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Conflict Prevention and Peace-Building in The JOINT EVALUATION OF CONFLICT PREVENTION AND PEACE-BUILDING Report recommendations IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO INTRODUCTION TO THE SYNTHESIS REPORT Recommendation 1: Donors should position programming based on an assessment of conflict CONFLICT PREVENTION AND PEACE-BUILDING drivers. “Transparent cross-border trade has the If conflict prevention and peace-building programmes potential to reduce the risks of conflict IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO are to be the focus of international strategies, it is and to promote regional economic important to undertake on-going analysis of peace development.” Without peace, development is impossible. This self-evident fact promotes a fuller and conflict drivers, such as land conflicts, the social environment, the activities of armed groups and the understanding of the logic of conflict in order to identify and activate the most effective socio-economic conditions around mines. This would tools to restore peace and enable those involved in development to establish a presence. necessitate more resources to undertake situational Situated at the heart of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is gradually analyses in the East, but would enable better use of - Example for donors: ISSSS should form the basis emerging from a prolonged period of violence and instability. This fragile progress is resources over time. for all planning in relation to the peace objective and, in view of this, should be reviewed for a new constantly threatened by frequent eruptions of violence. This evaluation attempts to clarify - Example for donors: earmark funds to ensure that engagement. the impact of peacekeeping and conflict prevention initiatives undertaken in the DRC by projects have conflict-sensitive analysis, and that - Example for donors, agencies and implementing the different international actors over the past ten years. the root causes are part of the objectives and are organisations: sectors such as SGBV prevention clearly justified. and humanitarian aid should be part of additional - Example for donors and implementing agencies: efforts regarding monitoring and evaluation of the ensure that each implementing organisation has a effects of these interventions on the drivers of peace Conflict prevention and peace-building are core Peace efforts conflict analysis and revises it regularly. This analysis and conflict. priorities in the DRC. The Congolese wars of 1996– must relate to overall programming undertaken 1997 and 1998–2003 together constitute one of the The DRC has attracted many peace efforts. It hosts, by the implementing organisation in a direct and Recommendation 3: Establish a new relationship most severe humanitarian disasters since World War for example, one of the largest UN peacekeeping measurable fashion. with the DRC government, and create true II. Up to 5.4 million people have died (directly or as a forces in the world. The Sun City agreement in 2002 partnerships at the local level result of the effects of war) since August 1998, when set out the main conditions for peace: democracy, Recommendation 2: Donors should change the the second Congo War began, and 1.5 million after territorial sovereignty, political checks and balances balance of sectors and increase joint interventions. A clearer definition on the part of international the December 2002 peace accord. At the end of 2010, on power, and the control of all armed groups. This organisations of their relationship with central and there were still an estimated 2.1 million displaced international undertaking has contributed to a certain This strategy represents an opportunity for engaging local government would permit the development of persons. A new crisis in Equateur province led to level of political stability and ensured the functioning in dialogue and new forms of cooperation with the new forms of innovative cooperation. These must the displacement of about 190,000 people in 2010. of several transitional institutions; it also facilitated State. New actors bringing innovative, creative be part of a new approach. Beyond the instability focused mainly in eastern DRC, the preparation of the 2006 national elections and approaches have been on the periphery of the the conflict constitutes the greatest impediment to enabled the implementation of a comprehensive relationships that link the government to development - Example for donors: increase the volume of financing development. Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration and and stabilisation programmes. to sectors that contribute towards the formalisation Security Sector Reform programme. of a regulatory framework for the exploitation of natural resources. All these efforts have not prevented frequent clashes - Example for NGOs: decentralise decision-making The authors of the report between armed groups. Since the signing of the towards the field (at least to provincial capital peace accord, the conflict conditions in eastern DRC level) and minimise expenditure on equipment and Channel Research, the evaluation team who wrote have not improved substantially. salaries, in order to reduce the divisions with local this report about conflict prevention and peace- authorities. ■ building in the DRC, was supported by a Steering “Of particular concern is the large number Committee set up in early 2009. This Committee of ethnic Tutsi Congolese who left for Rwanda brings together evaluation departments in the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Germany, after 1994 and who are returning to the DRC Japan and the United Kingdom. It also includes to re-claim their land, which has serious several UN organisations: the Office of the High political and ethnic implications.” Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) attached to the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the United Nations Development 1- International Rescue Committee (2008), though death rates as a result Programme (UNDP), the United Nations of the DRC conflict have recently been subject to debate. The 2009 Human Security Report argues that the IRC estimate is based on an Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations inappropriately low baseline mortality rate. With a more appropriate Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and baseline rate, the death toll would be one-third of IRC’s estimate (Human the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Security Report Project (2009) Human security report 2008/9, New York: Responsible publisher: FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade an development Cooperation, rue des Petits carmes, 15 – B-1000 Brussels Oxford University Press). The 2007 population of the DRC was estimated Contact: Special Evaluation Office - Tel : +32 501 38 34 - E-Mail : [email protected] at 62 million. 4 1 Policy Brief Congo-EN.indd 1-2 08/09/11 10:27 Does conflict prevention and peace- 351 projects at various stages of implementation. Democratic Republic of Congo building have any effect? It was recommended to select 50 to 60 projects per theme, and to visit 20 to 25 interventions. The CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC SUDAN “Families of victims revert to The current instability of the country and the problems synthesis report contains the principal evaluation out-of-court settlements with the conclusions. associated with its development could call into question CAMEROON perpetrators. However, the scale HAUT-CONGO = ORIENTALE the idea that conflict prevention and peace-building of violations is such that this is have had any effect. However, such a judgement Conflict and peace drivers BUNIA ITURI no longer a realistic solution, would ignore the key questions that justify a detailed Lake Albert EQUATEUR creating a desperate climate that evaluation: how significant were the contributions of There is general consensus on the indirect causes of CONGO- UGANDA BRAZZAVILLE NORD- KIVU could be the starting ground for international actors? Without them, would the situation conflict in the DRC: ethnic grievances and clashing GABON Lac Edouard have been worse? To what extent were these actors identities, the collapse of the State, conflicts over GOMA future conflicts.” RWANDA effective? Finally, what lessons can be gleaned from resources and border conflicts. Lake Kivu BUKAVU their initiatives? These questions constitute the heart KASAI- SUD- BURUNDI The report also proposes a broad analysis of the ORIENTAL KIVU of international policies in the DRC. They force the BANDUNDU MANIEMA observer to measure the influence of a reduction in conflict drivers and peace drivers. Drivers serve to KINSHASA KASAI- TANZANIA violence, as a policy objective, on the conflict. distinguish events and trends that are linked with the BAS-CONGO OCCIDENTAL Lake Tanganyika situation and are recognisable to all observers, and The evaluation concentrated on three provinces: South that have a strong degree of influence. Among the “Weak state capacities and, in Kivu, North Kivu and Orientale, with particular focus in main drivers, the report highlights: some areas, their total absence, is KATANGA the latter on Ituri District. This was where the thrust of • Access and ownership of land, a major obstacle to development peace efforts was concentrated during the evaluation • Absence of responsible mining sector investment, of the East. The optimism felt • Weak and corrupted public administration, period, and where the worst violence had occurred by the population following since 2002. The conclusions can be generalised across • A confused process of decentralisation. ANGOLA the country, and even other
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