IMPROVING READING, ACCESS, AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE DRC (ACCELERE!) PROJECT

CONFLICT SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

RE-SUBMITTED 31 MAY 2016

DISCLAIMER The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

IMPROVING READING, EQUITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE DRC (ACCELERE!) PROJECT

Contract No. AID-660-C-15-00001

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Education Office

USAID Contracting Officer’s Representative: Mr. John Stamm

Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – May 2016

CONTENTS

ACRONYMS ...... 1 SECTION 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1 A. Introduction and Objective ...... 1 B. Methodology ...... 1 C. Conflict Analysis...... 2 D. Key Project Recommedations ...... 2 E. Conflict-Sensitive Implementation Strategy ...... 3 SECTION II: INTRODUCTION ...... 4 A. Background ...... 4 B. Objective ...... 5 C. Methodology ...... 6 D. Parameters and Limitations ...... 8 SECTION 2: CONTEXT ...... 10 A. National Level ...... 10 B. ...... 15 C. Equateur Province ...... 17 D. Kasai Oriental Province ...... 17 E. Kasai Central Province ...... 18 F. North and South Provinces ...... 18 SECTION 3: CONFLICT ANALYSIS ...... 20 A. National-Level Analysis ...... 20 B. Community-Level Connectors and Dividers ...... 29 C. Haut-Katanga Province ...... 32 D. Equateur Province ...... 35 E. Kasai Oriental Province ...... 36 F. Former Kasai Occidental Province...... 36 G. North and Provinces ...... 37 H. ACCELERE! and Conflict ...... 38 SECTION 3: RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 39 A. Project Recommendations ...... 39 B. Conflict Sensitivity Implementation Strategy ...... 44 SECTION 4: CONCLUSION ...... 49 ANNEX 1: SOCIETAL RISK FACTORS THAT INTERACT WITH ACCELERE! ...... 50 ANNEX 2: LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER LITERACY PROGRAMS IN DRC 53 Vas-y Fille ...... 53 EAGLE ...... 54 OPEQ ...... 54 ANNEX 3: CONFLICT SENSITIVITY RESOURCES AND TOOLS ...... 56 ANNEX 4: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDES ...... 57 Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Directeurs ...... 57 Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Enseignants ...... 59

Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – May 2016

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Parents, Membres du COPA/COGES, Leaders Locaux (Communauté de l’École Primaire) ...... 61 Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Staff CRS ...... 63 Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Staff CAP ...... 65 Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Parents, Membres du COPA, Leaders Locaux (CRS/CAP) ...... 67 ANNEX 5: KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW GUIDES ...... 69 UNICEF – National Level ...... 69 ACCELERE! Staff in ...... 70 ACCELERE! Staff in ...... 71 Sous Proved ...... 72 Chef de la Division des Affaires Sociales – Katanga ...... 74 Chef de la Division des Affaires Sociales – Nord Kivu ...... 76 Katanga – UNICEF ...... 78 Katanga – Caritas ...... 79

Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – May 2016

ACRONYMS

ACCELERE! Accès, Lecture, Redevabilité et Rétention Projet (Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the Democratic Republic of Congo) ADF Allied Democratic Forces CAP Centre d’Apprentissage Professionnel (professional learning center) COPA Comité de parents (parents’ committee) COGE Conseil de gestion d’école (school management committee) CSA-IS Conflict Sensitivity Analysis & Implementation Strategy CRS Centre de Rattrapage Scolaire (remedial learning center) DAC Development Assistance Committee DFID (UK) Department for International Development DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo FARDC Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) FDLR Forces Démocratiques de Libération du (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) FPE Free Primary Education ICG International Crisis Group IDP Internally displaced person IRB Institutional Review Board GDRC Government of the DRC LUCHA Lutte pour le Changement MONUSCO Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en RD Congo (The Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) NGO Non-Governmental Organization OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs PIE Plan Intérimaire de l’Éducation (Interim Plan for Education) SECOPE Service Technique de l'Administration Centrale de l' Enseignement Primaire, Secondaire et Professionnel (Technical Service of the Central Administration of Primary, Secondary and Professional Teaching) UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development

Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – May 2016

SECTION 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A. Introduction and Objective

This report provides a conflict-sensitive analysis of the Improving Reading, Equity and Accountability project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). USAID in collaboration with the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) has committed to implementing a primary education initiative to improve equitable access to education and learning outcomes for girls and boys in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This collective initiative, entitled ACCELERE! (Accès, Lecture, Rétention et Redevabilité or access, reading, retention and accountability), aims to support the Congolese government’s goals for the education sector – improved access, quality and governance – and particularly their commitment to free universal basic education and improved learning outcomes.

The Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy (CSA-IS) aims to provide project staff and stakeholders with a greater understanding of the DRC context from a conflict sensitivity perspective and raise awareness of potential challenges they may encounter in implementing ACCELERE!. The goal is to suggest a practical set of strategies to address and monitor these challenges in a way that supports achieving the project’s goals, as well as to give recommendations based on an understanding of the context and the experience of ACCELERE! and other development projects thus far.

B. Methodology

The conflict sensitivity analysis seeks to answer two central questions, as well as a set of sub questions: The central questions are:

1. How can potential negative impacts of ACCELERE!, particularly with regard to intergroup relations, be minimized? 2. How can ACCELERE! promote social cohesion and peace in the school and community? The methodology utilized to answer these questions was primarily a mixed-method complimentary approach, which combined both quantitative and qualitative methods. A literature review was conducted in addition to quantitative research to establish the context in the areas targeted by ACCELERE! Review of quantitative data focused on safety and security in the schools as well as enrollment and attendance rates in the targeted areas. Qualitative fieldwork was conducted in Katanga and . Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were organized to examine conflict drivers, trends, connectors and dividers at the community level. The sampling strategy used to select participants was purposive sampling, targeting those with a wide range of perspectives who had information pertinent to the study. In total, focus group discussions were held directly in the targeted communities with 193 education stakeholders including 74 parents (26 men, 48 women), 20 Parent Teacher Committee members (14 men, 6 women), 11 community leaders (8 men, 3 women), 1 CRS social agent (1 man), 15 CRS teachers and directors (6 men, 9 women), 24 CAP teachers and directors (20 men, 4 women), 27 primary school teachers (21 men, 6 women) and 21 primary school directors (19 men, 2 women).

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The framework for the conflict analysis is USAID’s Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF), with analyses at the national and provincial levels. Emphasis was placed on the community-level analysis including connectors and dividers. This analysis serves as the basis for the implementation strategy and recommendations on key strategies for ACCELERE!, and is designed to support the successful implementation of ACCELERE! in its first year and inform conflict sensitive strategy for subsequent years.

