Bishoftu – The Ministry of Peace of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) partners - IOM, UNESCO, UNDP, and UN WOMEN – met (5-7/02) for an annual review of the “Inclusive Governance and Conflict Management Support to Ethiopia” project.

The project has been supporting the Government of Ethiopia to strengthen peace processes at all levels, and to increase security and social cohesion in conflict prone areas. This involves enhancing the capacity of state and non-state actors to respond to the needs and grievances of conflict affected communities.

The review meeting, attended by implementing agencies and counterparts from Somali, Oromia and SNNPR regional governments and civil society organisations, was meant to take stock of the achievements, challenges and lessons learned to inform future interventions.

Following communal conflict that led to internal displacements in parts of Ethiopia between 2017 and 2019, the absence of a national peacebuilding strategy made it difficult to facilitate engagement for conflict prevention and genuine reconciliation in affected communities.

For example, upon return to Yirgachefe district in Gedeo Zone, which experienced communal conflict and massive displacement of people since 2018, many returnees received limited humanitarian and development support.

Moreover, recurrent conflict along the border areas of Gedeo and West Guji zones of SNNP regional state continued to require interventions to build confidence between the two communities. The conflict there left nearly 800,000 people displaced. Millions more have been displaced across the country due to perennial communal conflict.

Recognising this, in March 2019 the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) launched a USD 2.8 million joint project to help drive a national process for peacebuilding and inclusive development, in turn supporting the broader process of inclusive reform by the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy.

Since the launch, the PBF project has successfully completed a series of activities including creation of partnerships with federal and regional government institutions and civil society organizations (CSOs) and strengthening their capacity to ensure effective implementation of peacebuilding initiatives.

The project is targeting conflict prone woredas (districts) in the two regional clusters and works primarily on peace building interventions in areas bordering Oromia and Somali, and Oromia and SNNP regional states.

There have been some notable achievements.  Thirty-one cultural leaders from Gedeo and Guji have been trained in statutory conflict management mechanisms; one regional and eight community level dialogue sessions have been organized and attended by 786 people. Another 903 people have received training on gender sensitive conflict transformation and peacebuilding while some 495 people have attended Women Peace Forum for inclusive peacebuilding.

Moreover, 72 journalists were trained in gender sensitive conflict reporting and peace journalism.  Sports related activities have been organized as part of community peace initiatives.

Still, challenges remain. Returnees and host communities frequently mentioned lack of infrastructure and services to accommodate the influx of those returning to their homes.

Based on these needs and priorities, IOM has launched a project to rehabilitate 11 schools and 1 clinic. This is part of an initiative to foster social cohesion among the community to avoid further conflict due to pressure on limited resource.

Ahamed Yuya, Head of Somali-Oromia Bilateral Peace and Development Bureau said, ‘’for any peacebuilding interventions, it is important to work not only with community members but also with the community leaders. Peacebuilding initiatives needs to strike from grass-root level to the national level and the engagement of youth needs to be crucially mainstreamed in all the interventions’’.

Participants agreed on the need to strengthen youth engagement in national, regional and sub-national peace efforts, strengthening peace efforts in state universities, supporting community level conflict prevention initiatives, and initiating advocacy campaigns in communities to foster social cohesion and sustainable peace.

The United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) addresses immediate needs in countries and communities emerging from conflict when enough resources are not available from other funding mechanisms, and it supports interventions of direct and immediate relevance to the peacebuilding and political dialogue process. It addresses critical gaps in those early stages, including re-establishing essential administrative services and, where possible, stimulating economic revitalization.

For further information, please contact Eric Mazango at IOM Ethiopia, Tel: +251.11. 6611117 (Ext. 456), Email: emazango@iom.int