National Feedback Meeting to Define Strategies For Reduction of Conflict And Violence in Uganda.

The Peace Centre in partnership with the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Conflict Early Warning and Early Response system (CEWERU) convened a two day feedback meeting from 10th- 11th March with the National Steering Committee to share early warning reports from the Peace Committees in Kotido, Yumbe and Adjumani and discuss effective and early response to prevent and mitigate conflicts in Uganda. The feedback meeting will be used in laying of strategies and actions for reduction of conflict and violence in Uganda.

Read More “National Feedback Meeting to Define Strategies For Reduction of Conflict And Violence in Uganda.”

Strengthening The Capacity of Civil Society, Just Future the Alliance

The Peace Centre is excited to be a part of Just Future, an Alliance that will over the next 5years, work towards fair, equitable & inclusive justice, security and peace in Afghanistan, Burundi, DRC, Mali, Niger and South Sudan. The alliance has been formed in response to the challenges of a fragile world. Consisting of 6 established CSOs and networks, from the Global North and South, our work will strengthen the capacity of CSOs and enable their collective action to bring about more inclusive, constructive and legitimate power relations.


Just Future’s vision is of a world in which all people in fragile states benefit from more accessible, responsive and accountable security and justice institutions, and more inclusive arrangements for political governance and peace-making. Just- future is seeking to change the current state of life because conflict and violence are the most significant obstacles to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Just Future will foreground the needs and demands of women and girls, the commitment of men to achieving gender equality and preventing sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV), and realizing political power for young women & men—the majority of the population in all 6 countries.


Just Future will be delivered by a consortium including the African Security Sector Network, a pan-African network working to facilitate progress towards the achievement of effective and democratically governed security sectors across Africa. Cordaid; a Dutch humanitarian and development NGO, working in the most fragile and conflict-affected contexts on challenges in the security and justice, health, education, and humanitarian protection sectors, among others. Search for Common Ground which is a US- and EU-based international non-profit operating in 36 countries, with a mission to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. The Liaison Office (TLO) is an independent Afghan non-governmental organization seeking to improve local governance, stability and security through engagement with customary structures, local communities, and CSOs. In the Alliance, TLO represents the SALAH Consortium of CSOs. West African Network for Peacebuilding is a leading regional peacebuilding organization with strong national networks in every West African state, focusing on collaborative approaches to conflict prevention and peacebuilding and Women’s International Peace Centre is a transnational feminist organization working to empower women from different countries in Africa and Asia by supporting their active participation in peacebuilding processes.

The Just Future Alliance also includes The Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and State-building as its network partner. The Rift Valley Institute, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Van Vollenhoven Institute at Leiden University as research partners. As Just Future will be funded through a Power of Voices Strategic Partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, the Ministry will also contribute to program implementation.

Focus on The Gendered Impact of Climate Change and Women and Girls’ Right to Peace.

The Peace Centre in partnership with Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAP) and the Women Peace and Security Centre of the London School of Economics (LSE) studied the intersection between environmental conflict, peace and gender. This was to provide recommendations for the international community for how it can better ensure that women and girls’ human rights can be delivered despite the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change.

Read More “Focus on The Gendered Impact of Climate Change and Women and Girls’ Right to Peace.”

The Peace Centre Trains 540 Election Observers in Uganda

In preparation for the 2021 presidential election, the Peace Centre conducted fourteen(14) election observer training in different districts in Uganda which were concluded on a final training held from 9th– 13th January 2021 in Kampala. The Peace Centre recruited a total of 540 election observers selected from sub-counties in Arua, Kassanda and Kapelebyong in addition to other districts of Soroti, Lira, Amuria, Kampala, Sembabule, Luwero, Ntugamo, Rukungiri, Yumbe, Kotido and Adjumani.

The training was successful in ensuring that each district had 40 trained election observers with election observation materials deployed to observe elections from 14th to January to 22nd January.

Election observation is a valuable tool for improving the quality of elections and creates confidence in elections that can help promote sound democratic practices. This is vital as Uganda has not experienced peaceful, violent free democratic electoral processes since the introduction of multi-party politics in 1988. The political environment in the build-up to, during, and after elections has over the years become increasingly charged with reports of harassment, intimidation, acts of corruption, human rights abuses perpetrated by different political opponents.


To ensure a difference this year, the election observers were trained on Electoral Commission election observation guidelines, laws related to election observation, do’s and don’ts of an election observer, and provided tools for data collection. This enabled them to monitor elections and document electoral violence incidences in the eleven districts.


Now and the Future Gender Equality, Peace and Security in a COVID-19 World- Uganda

The Peace Centre with the support of Womankind Worldwide and Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS) undertook a research in Uganda to better understand the context-specific and global gender, peace and security impacts of COVID-19 and develop policy and programming responses which account for the impact of COVID-19.

The findings indicate the gendered effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable and marginalised groups in the urban, rural and refugee settlement contexts. The findings highlight the impact of the pandemic on the community, especially on women’s and girls’ roles, responsibilities, needs and livelihoods. They also highlight gender-based violence (GBV), as well as how these different groups of women and girls are coping with the crisis.

The South Sudan Peace Process- The Role and Prospects for Women Refugees Conference Report

From 25th to 26th February 2020, The Peace Centre with support from FOKUS and UN Women convened a dialogue under the theme “The
South Sudan Peace Process; The Role and Prospects
for Refugee Women” to provide a platform for refugee women to understand and receive updates on the peacebuilding processes, link the refugee women with other women involved in advocacy towards engendering the peace processes in South Sudan and ignite women’s ability to participate in the formal and informal peacebuilding processes right from the refugee settlement for sustainable peace in South Sudan. 

This report shares details of the proceedings of the conference.

 

Training of Refugee Women Leaders as Mediators in Advocacy for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding.

The Peace Centre trained 78 refugee women in December 2019 and they have participated in the formal and informal decision making forums for peace. To further strengthen their skills. The trainings enhanced the capacity of 90 peace mediators; 40 in Yumbe from 7th to 9th September 2020 and 35 in Adjumani from 10th to 12th September 2020 and 15 in Kotido from 19th to 21st August 2020.

During the training the 75 women peace mediators discussed what they did with the skills they obtained during the mediation training in December 2019, with demonstrations on how they handled the conflict cases and they were guided. The training also focused more on advocacy for conflict prevention and peace building, OPM community based service department took participants through the referral pathway, new action plans were developed and participants went out to implement.  The 15 participants in Kotido included community development officers whose involvement in peace building has been low since they had never been targeted with peace building initiatives yet are key if peace is to be realized.    

Women and Peace Building in Africa Conference

The University of Wisconsin – Madison in partnership with African researchers, Isis Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) and Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) conducted a research project that looks at the cost of women’s exclusion and the possibilities for their inclusion in peace processes, peacebuilding, and politics in countries affected by war in Africa. The research project also examined the struggle for women’s rights, legal reform and political representation as one important arena for stemming the tide of extremism related to violence in Africa.

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