaluation recommended that SFCG continue to move towards a more programmatic or sector oriented approach, as the DRC transitions from emergency programming to development. The evaluation noted that“SFCG DRC has a lot of potential for sustainable results when intervening with multiple approaches, diverse tools and methods, and a multitude of similar messages under a number of projects”. The evaluation can be found here.
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SFCG doubles the income of community radio stations so that they may be more independent
Media production and supporting independent media is one of SFCG’s most important and widely used tools. We believe that a sustainable independent media is one of the basic pillars of a democracy. We have a network of over 85 radio partners and have trained over 640 journalists across DRC during 2011. We have found that often radio stations lose autonomy when they have a poor revenue stream. Some have even taken to broadcasting political propaganda because they receive money for doing so. For this reason, we provided radio partners with two-week trainings on budget management and fundraising. 20 community radio stations in South Kivu, Katanga, and Province Orientale benefitted via the “Media for democracy and good governance in the DRC” project, funded by DFID, FEI, and SIDA. Started in May of 2010, the project recently came to a close in April of 2012. Of the 20 radio stations we supported, eleven more than doubled their monthly income. Among other strategies, they broadcast personalized celebratory messages, started privileged membership groups, and put in place local committees that were happy to procure funds for radio stations that bring them news and entertainment. More independent, financially viable, and thereby sustainable, these radio stations are now well equipped to resist political manipulation. Read more about SFCG’s radio programming here.
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More than a story: ex-child soldiers find a new calling thanks to a radio programme
Sisi Watoto (“We the Children”) is the first programme of its kind to be produced by Congolese children for Congolese children. The programme was developed to give children a chance to speak about the issues they face in general, and to shed light on the plight of child soldiers in particular. Listeners may not be aware that one of the greatest successes of Sisi Watoto is that it changes the lives of the young journalists who work on it. Some of these young journalists were members of armed groups who chose to put down their arms and pick up microphones instead. Ruffin Luliba is an ex-child soldier who does not hide the fact that he used to be a bodyguard for the former President of the DRC, Laurent Désiré Kabila, in the jungle. Nor does he hesitate to describe how being a part of the Sisi Watoto team changed his life:
“Still quite young, I didn’t know anything about the radio. I was in the army and didn’t know how to operate in civilian life”.
Ruffin’s background touched SFCG, who took him on board as a child journalist. Ruffin explained that:
“First and foremost, I learned how to live a normal life with other kids. I also learned how to be a journalist which broadened my horizons. I soon had new goals and ambitions for my life.”
Ruffin returned to school on a scholarship offered to young Sisi Watoto journalists, then went to university, and now works as a civil servant at the customs office. He is just one of the young journalists whose lives have been changed. Sisi Watoto is broadcast weekly on 45 radio stations in Eastern DRC and approximately 42% of the population listens to it.
Ruffin’s journey from child soldier, to young reporter, to customs official |
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