* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The needs of each local community must be the focal point when creating stability in fragile states. That is why Danish Refugee Council is working closely together with local communities in their efforts to push for stabilization and peaceful conflict management in fragile states. In Somalia they have already seen positive results.
Nearly 80% of conflicts in fragile states such as Somalia and Afghanistan are locally rooted. The local community should thus be the focal point in solving these conflicts, starting from a village level. Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is leading this approach by valuing local presence, dialogue and exchange of experiences.
”In our approach, stabilizing efforts start on a local level. We need to get into the villages to understand the local patterns of conflict and help relevant institutions within the villages to take responsibility. These communities have good and long traditions of peaceful conflict management. We should not forget that”, explains Ann Mary Olsen, head of DRC’s International Department.
When working in the field, DRC asks the local community which problems they indentify as most critical and then uses that as point of departure for their stabilization efforts.
In Somalia, DRC’s demining section, Danish Demining Group (DDG), is already working with conflict management in local communities. It was particularly useful when a primary school in Gedo region in southern Somalia was shut down due to internal disagreements.
In the Dorrow district in Gedo there is only one primary school, which is always struggling with shortness of teachers, classrooms and teaching materials. The school has more than 120 students and just two paid teachers, a headmaster and one volunteer teacher. In April 2013 the students were sent home, and the school was closed for several weeks because of a conflict among the teachers.
To approach the conflict, DDG facilitated a 4-day conflict management training in May. 80 people from the community; elders, men, women, boys, girls and decision makers participated in the training where emphasis was on providing the local community with tools to manage conflicts and find solutions to minor disagreements before they escalate into bigger conflicts.
The participants reached a joint decision to stop the school conflict as it was affecting the whole community. They established a conflict management committee, and in a joint effort the committee and the teachers found a solution, enabling the school to re-open so the children could go back to school.
Halimo Hashi, a mother to one of the children affected by the conflict, participated in the conflict workshop and is pleased that they found a solution: ”I am happy to see our children resuming their classes with no more interruption and their teachers shaking hands”, she says.
Dialogue and exchange of experiences are highly valued approaches in DRC’s work in fragile states. Only through local involvement can stabilizing efforts be adjusted according to the local communities’ priorities and needs.
”We must listen to the many years of experience with local conflict management that are hidden within civil society and its institutions, including traditional civil society institutions. We must ensure that their priorities set the agenda, not ours”, Ann Mary Olsen explains.
And the efforts have been fruitful. In an extensive evaluation, three out of four respondents within DRC’s focal areas in Somalia say that the program has reduced conflicts in their village. The fear of weapons and mine accidents has been reduced with 70%, and after the implementation of the program, 64% say that they no longer experience security problems.
Danish Refugee Council’s work in fragile states always has a humanitarian focus and remains neutral and impartial in matters of conflict and political interests.
