DRC: New Collaboration in DR Congo Strengthens Women's Participation in Peacework

Violence, harassment, slander and threats, poverty, corruption – the obstacles for women taking part in the daily life and future of their societies are many in the war-torn DR Congo. And the escalation of the conflict in eastern DR Congo the last couple of months, has once again made it evident that women are especially targeted. Several of the organizations in the region working with women's rights and peace, have been subjected to violent threats and harassment.

In DR Congo, politics is not considered to be something for women to occupy themselves with. For many women the mere thought of participating on a political level is totally alien and women who do go into politics are at times even singled out as “rebels” and “prostitutes”.

Still there are many strong women in the country who are trying to increase women's involvement. To support these struggles and to contribute to a more equal and sustainable peace, two Swedish orgainzations – The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and the Life & Peace Institute – have teamed up to finance a three-year-long project for women on conflict resolution.

The Life & Peace Institute has worked with peace processes on a local level in eastern DR Congo for many years.

- For several years we have tried to get a gender perspective into our work, but we haven't been able to do it systematically. With the help of The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and the Congolese women's organizations that they work with, we hope to reach more women and make sure that their voices also are heard when local disputes are being resolved, says Zaurati Nasibu at Life & Peace in Bukavu, eastern Congo.

The conflict resolution method used by Life & Peace is based on long-term work to resolve local conflicts, with as many parties as possible involved in achieving peace. So far, however, too few women have been present and active.

- We advertise about information meetings, but not many women come. Clearly we have to have a different approach. Perhaps we should invite women separately? says Loochi Muzaliwa from Life & Peace.

- We women's organizations also work with women's peace issues, but we lack strategies and we don't have the right connections. In this project we can all come together with our different points of view, but with the common idea that women are central in achieving lasting peace. We are very positive about this collaboration, it feels really important, says Gege Katana from the women's rights and peace organization Solidarité des Femmes Activistes Pour la Défense des Droits Huimains, SOFAD, in Uvira.

The project kicked off in November 2012, when men and women from nine different women's and peace organizations from eastern Congo came together in a two-day-meeting held in Bukavu. They discussed everything from how traditions discriminate women, to what the UN resolution 1325 on women, peace and security really means.

“Can we talk about women's rights and participation at the same time?” one of the participants asked himself and initiated a loud discussion. “People have no idea that there even is a UN resolution on women in conflicts – education and training will be needed,” another person around the table said. “Women make up half the society and are the war's main victims. They must be part of the work otherwise the peace won´t last,” a third participant pointed out.

The meeting ended with the participants listing the concrete tools they thought they would need to be able to work more systematically with peace and women's participation.

The peace organizations expressed a desire to learn more about what a gender perspective really means and of legal and other documents that support women's rights. The women's organizations wanted to learn more about mediation, negotiation techniques and conflict analysis.

- In AFEM (Association des Femmes des Médias) we support women in rural areas and often help out as mediators when women who have been raped have been disowned by their families. We need to learn more about good mediation techniques, so that we really can help people reconcile, says Julienne Baseke.

The next participants meeting will take place early 2013. After that a pilot project related to Life & Peace's conflict resolution method will be launched in one of the villages in the region that currently is dealing with a conflict. With the help of women's organizations participating, the hope is for more women to be able to share in the talks to reach a solution.