C. Conflict Analysis

Our analysis demonstrated that the same community-level connectors and dividers were present in each of ACCELERE!’s targeted provinces. The main connector throughout these provinces was the high value placed on education. It is evident that this is a high priority throughout the country, and both parents and children make great sacrifices to ensure that children have access to education. Parent Committees also were a consistent connector across targeted provinces due to the role they play as mediator between parents and the school. Two activities also serve to connect communities: dialogue and exchange, as well as recreational activities. Opportunities for dialogue and exchange, particularly at the adult level, were seen to enhance trust and respect among different identity groups. Similarly, recreational activities such as football matches build relationships between children and youth from different communities and ethnic groups.

Two connectors were also seen as dividers: ethnic and tribal identification and national identity. Ethnic and tribal identification serves as a strong connector in uniting particular groups of people at the community level, but also can be used to create divisions between different ethnic groups and tribes. Similarly, national identity is strong throughout Congo, but it is also a divider in communities where nationality is questioned.

The largest divider present at the community level in all targeted ACCELERE! provinces is the existence of informal school fees, which create tensions between students and their teachers and between parents and school management. This divider is viewed as the root cause of school-related conflict. Beneficiary targeting by education interventions can also lead to division within schools and among schools and the community. Finally, lack of transparency and accountability with regard to financial management in the schools creates tensions between the school management and the parents, and between citizens and the government.

D. Key Project Recommedations

Commitment and Accountability  Ensure that staff have a solid understanding of the context in which they are working.

Strategy  Avoid disrupting the school calendar by planning trainings in advance and coordinating with the Ministry of Education and the Division of Social Affairs.  Allow for grants in Activity 1, if possible, to include classroom construction for overpopulated schools.

Equitable Access  Train education personnel on increasing the protection of learners and education personnel in and out of school.  Train peer educators to sensitize and teach their peers on issues of peaceful cohabitation, children’s rights, child protection, exploitation and abuse, etc.

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Curricula, Teaching & Learning Materials, and Methods  Discuss with the Ministry of Education an implementation strategy for zones which speak languages unrelated to ACCELERE!’s four selected national languages  Review developed materials to ensure that they are culturally appropriate and non-discriminatory.

Community Engagement  Sensitize communities on increasing the protection of learners in and out of school.  Sensitize communities on the importance of COPA members being representative of their communities.

Monitoring and Evaluation  Disaggregate all data by sex to evaluate gender-specific disadvantages, needs and potentials.  Establish baseline and monitoring & evaluation tools which include key education indicators and conflict-sensitive education indicators.

Inclusion/exclusion  Strengthen communication strategy to ensure that important project information is shared with both targeted and non-targeted communities.  Train all teachers in the targeted schools on the ACCELERE! materials and teaching methods.

External threats  Advocate strategically and continually at the highest level of government to promote the respect of free primary education and the payment of teachers.  Develop a localized security plan including risk mitigation to ensure the safety of ACCELERE! staff members.

Internal threats  Develop risk reduction plans with community engagement in each of the targeted schools to mitigate both external and internal risks to child protection.  Build capacities of COPAs and COGESs on their role, financial management and conflict resolution.

E. Conflict-Sensitive Implementation Strategy

Guiding principles of the conflict-sensitive strategy are transparency and communication, respect and dignity, inclusion and participation, prevention of harm, and fostering community, joint ownership and joint responsibility. The CSA-IS emphasizes that conflict sensitivity be mainstreamed into project implementation, ensuring that the project is adaptive to changes in context and conflict dynamics in an effort to minimize harm and promote inclusion and cohesion in the targeted communities. There are six steps to the implementation strategy:

1. Management review and discussion of the CSA-IS; consider developing and instituting a project and/or organizational policy on conflict sensitivity. 2. Translate CSA-IS into French and distribute to all ACCELERE! staff to read. 3. Organize meetings in each ACCELERE! office to discuss the CSA-IS, analyze the project from a conflict-sensitive perspective, and create conflict-sensitive action plans. 4. Develop a conflict-sensitive M&E strategy and plan integrating elements of USAID’s Checklist for Conflict Sensitivity in Education Programs. 5. Plan and conduct local-level Conflict Sensitivity Analyses with field staff before starting work in a new targeted area. 6. Integrate and adapt yearly project planning in response to changes in context and conflict dynamics in order to minimize harm and potentially have a positive impact on tensions and conflicts. 3 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

SECTION II: INTRODUCTION

A. Background

USAID in collaboration with the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) has committed to implementing a primary education initiative to improve equitable access to education and learning outcomes for girls and boys in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This collective initiative, entitled ACCELERE! (Accès, Lecture, Retention et Redevabilité or access, reading, retention and accountability), aims to support the Congolese government’s goals for the education sector – improved access, quality and governance – and particularly their commitment to free universal basic education and improved learning outcomes. These goals are articulated in the Plan Intérimaire de l'Éducation (PIE), the Education Sector Strategy, and other reform efforts led by the Ministère de l'Enseignement Primaire, Secondaire et Initiation à La Nouvelle Citoyenneté (MEPS-INC).

As one component of this joint program, Activity One of ACCELERE! is led by Chemonics International under the Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC contract with USAID (AID-660-C- 15-00001) awarded with a period of performance of May 2015 to May 2020 and a total estimated cost of $134 million. Consortium partners also include FHI 360, Cambridge Education, School-to-School International, and Caritas Congo.

The purpose of ACCELERE! is to improve educational outcomes for boys and girls in select education provinces in the DRC. To contribute to achieving this purpose, ACCELERE! Activity One will support education service delivery in public primary schools (including écoles conventionnées run by religious networks) in 25 education sub-divisions across six provinces: Haut-Katanga, Lualaba, Kasaï Central, Kasaï Oriental, Equateur and Sud-Ubangi. In addition, Activity 1 will support no formal alternative/accelerated learning programs (ALPs), including centres de rattrapage scolaire (CRSs) in these 25 sub-divisions as well as in targeted areas of North and South Kivu provinces, and in vocational centres d’apprentissage professionnel (CAPs) in target areas of the and conflict-affected zones in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba. ACCELERE! Activity One also works to ensure that girls and boys benefit equally from project activities and that all assistance is conflict-sensitive and disability-inclusive.

