Program for the Development of Eastern Congo (P-DEC)

Eastern DRC continues to face complex crises rooted in conflicts around power, governance, identity and access to natural resources including minerals, land and forestry. The Program for the Development of Eastern Congo (P-DEC) adopts bottom-up peacebuilding approaches to reduce conflict and bridge social divisions. It supports communities and the private sector to:

• Build inclusive dialogue processes, conflict early warning systems, conflict mitigation processes, and alternatives to violence.
• Foster accountable, trusted, citizen-responsive institutions.
• Create economic alternatives to armed violence that promote stability, inter-ethnic cooperation, and social cohesion.

IPIS will support local civil society organizations to strengthen community resilience to local conflict and crises. First, IPIS will train and support local CSOs in the use of Kufatilia. Kufatilia is an SMS based incident reporting and follow-up mechanism.

Anyone who send the key word “Kufatilia” to the following Congolese phone numbers 0850291251 (Orange) / 0824443391 (Vodacom) / 0974729100 (Airtel) / +1 647 503 3558 (WhatsApp) can report an incident.

The CSOs will be trained in providing concrete follow-up of all the incidents, with the objective to resolve about 30% of the incidents reported. More information about Kufatilia is available at: https://ipisresearch.be/project/kufatilia-incident-reporting-and-monitoring/

Kufatilia will act as an early warning mechanism, where local CSOs will be able to report back to local authorities or to investigate the incidents in order to diffuse potential conflicts.

Then, IPIS will organize mining sites visits with teams of enumerators, IPIS will collect primary quantitative and qualitative information about the mining sites. The data analysis and report writing will provide a good overview of the potential mining areas outside the Okapi reserve, thus providing options for local communities to benefit from economic growth linked to the artisanal mining sector.

Finally, an in-depth conflict and stakeholder mapping study will be carried out at the beginning of the project and updated on a yearly basis in each of the zones where the project will focus. IPIS will develop a report and an interactive webmap based on the results of the mapping of mines and conflict analysis and stakeholder mapping study. This analysis will be translated into political documents that will be used at local, provincial and national level for lobbying and advocacy.