over 90 joint socio-economic projects in Bangui and Bouar that would benefit both Christian and Muslim
communities; and 3) organizing a network of 200 peer educators (mostly youth, both male and female) for
community outreach about nonviolence.
The program took some time to develop initially. In the first ten months of the SVC program,
communities needed time to process grievances and fear with their families before they were willing to
engage in inter-communal activities. Mercy Corps was concerned that pressuring communities to
participate in joint projects before they were ready could have made the conflict worse. Fortunately, the
CCF funding allowed changes in the middle of the program, so Mercy Corps could adapt activities
accordingly and wait on community readiness before starting joint projects. Furthermore, MINUSCA (and
its predecessor MISCA) proved vital during the timeline of the SVC program, creating conditions
conducive for humanitarian response by securing transportation routes in both Bangui and Bouar. In other
regions lacking peacekeepers and police, Mercy Corps was forced to cancel conflict mitigation programs
due to ongoing violence, insecurity, and crime.
Mercy Corps conducted an end-line survey of the SVC program in Bangui and Bouar in mid-2015, using
simple random sampling of 600 households across various different communities to evaluate results. The
findings of this evaluation were monumental. By August 2015, there was a 532% increase in “community
members’ perceptions that conflicts were being resolved peacefully in their communities," from 13% in
the baseline to 82.2% in the end-line. Furthermore, there was an 86% increase in the number of
respondents who trust the “other” group (Christians or Muslims), from 30.1% to 56.1%. In addition, the
majority of those displaced by violence returned home or felt willing to return, with 96% of respondents
feeling hopeful for peace. Throughout the program, at least 200 disputes were resolved peacefully through
the inter-community peace committees that Mercy Corps had trained (on Interest-Based Negotiation,
conflict analysis, and social cohesion), many of which may otherwise have turned violent. Respondents
also noted that the most effective methods for increasing community cohesion included dialogue (32.8%),
religious messaging about peace (24.7%), and radio messages (13.8%). The key stakeholders which had
been most involved in peace during fifteen months of the program, as perceived by the community
respondents, were religious leaders (42.2%), community leaders (10.7%), and MINUSCA (10%).
In December 2014, 220 anti-Balaka fighters with 10 commanders voluntarily disarmed to advocate for
nonviolent social change with community/religious leaders and peace committees, because these leaders
had created legitimate alternatives to violence. In March 2015, 26 community leaders and 26 youth (both
men and women, Muslims and Christians, representing the main ethnic groups) met together to discuss
peace in their different communities. This discussion was broadcast over the radio Siriri in ethnic dialects,
and these talks resulted in the signing of a reconciliation pact between these different ethnic group leaders
to promote nonviolent conflict resolution and to protect minority rights. Since this pact, Muslims traders
have been reintegrated back into the local economy. Mercy Corps also trained 35 civil society
representatives to participate in the Bangui Forum, which was a national reconciliation conference that
took place in May 2015 (the third phase of the Brazzaville ceasefire agreement signed in July 2014) and
resulted in the signing of a disarmament agreement among several armed groups.
When violence was triggered on 26 September 2015 in CAR due to the reported beheading of a Muslim
cab driver, community and religious leaders publicly condemned violence and swiftly restored order in
Bouar (keeping the roads open to traffic, etc.), and peer educators trained by the SVC program monitored
the situation and organized peers to discuss nonviolent methods of addressing grievances in Bangui. As
such, even with the triggering of violence, community mechanisms for conflict management strengthened
the community’s resilience.
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