ACCELERE! Activity One has three expected results and associated sub-results:

Result 1. Increase equitable access to a quality education environment, through: 1.1 Reduced barriers to access for primary education 1.2 Increased access to alternative/accelerated learning programs 1.3 Strengthened community and school collaboration and partnerships to support access to education 1.4 Improved quality of education environments

Result 2: Improve education quality, through: 2.1 Improved the quality of instruction at the primary level 2.2 Effective use of teaching and learning materials in the classroom 2.3 Increasing community participation to support school-based and extra-curricular learning.

Result 3. Improve governance and accountability by stakeholders through: 3.1 Strengthened development and implementation of policies for improved access and learning 3.2 Strengthening school leadership and management

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3.3 Increased community and civil society oversight and accountability at local and sub provincial levels.

Also in support of ACCELERE!’s purpose of improving educational outcomes for boys and girls in select education provinces in the DRC, the focus areas of the three other ACCELERE! Activities are:

 Activity 2: Improved governance and accountability. This activity will implement a systems strengthening program that will improve governance and accountability in the education sector, with a particular focus on the primary education sector.

 Activity 3: Independent evaluation. This activity will assess the overall program (across Activities 1, 2 and 4) in order to assess the impact of the program in terms of its contribution to the education sector in line with the overall program objective.

 Activity 4: Reducing the number of out-of-school children in the DRC. This activity seeks to help reduce the number of children out of school in DRC by addressing specific barriers to education for girls and boys through innovative solutions.

The ACCELERE! Activities collectively support USAID/DRC’s Development Objective 2 of Lives improved through coordinated development approaches in select regions, and work in the Kivus supports the Transition Objective 3 of Foundation for durable peace strengthened in eastern DRC. In turn, this work helps to contribute to the topline goal of USAID’s Country Development and Cooperation Strategy (“Long-term transition to more effective and empowering development in the DRC supported”) as well as of DFID’s Country Operational Plan for the DRC (“Government supported to enable it to provide and finance basic services in the long term”).

B. Objective

The Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy (CSA-IS) aims to provide project leadership and staff with a greater understanding of the DRC context from a conflict sensitivity perspective and raise awareness of potential challenges they may encounter in implementing ACCELERE! The goal is to suggest a practical set of strategies to address and monitor these challenges in a way that supports achieving the project’s stated goals, as well as to give practical recommendations based on the experience of the project and that of other similar donor projects thus far. In this way, consistent with the “do no harm” principle which undergirds good international development practice as well as conflict sensitivity strategy, unintentional negative impacts of ACCELERE! will be minimized and opportunities for the project to have a positive impact on social cohesion will be enhanced.

Project leadership and staff can make use of this document to help guide reflection and action on project implementation strategy, work plans, administrative and human resource policies, grants policy and strategy development, and monitoring and evaluation. They can also use this document to enhance coordination on conflict sensitivity with ACCELERE!’s implementing partners. This CSA-IS should be considered a starting point. Consistent with good practice, ACCELERE!’s conflict sensitivity strategy will need to be re-visited regularly (and at least on a yearly basis) throughout the life of the project as part of rolling assessments and monitoring and evaluation activities. The data collected through rolling assessments and monitoring and evaluation activities will not only update the conflict analysis, noting continuities and changes to inform subsequent activity implementation plans, but will also track impacts of the projects on mitigating and exacerbating conflicts. The next contractual update of this report will be need to be conducted in the coming months, with a submission to USAID of August 2016.

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C. Methodology

The conflict sensitivity analysis seeks to answer two central questions, as well as a set of sub questions:

Central questions:

1. How can potential negative impacts of ACCELERE!, particularly with regard to intergroup relations, be minimized? 2. How can ACCELERE! promote social cohesion and peace in the school and community? Sub questions: 1. How will local, sub-national, and national conflict dynamics affect the project activities and ability to achieve results, reach intended beneficiaries (individuals and organizations/institutions), facilitate partner staff access and security, and enable monitoring and oversight? 2. How will program activities undermine or promote connection and cohesion? 3. How will program activities promote or lessen division and grievance? 4. How will the communities where we work, and those where we do not, perceive the project’s activities?

The methodology utilized to answer these questions was primarily a mixed-method complimentary approach, which combined both quantitative and qualitative methods. A literature review was conducted in addition to quantitative research to establish the context in the areas targeted by ACCELERE! Review of quantitative data focused on safety and security in the schools as well as enrollment and attendance rates in the targeted areas. Qualitative fieldwork was conducted in Katanga and North Kivu to provide a deeper understanding of the impact of conflict at the community-level, its impact on the access, retention and learning of students, as well as what effects it could potentially have on implementation of the ACCELERE! project.

Quantitative analysis examined enrolment and attendance rates across the targeted provinces, including possible effects conflict may have had on those rates overall. Data from the FHI360 Education Policy and Data Center and also from the DRC Ministry of Education Statistical Yearbook was used. Additional data on security incidents came from The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and data on schools closed due to conflict was collected from a range of sources including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), OCHA and ACCELERE! staff members. Unfortunately, there is no central database for this type of data, and the collection from various sources did not allow for extensive cross-province comparison.

In 2015, key informant interviews were conducted with six ACCELERE! project staff in and Lubumbashi and focus group discussions were held with seven education specialists working on ACCELERE! as well as twenty education stakeholders in two sub-provinces of Haut-Katanga: Lubumbashi 2 and . Key informant interviews were also conducted with representatives of two international NGOs (International Rescue Committee and FHI 360) and one national NGO (Caritas Congo), which currently implements education programs focused on increasing access and literacy. In addition, four representatives (with national ties) of a civil society network focused on education in Lubumbashi were interviewed together. Interviews and focus group discussions sought to draw on participants’ experiences and lessons learned with regard to conflict sensitivity from previous and current international assistance programs in the education sector.

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For this report, a particular emphasis was placed on community-level analysis to better understand the conflict dynamics at the local level in the areas targeted by ACCELERE! Key informant interviews were conducted with stakeholders in former Katanga and North Kivu who had work experience in all of the six targeted provinces. These included: three (3) ACCELERE! project staff in Lubumbashi and Goma, two (2) Division of Social Affairs employees responsible for CRS and CAPs, two (2) Sous Proveds of the Ministry of Education, two (2) representatives of UNICEF focused on two different provinces, two (2) representatives of one national NGO (Caritas Congo) and two (2) representatives of two international NGOs (IRC and War Child). The key informant interviews focused specifically on the community-level context in the different areas targeted by ACCELERE!, including the conflict dynamics, key actors, connectors and dividers (see Annex 5). Certain key informant interviews also allowed for comparison between different targeted zones, based on the experience of each interviewee. For example, one interviewee from a provincial-level partner in Lubumbashi was able to provide more details on inter- provincial dynamics as he had experience in the neighboring provinces.

