The EU- funded project ‘Building Peace from the Inside: Supporting Insider Mediation for Sustainable Transformation of Conflict’ took place from January 2020 to April 2022 in Burundi, Niger and Zimbabwe, and it was implemented by an international consortium of NGOs including Berghof Foundation, Interpeace and Search for Common Ground. The project aimed to provide insider mediators in the three countries with skills, mediation opportunities, and a national and international community of practice so to strengthen local, national and international efforts for conflict transformation. Contexts and approaches varied, but the project included a mapping of actors and processes, capacity-development, mediations, pre- and post-mediation activities, and gatherings of mediators both in- country and internationally.
The project involved over 250 mediators and touched over 7000 people. By the end of the project, 93% of key actors in all countries reported that they could collaborate to contribute to national efforts for peace and stability. In both Burundi and Niger, 100% of community members and authorities reported that mediators have strengthened local and national capacities for conflict transformation. Almost 100% of IMs in all countries reported seeing value in being part of a group of local and national insider mediators to contribute to peace and stability.
