Report of Documentation of Annual Project Progress (Year2) (Milestone No.55) Conflict Mitigation through Community Mediation Program

The program aims to improve mediation services for marginalized community people, increase participation of youth and women in local government planning and peace building processes, and increase community awareness on conflict management and mitigation. Mandwi is implementing the program in six Terai districts, with local project-implementing partners including Save the Saptari, Samagra Jana Utthan Kendra, Community Family Welfare Association (CFWA), Aastha Nepal, Village Community Development Center (VCDC), and working in Saptari, Sarlahi, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Siraha, and Rautahat respectively. The first year of the program focused on establishing office, signing partnership with local NGOs, and obtaining Project Agreement approval from the Social Welfare Council (SWC). An office was established in Gaur, Rautahat, and an office in Kathmandu was also established during this reporting period. Based on Rapid Based Assessment (RBA), 24 village development committees (VDCs) were selected as project areas, and some of them were merged into municipalities according to the government rule. Community Mediation Coordination Committee (CMCC) were formed in each district in composition of district level government line agencies and civil society organization to have program oversight. In addition, the program trained 36 selected Masters' trainers on basic community mediation and 648 community mediators (27 community mediators in each working VDCs) were selected and trained by the Masters' trainers. Similarly, 24 Community Mediation Centers (CMC) were established at VDC offices with basic equipment support. Those centers are currently offering mediation services to the local people through the trained community mediators. Further, 24 Women Advocacy Platforms (WAP) and 24 Youth Advocacy Platforms (YAP) were established to increase the participation of youth and women in the community mediation, local resources mobilization, and planning processes. The second year of the project is mostly focused on continuing social marketing of CMC services and providing those services at the community. In addition, the project closely coordinated with the CMCC in formulating action plans and its implementation. It provided support to YAP and WAP in formulating their action plans and implementation. The program also developed Information, Education Communication (IEC) materials about CMC services that were disseminated through PNGOs, mediation centers, community mediators, YAP, WAP, and local level other institutions. Radio programs and Public Service Announcement (PSA) were also broadcasted in local languages. Regular strikes by the Madhesi Morcha in Terai were gradually normalized, and the agitation was centralized in Kathmandu. Therefore, CMCM program activities, including CMCC review, YAP, WAP review, community mediators' review, were carried out. Mandwi focused on capacity building of PNGOs in conflict mitigation and management. Mandwi encouraged them to develop their policy, guidelines, and reflect CMM in their constitution, mission, vision, and goal. All the PNGOs have developed their policy, guidelines accordingly. Mandwi also supported to build their monitoring and evaluation capacity. Mandwi technically supported to develop their project performance management plan so that they could establish monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system at their organizations. Finally, M&E system was established at all partners' level, and they reported to Mandwi based on it to meet the annual PPRI (Performance Planning and Reporting Indicators) as a requirement of USAID. Community mediators are facing problems in handling group conflict (lack of skill). Mainstreaming mediation centers in local government, referral of cases from police and court to mediation centers, and more coordination with District Development Committee (DDC), district court, District Administration Office (DAO), and other key stakeholders for strong referral mechanism are the challenges faced by the program. Actions taken include coordinating with CMCC members at district level and Mediation Council at national level to explore the potential program, advance mediation training to community mediators, and integration with concerned agencies. The program has achieved planned activities for Q1 and Q2. Office was established in one of the project districts (Milestone 1), Mandwi capacity was assessed (Milestone 2), partnership was established (Milestone 3), partners' capacity was assessed (Milestone 4), partners' training was prepared (Milestone 5), and partner training was conducted (Milestone 6). The program has also established 24 Community Mediation Centers (CMC) at VDC offices with basic equipment support. Those centers are currently offering mediation services to the local people through the trained community mediators.