The sampling strategy used for targeting geographic areas was purposive sampling. Haut-Katanga and North Kivu were selected to allow for community-level analysis in two areas with different contexts: one more stable and one more affected by violent conflict. The geographic areas selected within Haut- Katanga province were also selected to give a range of contexts, including urban and rural, mining and agricultural. In Goma, protests erupted the day the field study was scheduled to begin which restricted movements that day; due to the insecurity during the reporting period, the selected geographic area was limited to the city of Goma.

Purposively sampling was also the sampling strategy used for selecting participants in focus groups. Criteria were based on gender, occupation and relation to the school. Parents, school employees and local leaders were specifically targeted to allow for a range of perspectives on the impact of conflict on students’ access to education, retention and learning. Participants were grouped together according to relationship and power dynamic, to ensure that the participants were comfortable sharing in the group. For instance, in the group of parents and COPA members, there was a group for men and a separate group for women to ensure that women’s voices were heard. The teacher groups were mixed-sex, because their power relationship in terms of their position in the school was approximately equal. Focus groups were groups of approximately 10 individuals. Discussion guides were established with 10-12 questions per group, which centered around conflicts past and present at the community-level and the impact of larger and/or nearby conflicts on the community and on students’ access to education, retention and learning (see Annex 4). The approach to meet with multiple groups in the same community provided different perspectives on community and conflict dynamics, allowing for a more in-depth analysis. Although there was a set group of questions, the interviewer adapted the questions as the discussion progressed to allow more detailed sharing of particular issues that were important to each group. Additionally, the opportunity to conduct focus groups in target communities who are already benefitting from ACCELERE! provided an opportunity for an initial analysis of negative impacts of the project which are already felt in the community. The discussions allowed for brainstorming on how to address these issues to prevent them from becoming larger problems. In total, focus group discussions were held directly in the targeted communities with (193) education stakeholders including 74 parents (26 men, 48 women), 20 Parent Teacher Committee members (14 men, 6 women), 11 community leaders (8 men, 3 women), 1 CRS social agent (1 man), 15 CRS teachers and directors (6 men, 9 women), 24 CAP teachers and directors (20 men, 4 women), 27 primary school teachers (21 men, 6 women) and 21 primary school directors (19 men, 2 women).

The conflict analysis will start at the national level using USAID’s Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF), giving an overall analysis of the situation in the DRC, identifying common triggers and trends found throughout the targeted areas, as well as community-level connectors and dividers which are found

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in each of the targeted provinces. The second level of analysis will be at the provincial level, including an individual analysis of each of the provinces targeted by ACCELERE!. This analysis serves as the basis for the implementation strategy and recommendations on key strategies for ACCELERE!, and is designed to support the successful implementation of ACCELERE! in its first year and inform conflict sensitive strategy for subsequent years.

D. Parameters and Limitations

One of the main limitations of this analysis were the parameters set regarding the timing and length of the consultancy, which only allowed for field research in two of the six provinces which are targeted by the project (Haut-Katanga and North Kivu). This allowed for more in-depth community-level consultation in two provinces, and future analyses should include similar field research in the other targeted provinces, specifically in Kasaï Central, Kasaï Oriental, Equateur and Sud-Ubangi, as activities begin in those provinces. Community-level information for Kasaï Central and Kasaï Oriental were particularly difficult to gather from a distance, so those two provinces should be prioritized for field work for subsequent updates to this report.

It should be noted that ACCELERE! is a large-scale project covering a widespread geographic area which is diverse in terms of culture, language, tribe, etc. Conflict dynamics are typically very localized and, with the exception of certain society-wide factors noted in the CSA-IS, conflict dynamics do not lend themselves to broad analysis. With this scope, it is impossible to capture all of the community-level conflict dynamics and their potential impact on the project in such an analysis. However, this analysis captures the main conflicts, recurring trends and triggers, and connectors and dividers which are present at the community-level in the targeted provinces. Additionally, the conflict analysis concentrated specifically on the areas targeted by the project when data allowed for that specificity. For example, the ex-Katanga province has been divided into four new provinces, of which two have been targeted by the ACCELERE! project (Haut-Katanga and Lualaba). This analysis will focus on the sub-districts in the two new provinces which are targeted by the project, which are in many aspects much more stable than the other areas of the former Katanga province. The analysis does not focus on what is happening within those non- targeted areas, but it does cover the effect that those conflicts have on the areas targeted by the project.

A major limitation of the analysis is also the absence of voices of children and youth who are the beneficiaries of the ACCELERE! project. The proper authorizations were not in place at the time of the consultancy to organize focus groups with children and youth, so their firsthand account of how conflict affects their access to education, retention and learning is missing from the analysis. Although questions were asked to other stakeholders regarding the experience of children and youth, this remains a major gap in the study. It is expected that Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals will be in place in time for subsequent report updates.

The political climate in Haut-Katanga and North Kivu at the time of the field mission was very tense, and political protests resulting in violence and a few deaths took place during the same time period as the field work. Due to these developments, education stakeholders were more open to sharing their opinions on the current context and its impact on education in the interview setting and less so in the focus group discussions. This resulted in a shallower level of sharing from community-level focus group participants than what was expected, particularly in Haut-Katanga. Additionally, focus groups with parents in Goma were unable to be organized due to the timing of the field mission during and after the political protests.

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For a conflict sensitivity analysis to yield the most useful and contextually appropriate strategies, it is essential that the analysis is ongoing and ideally involves a high level of engagement by project staff. It will be important to revisit this study at the community level when the larger field staff team is in place and active in its role in the targeted communities. Conflict and context are ever-changing, so ongoing analysis is an essential element of a conflict analysis to ensure that intervention strategies are reviewed and potentially revised as the context and conflict dynamics change.

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SECTION 2: CONTEXT Key Facts: . Over 70 armed groups continue to commit human right abuses in the eastern provinces.1 . 1.8 million internally displaced persons in the country.2 . 4.5 million face acute food insecurity in the DRC.3 . Abuses of power and violence, including rape, abductions, and recruitment of child combatants continue to be key concerns.

