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‘We Cannot Just Have Peace, We Also Have to Live’
Since 1992 the Life and Peace Institute, an international and ecumenical peace research institute, has supported locally based peace processes in Somalia, to begin with in a consultative role together with the UN. However, when UNOSOM left in 1995, the Institute had established an ongoing support and capacity building program all over Somalia, which later came to be extended also to Somaliland. LPI’s Susanne Thurfjell explains the Institute’s guiding principles and approach to peace-building.
Somalia ... to most people the very name conjures up images of war-lords, anarchy and destruction. In fact the expression ‘failed state’ was first heard in connection with Somalia. Seven years have elapsed since the civil war broke out. During these years, security has been fragile, and fighting has continued in many places. However, it has also been noticeable that in the areas where the local authorities have been strong, more or less functioning local governance has been established, fragile and threatened, but still securing a basis for work towards some form of normalcy. In the Republic of Somaliland, which declared itself independent in 1991, a peace and reconciliation process through the elders has resulted in a national government, which has yet to be internationally recognized.
The daunting challenge for the people of Somalia has been - and still is - to find a way to move from a state of fighting and anarchy to a peaceful society, although there is no central government, not even a general peace agreement, to serve them as a starting point.
An alternative way forward is indicated through this social movement that takes place within the Somali society. It starts locally in the communities where people are involving themselves, taking responsibility for security and rehabilitation of their own community. The elders process in Somaliland is one example, the recently formed regional administration of Puntland is another expression. In the central region, around Mogadishu and in the south, they are striving in similar directions.
One of the most interesting peace and reconciliation processes was the so-called Boroma process. It went on throughout 1992-93 in Somaliland, initiated and led by the elders of the conflicting clans, starting locally on sub-clan level and moving upwards through society to clan level and from there to a national level, culminating in the so-called Boroma conference, which was supported by the Life and Peace Institute. At that meeting all clans of Somaliland were represented through their elders, and in a remarkable Somali and participatory way they elected a government and a president. Both the government and the president have since been contested, but few Somalis, not even those who are unhappy with the outcome of the Boroma conference, would question the legitimacy and authority of the process that led to the outcome.
Somalia: Peace conference, December 1996. Foto Susanne Thurfjell
In Somalia the situation was more confusing. The elders’ institution had become more corrupt during Barre’s regime and their moral authority was often eroded. In 1994 LPI started to give technical administrative training to the members of the councils that were being rehabilitated in all the districts in the country, through a team of ten Somali trainers/teachers which had received training at the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute. For some time a training centre was established in Baidoa, but the occupation of Baidoa by General Aideed’s troops made the situation too uncertain so instead the training team travelled over the country setting up regional workshops. Since 1994, more than 2,000 council members have received basic administrative and executive training. At the same time, the councils have been equipped with a basic kit for administration and a building has been rehabilitated for the council to be housed.
The assumption was that if the councils were equipped and the members were trained they would be able to perform their services to the communities and a strengthened basic structure for local governance would emerge. Out of this structure the regional and national authorities would then grow.
This was right in the way that when the councils were better equipped they had greater possibilities to meet the demands of their communities, and in some districts this worked. Above all, it has been quite noticeable that the training increased the awareness among the council members, and also in the communities in general, about the necessity to build representative and democratic structures in the communities. Many participants in our workshops have expressed hope and a renewed energy to tackle the problems in their areas.
It was wrong in the assumption that a sound and functioning administration
would come automatically, once the ‘tools’ were provided through
training and basic material resources. Experience showed that
for the local authorities to function, there were many components
that had to fall into place. There had to be a mutual relationship
of trust and accountability between the people in the communities
and their local leadership. Where this was not to be found, the
councils remained passive or even disintegrated.
‘The guiding principle behind our activities is the bottom-up
approach. Local communities’s capacities are strengthened through
carefully tailored intervention measures aimed at assisting them
to use their indigenous knowledge, cultural and social resources
and traditional structures. We call it A Community Based Building
of Peace and Democracy.’
To broaden the approach and give a more comprehensive support to the capacity building programs for the councils, LPI, in 1997, added new components to the training curriculum. Topics such as conflict transformation, reconciliation and peace-building, democratic values and leadership, gender, human rights, development and resource management, small arms and conflict. The new curriculum evolved in cooperation with the trainees and it grew into a regular Civic Education Program. The over- riding questions in the training sessions are: How do these issues relate to the situation in Somalia, and how do they relate to an inclusive peace process? What can we ourselves do to bring peace?
