FY16 Quarter 3 Report: April 1 – June 30, 2016

This will be achieved through a holistic people-to-people approach that facilitates inclusive, community-led processes to mitigate current and future conflicts, increases economic cooperation across lines of division, and positively changes attitudes towards tolerance and non-violence. During the reporting period, Mercy Corps continued to support and train peace committee members and peer educators. The organization also trained community committees in the development and management of micro-projects (COGES-PC) and worked with the COGES-PC to identify intercommunity economic and social projects. Mercy Corps held tripartite meetings with the project team, the inter-religious platform of Bouar (PIRB), and the peace committees in Bouar and Niem to develop strategies to adopt and resolve intergroup conflicts identified during the March 2016 workshop. The security situation in Bouar remained relatively calm during the reporting period, but inter-community tensions remained high. In Koui and Ngaoui areas, tensions forced populations to flee and find refuge in the forest or in neighboring Cameroon. Tensions and violent clashes were also reported on the Niem-Yelewa axis. In April, the program was forced to suspend its activities in the area for a week until the situation improved. Mercy Corps continued to work with the 16 peace committees established and trained during the earlier stage of the program. The peace committees facilitated the resolution of three conflicts in the commune of Niem and the village of Kankan, located on the Bouar-Bozoum axis. The conflicts were resolved through mediation, facilitation, and dispute resolution processes. The peace committees also organized awareness sessions for community members to promote peaceful resolution of inter-group disputes and inter-group dialogue. During the reporting period, Mercy Corps held various meetings with the peace committees and the representatives of the interreligious platforms in Bouar. The organization organized 6 meetings to assist the peace committees in developing their action plans to resolve the conflicts they had identified during the March workshops. All peace committees were able to finalize an action plan with the support of the program facilitators. Follow-up meetings were also organized to monitor progress made towards the action plans, identify shortcomings, and provide support. The program team will organize refresher trainings in July 2016 for each of the peace committees of Bouar to enhance their competencies in mediation, facilitation, and conflict resolution. The trainings will be led by international consultants and will focus on building the capacity of the peace committees to lead conflict resolution activities. Mercy Corps also continued to work with partners to help set-up three additional committees for the management of micro-projects (COGES-PC). Overall, since the beginning of the program, Mercy Corps has supported the development of 16 COGES-PC, reaching a total of 144 members, including 48 women. In June 2016, the peace committees and the peer educators organized 16 community fora to solicit inter-group economic and social projects. During these fora, participants worked in groups to identify potential community projects that meet the program objectives and the criteria of selection. Overall, 1,514 people participated in the forum, among which 553 women and 961 men. Youth represented almost half (49%) of the total participants. The low representation of Muslims in certain districts of Bouar, which is divided into districts (where in some you do not find Muslims at all), in particular the 1, 2, and 3 districts, and the distrust that remains between the communities, explain the low participation of Muslims in the fora. Mercy Corps is working with communities and partners to bridge the divide and build connections between these communities to promote peaceful coexistence.