A. National Level

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been plagued by a variety of local, regional and international conflicts for over 20 years resulting in the death of over 5.4 million people and the displacement of over 2 million people. It is the deadliest conflict since the Second World War.4 The vast majority of the deceased died due to secondary effects of the conflict, namely preventable diseases and malnutrition. DRC is currently ranked 176 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index, classifying in the “low human development” category.5

The country is rich with natural resources and over 1,100 minerals and precious metals identified including , and , yet it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with approximately 63% of its population living below the poverty line. Despite steady economic growth since 2010, a large part of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. The per capita income as of 2014 was US$380 a year, which is roughly equivalent to the annual cost of sending two children to school for a year. 6

Government education policies: Total government spending on education increased from 9% of the national budget in 2010 to 16% in 2013,7 which demonstrates the increasing importance that the national government is placing on education. In September 2010, the GDRC launched the policy of Free Primary Education (FPE) which as of the 2015-2016 school year applies to grades one through five, eliminating official government fees related to primary school enrollment and attendance. This policy applies to the entire country except the cities of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. Despite the institution of this policy, school does not remain entirely free as individual schools institute informal fees to help cover the cost of materials, operation and payment of teachers who are not paid by the government. There are schools registered with the government (écoles mecanisées) which have teachers and directors who are supposed to receive salaries by the Ministry of Education, but who are not yet paid. As a result, a system of informal school fees has emerged to cover the costs that the government does not cover. In 2012, registered teachers (enseignants mécanisés) made up 2/3 of primary school teachers,8 and the other 1/3 of

1 Jason Stearns and Christoph Vogel, ‘The Landscape of Armed Groups in Eastern Congo’, Congo Research Group, Center on International Cooperation, December 2015. (http:// congoresearchgroup.org/essay-the-landscape-of-armed-groups-in-eastern- congo-2/) 2 OCHA. Apercu Humanitaire. 30 April 2016. 3 USAID. Food Assistance Fact Sheet – Democratic Republic of Congo. 11 April 2016. https://www.usaid.gov/democratic- republic-congo/food-assistance. 4 International Rescue Committee and the Burnet Institute (2007). Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An Ongoing Crisis. 5 United Nations Development Programme (2015). “Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development.” 6 World Bank. Democratic Republic of Congo Overview (08 April 2016) and World Bank Development Indicators (2012). 7 World Bank Education Data. 8 DRC Ministry of Primary, Secondary and Professional Education. “Plan Intérimaire d’Education 2012-2015.” 2012. 10 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

teachers who are not on the government’s payroll have their salaries covered by the informal fees. The percentage of teachers paid is even worse for teachers of non-formal education institutions such as the CRS and CAP, with less than 50% receiving a government salary.9 The government is steadily paying an increasing number of teachers, but there remains a large gap in cover-age . According to the most recent statistics from SECOPE, there has been a large increase in the percentage of teachers paid by the government as is visible in the following chart:

Légende 70% 75%w 75% 80% 80% 85% Province Orientale 85% 95% 86% Equateur 76% Nord Kivu 76% Kasai Sud Bandundu Oriental Kivu 82% Kinshasa 76% 83% 71% 94% Kasai Bas Congo Occidental 93% 75%

Katanga 78%

Source: SECOPE, April 2015 Unfortunately, this chart only considers those teachers who are on the government pay list. Since 2013, the government has put a hold on adding new teachers to the pay list, as it tries to pay all of the teachers who are already on the list. However, since 2012, due to a large emphasis placed on education by the national government, enrollment figures have increased and both schools and classrooms (and thereby teachers) have been added to respond to the increased enrollment. These added teachers are not reflected in the chart above, and they are all paid by informal school fees. Therefore, despite the launch of FPE and the increase in government spending on education, parents often have to choose between buying food, clothes, paying for housing, paying for medical care or paying school fees for their children. Unfortunately, the main consequence of this informal fee system is that many children and youth either do not enroll or they eventually drop out of school because their parents are unable to pay the aforementioned informal school fees. There are an estimated 3.5 million out-of-school children in the DRC, while an additional 20% of children will never have the chance to go to school.10 ACCELERE!’s Result 1 will address this problem by increasing equitable access by lowering financial barriers for both the formal and non-formal education sectors.

9 Key informant interview. 10 USAID/DRC Factsheet 2015 https://www.usaid.gov/democratic-republic-congo/fact-sheets/usaiddrc-fact-sheet-education 11 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Proportion of Out-of-School Children in Targeted Provinces 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 - Equateur Nord-Kivu Sud-Kivu Kasaï-Oriental Kasaï-Occidental Katanga

Out-of-School Boys Out-of-School Girls Out-of-School Total

Data source: EPDC extraction of DHS dataset (2013)

Non-formal education: Once children in the DRC reach 9 to 10 years of age, they are considered over- age and are ineligible to start primary school. The accelerated and additional learning opportunities available in the remedial learning centers (CRS – Centres de Rattrappage Scolaire) and the professional learning centers (CAP – Centre d’Apprentissage Professionel) face the same reality and challenges as primary schools in terms of payment of teachers and informal fee structures. Therefore, access to these learning opportunities is also limited to those who are able to afford the informal school fees. The limited access was evident during the field study for this report, as most schools visited had an available capacity for new students. Although enrollment in primary education has increased in recent years, the result of the large number of children who have been unable to access education and the large number of children who have dropped out, results in a large population of youth who lack basic reading, writing and vocational skills that would improve their opportunity to make a living and provide for their families. These are ACCELERE!’s target beneficiaries for the non-formal education activities in Result 1.

Gender: There is also a gender imbalance in access to education in DRC. In much of the country, when a family is unable to afford to send all of their children to school, preference is given to educating boys. There are a wide range of factors that play into this including early marriage for girls, the use of girls to watch over their younger siblings when their parents are working and/or are in the field, and the perception that a boy’s education will have a bigger impact on the family. Some community members interviewed for this analysis mentioned that these perceptions are changing, and in some of the urban areas the preference is no longer based on sex but is based on which child shows more intellectual potential. Although this preference may be changing in some areas, completion rates show that only 57.1% of girls who begin primary school successfully pass the exit exam, in comparison to 63.8% of boys.11 In the past, education in the CAPs was segregated by sex, with girls’ schools and boys’ schools. The only training available for girls was hairdressing, while boys had more options including mechanics, woodworking and masonry. This has recently begun to change, with some boys’ schools beginning to accept female students who want to study some of the vocations that traditionally were reserved for boys.