Other groups within civil society have requested LPI to provide similar training for them. In 1996 LPI widened the target groups in order to include groups of teachers, journalists and media personnel, police and law enforcement officials, artists, etc. In Somaliland the parliamentarians have requested a workshop on the Civic Education including also sessions on constitutional order, relationship between public and private spheres, and good governance. For each different target group the curriculum and the training is adapted to their special perspective and needs. During 1998 the work has continued and has included business people, elders, traditional birth attendants etc.
The stated aim of LPI’s Somalia/Somaliland Program was to identify
and support broad-based, long-term participatory peace processes,
based in the communities, initiated and owned by the people in
those communities. Certain social groups stood out as strategically
important, local authorities, elders councils and women, and they
became the focus of the capacity building program, which evolved
out of the situation on the ground. The four major components
of the programme are: 1. Support to locally initiated elders’ reconciliation conferences. To implement this vast training program LPI has grown considerably
from being a research institute based in Uppsala, Sweden, to having
a busy regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, with five zonal offices
inside Somalia/Somaliland. A staff of 30 are involved in the training
programs, coordinated by four senior staff at the regional office.
In 1998 LPI also started a Civic Education Program in southern
Sudan.
Components of the programme
2. Capacity-building/Institutional Support programs for district,
and village councils.
3. Capacity-building program for women.
4. Civic Education Program, which now constitutes a major component
of
all programs, whether for Institutional Support or the Women’s
Program.
From the very start of LPI’s involvement in Somalia, LPI has aimed at supporting and strengthening the women -particularly on community level- in their work for peace, and in their efforts to participate as ‘full members’ in the Somali society. Women play a new and for them unaccustomed role in the new civil movement, to such an extent that they are often referred to as the ‘social and economic back-bone of Somalia. They have also a natural inclination to be bridge builders between the clans. A woman belongs to her fathers clan, but through marriage close ties are created with the husband’s clan, particularly since the children belong to the clan of the husband. This bridge-building capacity of the women has always been used to create bonds between the clans, also in traditional reconciliation processes.
In 1994, two women from each region were given training as LPI resource persons. They were then to help LPI to arrange training sessions in each region for women in the districts. Since then 960 women have participated in 24 workshops in many different places in Somalia. The women are active on community level, they come from all clans and all areas of Somalia, and attend the workshops in order to discuss how they can work together for peace. They discuss how to organize themselves, strengthen and support each other and find ways of working together with the men for a future for their families and people. Selection criteria guarantee that participants have an active interest to work for their communities and that they are respected in their communities.
Since tensions and suspicions between clans can be intense, these workshops have provided a possibility for the women to come together and build bridges across clan-lines. Later interregional workshops provided that bridge-building space across regional boundaries. Workshops for business women and political women were also held. New resource persons have been trained and are now to be found in all regions in Somalia and Somaliland.
It is true that the women have had more than their share in the gruesome suffering caused by the war. Much of the advancement that women had gained during Barre’s time suffered a set back during the war. It is equally true, however, that the war has opened new venues for the women in Somalia. Before the war only educated women in the capital and main towns made advancements. The war has provided new opportunities, particularly in the trade and commerce sector for women.
The central element to LPI’s approach to peace-building is to empower local actors. The approach starts at the community level, eventually aiming to lay the foundations for regional and national reconciliation. All through its involvement in the Horn of Africa, LPI has had as a guiding principle that the process has to be based on and firmly rooted in the local communities. The strategic actors are representatives, men and women, of local communities, enjoying trust and confidence in their communities. From there it can grow and gradually transform the entire society into a society and culture of peace.
It is partly through the women on the ground that LPI fully came to realize the need for a more holistic approach to peace work. Peace is not abstract, it has to make a difference in the lives of people. As one woman expressed it in a workshop: ‘We cannot just have peace, we also need life!’ Peace has to take the form of a peaceful and non-violent society with respect for all people irrespective of age, sex, religion, ethnicity or clan belonging. Peace has to translate itself into security, food, health, education for the children and possibilities to make a decent living for ourselves and our families. It is not something we can sit and wait passively for others to give us, but we ourselves can, and indeed have to, keep working at it continuously.
This article is an abridged version of Susanne Thurfjell’s essay: ‘Community Based Building of Peace and Democracy in the Horn of Africa - Life and Peace Institute working to support local capacities for peace.’
REFERENCE
Building the Peace - Experiences of Collaborative Peace-building in Somalia, 1993-1996, Wolfgang Heinrich. Life and Peace Institute, 1997
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