D.R. Congo

Search for Common Ground in the DRC (SFCG), known locally as Centre Lokolé was established in 2001 to support communication around the Inter-Congolese Dialogue.

SFCG uses a wide range of peace-building tools, including common-ground media production, joint cultural and sporting activities, participatory theatre, and media and conflict transformation trainings. These tools address the principle threats to the long term stability of the DRC, and aim to prevent violence. SFCG’s tools are designed to permit flexibility and strategic repositioning according to new challenges and opportunities.  SFCG aims to contribute to the consolidation of democracy by improving the population’s knowledge of citizen participation and accountability under the new democratic dispensation, while encouraging dialogue and participatory decision-making between the population and their elected leaders. Faced with ongoing insecurity and human rights abuses, particularly in the east, as well as tensions around refugee return and internal displacement, SFCG’s activities seek to renew relationships broken over years of war through communication and collaboration.

SFCG has approximately 50 staff members in offices in Kinshasa and Bukavu, with sub-offices in Baraka, Uvira and Moba, and collaborates with approximately 100 local partners in all current and future provinces of the DRC. These partners are primarily local radio stations, as well as civil society networks, religious organizations and youth networks.

With this vision in mind, SFCG in DRC gives priority to the following thematic areas :

1. Democracy and Governance
2. Security Sector Reform
3. Peaceful return of refugees and IDPs
4. Repairing relationships between divided communities in DRC and the region (or Social cohesion?)

• Download Programme Overview (PDF) | Vue l'ensemble du programme (PDF)
• Download SFCG's Regional Strategy for the Great Lakes and Angola (PDF) | Vue la stratégie régionale dans les grands lacs et en Angola (PDF)
• Programme Update (March-June 2007) - English: PDF HTML | Français: PDF HTML | Archive

March-June 2007 Issue

1. Country Context

2. SFCG Gets Katanga Acting

3. Football for Peace

4. SFCG Partners with Top National Private Radio Station

5. Launch of Mobile Common Ground Journalism Trainings

6. Building Peace, One Goat at a Time

7. Great Lakes Update

Democracy and Governance
SFCG works towards improving information access and dialogue among Congolese citizens, media, civil society and their elected leaders. In the context of the DRC’s new democracy and young institutions, SFCG programming aims to raise awareness amongst citizens on principles, practices, and structures of their new democracy, including their rights and responsibilities within it, and foster links between policy makers, civil society and the media on issues of civic participation, public policy, and governance. [more]

Security Sector Reform
Years of war and insecurity, in which members of the various armed forces have abused human rights, have tarnished military-civilian relations. SFCG supports the ongoing Security Sector Reform in collaboration with the Congolese army, in a project to reinforce their respect of human rights, enhance their conflict transformation skills, and improve military-civilian relations.  The aims of this work are to raise awareness of human rights and conflict transformation within the Congolese army, and raise their capacity to train others in these areas; to raise awareness amongst civilians of the DDR and SSR processes underway and support their successful realisation; and to encourage close monitoring through military committees to track human rights violations by soldiers through the justice system. [more]

Repatriation
SFCG fosters peaceful reintegration of Congolese returnees in South Kivu and north Katanga by providing information that enables refugees to make informed decisions about return and by fostering dialogue and collaborative approaches to conflict between returnees and residents in the zones of return. In order to contribute to the reintegration of refugees in DRC, SFCG makes use of key tools such as radio programming, participatory theatre and community outreach. [more]

Social Cohesion in DRC and the region
Years of war and displacement have impacted on the relationships between diverse communities in DRC and the region. These divides play themselves out along ethnic, tribal and nationality lines. They also become evident between polarized groups such as demobilized soldiers, returned refugees, and between military and civilians.
SFCG aims to repair these relationships through joint activities using media, culture, sports, conflict transformation trainings, festivals and communal projects. [more]

Great Lakes Generation (Generation Grands Lacs)
GGL is a weekly radio program that is broadcast through an innovative use of internet, telephone and FM technology. 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. [more]

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