Violent Conflict: Violent conflict, particularly in eastern DRC, has been characterized by attacks against schools and the recruitment and abduction of children to become child soldiers, laborers and sexual

11 DRC Ministry of Primary, Secondary and Professional Education. “Mise en Oeuvre du Plan Intermiaire de l’Education – Rapport de Suivi N1.” August 2014. 12 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

slaves. This situation most specifically affects the provinces of Haut-Katanga, North Kivu and South Kivu. In 2015, twenty-two school attacks and twelve schools used for military purposes by both FARDC and armed groups were confirmed by the United Nations, affecting the education of over 31,000 children. However, these incidents are typically underreported and therefore one can assume that the actual number of schools attacked and used is higher than these statistics. Attacks include complete destruction of schools, looting of schools and burning of school materials. The UN also reported 241 new documented cases of recruitment of children (223 boys, 18 girls) by armed groups, of which 75% of these cases occurred in North Kivu, and the abduction of 108 children (65 boys, 43 girls), 30 of which occurred in North Kivu. 57 children were used as combatants, and 8 of the girls were victims of sexual violence. Additionally, there is documentation of 80 children (52 boys, 28 girls) killed and 92 children (48 boys, 44 girls) maimed during violent attacks in 2015; 38% of these occurred in the Beni territory of North Kivu, and another significant incident occurred in Mutarule in South Kivu. And lastly, forty children (16 boys, 24 girls) were killed or maimed by explosive remnants of war.12

This map presents an estimation of the level of vulnerability of health zones and administrative territories. The level of vulnerability is the result of a multisectoral composite indicator obtained from the severity index of needs identified by each sector. Source: OCHA.13

Vulnerability: As the map above shows, the Eastern region of DRC is the most vulnerable area of the country, including the targeted North Kivu, South Kivu and Haut-Katanga provinces. However, it should be noted that the most vulnerable areas of the Haut-Katanga province are not targeted by ACCELERE!. The two Kasai provinces are shown to have a much less severe level of vulnerability, as is the same for most of Equateur aside from a mildly-severe vulnerability in the area around Mbandaka which is targeted by the project.

Gender-based violence: In addition to the gender imbalance in access to education noted above, there is also widespread gender-based violence throughout the country. In conflict-affected areas, there are documented cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated by both the FARDC and armed groups (334 cases in 2015; 332 girls, 2 boys).14 However, gender-based violence is not only perpetrated by armed men in DRC; it is commonplace in communities across the country, including in schools. There is a common practice of sexual abuse and “sexually transmitted grades” recorded throughout DR Congo,

12 United Nations. “Children and armed conflict – Report of the Secretary-General.” A/69/926–S/2015/409. 5 June 2015. 13 OCHA. Apercu des besoins humaanitaires 2016. 07 Déc 2015. 14 United Nations. “Children and armed conflict – Report of the Secretary-General.” A/69/926–S/2015/409. 5 June 2015. 13 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

including in Equateur, North Kivu and South Kivu.15 Typically when this practice occurs, a female student must grant sexual favors to her male teacher in order to receive a good grade or to pass an exam. This practice creates conflict between female students and their male teachers, and also between students’ parents and school directors.

Politics: The current political situation in DRC is tense. Provincial parliamentary elections which were scheduled for 2015 never took place, as the president and vice president of the election preparation committee resigned successively in the months leading up to those elections. There is currently no firm date for those elections. Attempts to amend the constitution and electoral law provoked a small-scale political crisis in January 2015, which triggered deadly violence and repression, and the arrest and detention of pro-democracy activists.16 In February 2016, over 45 activists were arrested including some in Goma and Lubumbashi.17 Arrest and detention of peaceful pro-democracy activists are ongoing. In mid-May 2016, the DRC constitutional court ruled that President Kabila would be allowed to stay in office if the presidential elections, which are currently scheduled for November 2016, do not take place as planned. During the field study for this analysis, additional protests took place across the country on 26 May 2016 which resulted in violence and death in Goma.

Five of the nine countries which border DRC will have general elections in 2016 and 2017, with at least a few of their leaders attempting to stay in term longer than their official mandate. Rwanda recently changed its constitution to allow President Kagame to run for a third term. In , large-scale violence, displacement of families, and waves of refugees flooding into DRC was the result of President Nkurunziza’s insistence on a third term.

Decentralization/“Découpage”: On June 30, 2015 the process of découpage, or the division of 11 provinces into 26 provinces, which was prescribed in the 2006 Constitution was enacted into law. Opinions on the potential effects on the education system are mixed. While most of the population initially supported découpage when it was prescribed in 2006, critics state it was done precipitously, likely linked to upcoming elections, and there is not budget for the transition.18 As one interviewee explained, some former provinces such as Katanga have been divided along the same lines as existing administrative boundaries which would seem to indicate that little would change. The main challenge that results is that although more responsibility has been given to local levels, additional responsibility does not yet come with additional funding to carry out those increased responsibilities. Additionally, for partners such as ACCELERE! this means that there are more government agents from both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs to be in regular contact with regarding activity implementation.

Health and sanitation: Access to basic healthcare and vaccinations is severely restricted in the DRC. One interviewee who works to promote children’s health explained that in many areas, people lack basic sanitation knowledge leading to deplorable conditions. Many schools, particularly in rural areas, lack basic sanitation facilities like latrines and water points, making it more likely for children to contract diseases at school. Many diseases are highly preventable. Disease in general and malnutrition represent grave impediments to children accessing education and staying in school.

15 Search for Common Ground (2012). “Education and Conflict.”, also mentioned by interviewees. 16 International Crisis Group (2015). Congo: Is Democratic Change Possible? 17 Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (S/2016/233). 9 March 2016. 18 Jeune Afrique (2015). http://www.jeuneafrique.com/240375/politique/decoupage-en-rdc-ce-qui-va-reellement-changer-la-vie- des-congolais/ 14 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

B. Katanga Province

Stability: The former Katanga province as a whole has both stable and unstable areas, with over 582,000 internally displaced persons (IDP). The areas most affected by conflict and insecurity are the territories of , Kabalo and Manono, but those territories are not targeted by ACCELERE!. Haut-Katanga and Lualaba are the areas targeted by ACCELERE!, and they are mostly stable, however in some areas there is an impact from conflict occurring in bordering areas. In , which borders the targeted zone, there are local armed groups (“mai mai” groups) which oppose the government. These groups indiscriminately attack villages and kidnap individuals in an effort to destabilize the area. Men, women and children fleeing these attacks often are displaced to Lualaba territory and school communities which are targeted by the ACCELERE! project. According to a focus group in Lwambo, a 2014 IDP camp census in Lwambo indicated that 5,048 people lived in the camp. Since that time, IDPs have continued to flee attacks and arrive in Lwambo. According to UNICEF, there are 2,000-2,500 households which have been displaced from Mitwaba.19 Additionally, in May 2016 people fled from Mitwaba to Mukabe-Kasari. Many people living in Mukabe-Kasari, upon seeing the arrival of IDPs, feared that war was coming soon and they in return fled to Lwambo.

