From September 2019 to November 2021, Search implemented the project “Together For Security – Improving Civilian Protection through Civil Society in DRC,” which put Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) at the center of a strategy to drive constructive engagement and advocacy for security sector accountability.
In the DRC, despite efforts by the authorities to hold accountable perpetrators of abuses among the police and the army, impunity prevails and further exacerbates the population’s mistrust of the security forces. In this context, this project supported local CSOs to develop and deepen relationships and trust with security forces, cooperate with them to work on the issue of accountability, and foster the sustainability of civil protection efforts through shifting norms linked to the roles of civilians and security forces around security issues, and inducing change in security forces’ behavior.
Search provided CSOs with financial support, training, and advocacy and networking opportunities which reinforced their capacities to address human rights and security issues, and to engage with security forces. Concrete evidence of increased trust in the CSOs’ ability to collaborate with the PNC and influence security sector policies and practices related to accountability and human rights validates the relevance of the project’s focus on CSOs as agents of change. Through inclusive and participatory activities, the project brought together members from civil society and the PNC for the first time, resulting in increased mutual understanding. The project particularly improved the relationship between civil society and the PNC around acknowledging, preventing, addressing and denouncing security sector abuses, with some concrete examples of changes in the PNC’s practices. The project contributed to initiating a change of perception on the relevance of security issues for women and the role of women, with concrete examples of women’s empowerment in a conservative local context.
