G. Strengthening Conflict Management Mechanisms in the Central African
Republic (Lesson #2618)
Observation.
Supporting conflict management during a complex crisis can avert immediate retaliatory violence and
address underlying conflict drivers. After a resurgence of violence in the Central African Republic (CAR)
in 2013, the non-governmental organization Mercy Corps, with funding from the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), implemented a program to increase community resilience by
strengthening local conflict management capacities. As a result, perceptions of peace were dramatically
increased in the capital city of Bangui as disputes were solved nonviolently. While the country remains
volatile and violent, the capital has remained relatively calm and secure.
Discussion.
Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic (CAR) has experienced
turmoil, instability, socio-religious fragmentation, poverty, underdevelopment, and violence. It ranked 3 rd
out of 178 countries in the Fragile States Index (as of 2016) and 188 th out of 188 countries in the Human
Development Index (as of 2015). Violence in the CAR took a severe turn for the worse in March 2013
when a predominately Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew the President in a coup d’état. Following this
coup, predominantly Christian anti-Balaka armed groups targeted Muslim communities, leading to mass
displacement and plunging the fragile nation into cycles of retaliatory violence primarily along religious
lines.
Following this resurgence of violence (and with fears of the conflict evolving into genocide and/or ethnic
cleansing), several international stakeholders intervened. The African Union peacekeeping force MISCA
was authorized in December 2013 and transitioned in September 2014 to a UN mission, the UN
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) (whose
current mandate has been extended until 15 November 2018). International mediation efforts were led by
the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Several major international donors released
funds to support conflict resolution and peacebuilding activities.
One of these donors included USAID, which had certain funds set aside for crisis mitigation through the
Complex Crisis Fund (CCF). CCF was originally authorized by the U.S. Congress in 2010 for $100 million
dollars, appropriated in FY15 to $30 million. This was one of USAID’s only flexible sources of global,
non-earmarked funding that could enable rapid support during crises. When violence increased in the
CAR following the 2013 coup, USAID used this CCF funding to support the non-governmental
organization Mercy Corps to launch an emergency community-level violence reduction program in two
vital cities in CAR – the capital Bangui and Bouar. (This was the first time the CCF funds had been used
to directly support NGOs instead of going through a USAID mission.)
With USAID/CCF support, Mercy Corps implemented a program titled “Stabilizing Vulnerable
Communities in the Central African Republic through the Promotion of Inter-Community Dialogue and
Economic Cooperation,” (known as the SVC program), from 15 January 2014 to 31 October 2015. The
main goal of the program was to assist Muslim and Christian communities in managing conflicts
nonviolently and building social resilience through strengthening the capacity of leaders, generating trust
via joint economic initiatives, and promoting tolerance through inter-faith peace messaging. Mercy Corps
accomplished this goal by 1) training community leaders (men, women, and youth from various
communities) on Interest-Based Negotiation, conflict analysis, and conflict resolution; 2) implementing
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