Economy: With the decrease in the price of certain minerals, particularly copper, the Haut-Katangan economy has taken a downturn and continues to get worse. After years of struggling and laying off an increasing number of workers, the large foreign-owned mines have begun to close their doors or sell parts of the company to smaller companies. The sale of mines has resulted in the loss of steady work for a large portion of the workforce in Haut-Katanga, particularly since December 2015. As one ACCELERE! employee stated, “Money is not circulating anymore. No one has any money.” This phenomenon is in both rural and urban areas, as many of the rural areas depend economically on the urban areas. One mother in Kapolwe Mission, a rural area outside of Likasi, explained how she earned her living by selling her agricultural produce in Lubumbashi, but she is no longer able to support herself through this activity because people in Lubumbashi are simply buying less.

Criminality: With the closing of mines and the increasing level of unemployment in Haut-Katanga, there is an increase in criminality. Some people who have lost their jobs have turned to illegal ways of attaining cash to support their families. Incidents include mostly robberies and kidnapping. There are armed robberies in houses, sometimes also resulting in death if the homeowner does not have cash to give to the thieves.

Political instability: As of February-March 2016, political instability has been increasing in Haut- Katanga. The main presidential opposition candidate Moise Katumbi, the ex-governor of the ex-Katanga province, lives in Lubumbashi and his presence in the area contributes to increased political instability. There are targeted political attacks against supporters of the president’s party and also against supporters of the opposition. High-level supporters of the opposition have been arrested, and occasional protests have resulted in some deaths.

Artisanal mining and security incidents: In addition to the security incidents which occur during protests, there are also security incidents which occur occasionally in artisanal mining areas. Due to the struggling economy and decrease in formal mining activity, there is an increase in artisanal mining. In one neighborhood in , individuals illegally dig in their own yards to find mineral resources. Some individuals have dug holes in their yard, creating a tunnel system under their neighbors yards illegally

19 Key informant interview. 15 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

mining from their neighbors yards without their knowledge. Other individuals illegally mine in the concessions of foreign companies which are not currently being exploited by the company. This informal mining is illegal, and the provincial governor has repeatedly promised that he would designate an area where these people would be allowed to mine legally. However, this promise has not yet materialized. An example of a typical incident happened on May 17, 2016 in Lwilu, a neighborhood just outside the town of Kolwezi which is targeted by the ACCELERE! project. A company discovered that locals were informally mining on its grounds and called the police. When the police arrived, the informal miners asked where they could mine instead. Tensions rose and the encounter progressed to a largescale demonstration which resulted in the police shooting live bullets and wounding some of the demonstrators. At the end of the incident, the police office in Lwiru was burned to the ground and two vehicles and machinery were also burned. The artisanal miners are mostly those people who previously had formal mining jobs, but are now unemployed. There are also many children who engage in artisanal mining to support their families and also to pay school fees. These are the parents and children who are targeted by the ACCELERE! project.

Another type of common incident that occurs around artisanal mining is protests over the price of materials sold by artisanal miners. People engaged in artisanal mining must sell their product to foreign companies, as those are the only buyers. Often the buyers underestimate the value of what the artisanal miners bring to them, thereby decreasing the price at which they purchase the materials. This has resulted in protests and the burning of tires by the population.

Youth: The youth of Haut-Katanga are particularly affected by the declining economy in the region. For years there was a pattern of youth from Kasai coming to Katanga in search of training and work, as there were plentiful opportunities connected with the mining industry to Haut-Katanga. However, with the worsening Katangan economy, this flow of youth has steadily decreased. Vocational schools which were created to feed into mines are now less attractive to youth as there are fewer jobs available with the mines closing. Education stakeholders in Haut-Katanga are concerned about a generation of youth that has no opportunity for work and also limited opportunity to learn as many of the youth cannot afford school fees to pursue vocational training in a CAP. ACCELERE!’s Result 1 plans to reduce some of these financial barriers. Additionally, with the upcoming elections, unemployed youth are seen as a population which could be easily organized for political purposes.

Child protection: Children in Haut-Katanga face a wide range of child protection problems. There is a presence of informal child labor in the mines, which poses an extreme physical risk to those children and sometimes results in death. Students attending classes in targeted public schools, CRS and CAPs occasionally work in artisanal mines to earn money to pay informal school fees. Reducing these financial barriers through ACCELERE!’s Result 1 would also protect children. There is also a high level of sexual violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly but not exclusively of girls. Multiple focus groups in Haut-Katanga province acknowledged that sexual relationships between teachers and female students in primary schools was a known phenomenon, one that they did not consider to be exploitation or abuse. To ensure a safe learning environment for children, ACCELERE! needs to address this issue.

Schools closed due to conflict: Tenke Primary School in the Kambove sub-district, approximately 60 kilometers from Likasi, has been closed since February 1st, 2016 when its teachers left the village. The Parent Committee of the school has officially stated that the teachers left because the parents were unable to pay them. However, in informal conversations with parents and local leaders, ACCELERE! staff discovered that the reason the parents refused to pay the teachers was because the teachers were Kasai, while the majority of population in the village are Katangans. Due to tensions from the long-standing latent conflict between Kasais and Katangans, the population refused to pay the teachers. The school has been closed since then, and its 152 students (84 boys, 68 girls) are unable to finish the school year. The

16 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Ministry of Education is slowly making the necessary reports which will allow it to approve of new teachers for the school.

C. Equateur Province

Stability: Equateur province is categorized as a stable province which sees few security incidents and no armed conflict. According to UNICEF and other sources, no security incidents have occurred in the province since the beginning of 2015 which have affected the learning environment. The most recent violent conflict in the province was in 2009 and 2010, which resulted in 200,000 people fleeing their homes.20 There remain latent tensions from this conflict, but most existing conflicts in the area are related to tribalism, ethnic rivalry and land disputes.

Refugees: Violence in March 2013 between the Ex-Seleka and Anti-Balaka in the Central African Republic resulted in a wave of Central African refugees who crossed into DRC in Equateur province. Refugees have continued to arrive since that time, with the most recent wave of refugees including 650 children who have arrived since December 2015. Most of the refugees (13,860 people) are in Biyabu and others are on Singe island in the Ubangi river, both in the territory of Libenge.21 Most of the children study in local Congolese schools. These refugees are in an area not targeted by ACCELERE!.

D. Kasai Oriental Province

Stability: Kasai Oriental province is categorized as a stable province which sees few security incidents. According to UNICEF, no security incidents have occurred in the province since the beginning of 2015 which have affected the learning environment. Despite general stability, there exist conflicts related to chiefs, land ownership and inter-ethnic conflict.

Economy: Kasai Oriental’s economy since colonial times has focused on mining production and agriculture. With the fall of prices in the past ten years, production in the local mines and artisanal mining has also plummeted. As this fall in prices is not very recent, there has been an attempt in diversification of industries to continue to support the zone. Agricultural activities have increased, however production is limited and many basic goods are transported into the province and sold at high prices. Poverty rates remain high, although lower than some of the other targeted provinces. As in other provinces, informal school fees remain the main barrier to education for children, as poor parents are unable to afford the fees. ACCELERE!’s Result 1 activities should address this issue.

Child labor: Many children work in the mines in Kasai Oriental, with some children being born and raised in the mines. The provincial assembly adopted a provincial law condemning child labor in the mines, however it is not enforced. Conditions in the mines are not safe, and many children die from the physical dangers in the mines. Most of the children who work in the mines do not attend school.

Yellow fever: Since June 2015, there has been an epidemic of yellow fever in Kasai Oriental province, specifically in Kabinda in the health zones of Kamana, Lubao and Lubindi-Lukula. As of March 2016, 51 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed, and 19 people have died from the disease. An estimated

20 IRIN (2010). “Return to Equateur requires peace and prospects.” http://www.irinnews.org/report/89088/drc-congo-return- equateur-requires-peace-and-prospects 21 OCHA 17 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

500,000 people require vaccination to prevent the epidemic from spreading.22 At this time there is no particular impact of the epidemic on education in the province.

E. Kasai Central Province

Stability: Kasai Central province is categorized as a stable province which sees few security incidents. According to UNICEF, no security incidents have occurred in the province since the beginning of 2015 which have affected the learning environment. There is no armed conflict present as there is in Haut- Katanga and the Kivus. However, there are land conflicts, and conflicts among chiefs and families.

Economy: Kasai Central’s economy has been structured around diamond and mining for years, although decrease in world prices over the past approximately 10 years has forced the province to diversify its economy, particularly by increasing agricultural production as was done in Kasai Central. Agricultural production is facing increasing struggles as the road networks used to transport these products are in disrepair. Although poverty rates seem to be decreasing, according to one key informant, the many poor parents struggle to pay informal school fees to educate their children.

Child labor: Many children work in the diamond mines in Kasai Central. As in the other provinces, conditions in the mines are not safe, and many children die from the physical dangers in the mines. Most of the children who work in the mines do not attend school.

F. North and South Kivu Provinces

Violent conflict: Cycles of violent conflict have been ongoing for more than 20 years in the North and South Kivu provinces. The areas most affected at this time are Sud Lubero, Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale in North Kivu, and the territories of Kalehe, Shabunda and Fizi in South Kivu. As in other provinces, conflicts in the Kivus are very localized, often related to control of mining areas and power. Local ethnic dynamics are mobilized as needed to achieve sufficient civilian support for offenses. There are approximately 225,000 IDPs in North Kivu.23 Tracking of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in North Kivu has resulted in massive displacements and largescale fighting in the area where Sud Lubero, Masisi and Rutshuru meet. FDLR has an increased presence in Rutshuru territory which provokes neighboring Rwanda, as Rwanda wants FDLR eliminated. Fighting in North Kivu has had spillover effects in South Kivu, particularly on the displacement of people fleeing the conflict. As of 31 March 2016, there were 364,357 IDPs in South Kivu.24 Localized fighting between armed groups, such as in and Mai Mai Yakutumba in , is also causing an increase in the number of IDPs.

Attacks against civilians: Between October 2014 and December 2015, somewhere between 482 people and 551 people25 were killed around the town of Beni in North Kivu, and the killings have continued into 2016. Men, women and children have been murdered in extremely brutal ways. The government blames all of the killings on the Allied Democratic Forced (ADF) armed group which has never taken responsibility for the attacks. Recent research and reports suggest that ADF is responsible for some but not all of the attacks, and the FARDC and other local militias are accused of perpetrating some of the

22 Bulletin Humanitaire R.D. Congo – Numero 1. OCHA. 30 April 2016. 23 Bulletin Humanitaire R.D. Congo – Numero 1. OCHA. 30 April 2016. 24 RD Congo – Sud Kivu. Note d’informations humanitaires numero 10/16. OCHA. 25 May 2016. 25 Congo Research Group. “Who are the Killders of Beni?” 21 March 2016. http://congoresearchgroup.org/new-report-who-are- the-killers-of-beni/ 18 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

attacks. Mostly linked to these attacks, there are over 132,000 IDPs in Beni territory.26 If ACCELERE! targets Beni territory, a particularly vulnerable area of North Kivu at this time, they will likely realize that the CRS and CAP students have been effected by this ongoing crisis.

Proliferation of armed groups: Since 2013, Eastern DRC has seen the proliferation of armed groups with the number of armed groups in North and South Kivu now reaching more than eighty. These groups continue to fight amongst each other and against the Congolese army, making alliances and splinter groups as they fight for control of land and mineral resources. These groups reinforce and mobilize ethnic tensions, as many of them are aligned with ethnic groups. Some of the CRS and CAP students who will be targeted by ACCELERE! in year two of the project are likely former child soldiers who have been exposed to or indoctrinated with the ethnic tensions by different armed groups.

Attacks on humanitarian workers: Over 80 security incidents involving humanitarian workers have occurred since the beginning of 2016.27 Most of these incidents involved physical aggression or armed robbery, however some incidents were the kidnapping and killing of national humanitarian workers. Attacks against humanitarian workers have increased in this region in the past few years. Close monitoring of the security situation will be required to ensure the safety of ACCELERE! staff members and partners during project implementation. Strategies to mitigate risk will be essential to activity implementation, particularly those that include transport of cash.

Rwandaphone tensions: Ethnic tensions between Rwandophone ethnicities (Hutus, ) and non- Rwandophone ethnic groups are widespread in the two provinces. During the time that the DRC was a Belgian colony, the Belgians resettled thousands of Rwandophones into Eastern Congo to satisfy labor demands. The combination of over 100 years of Rwandophones moving in and out of DRC, the use of identity as political strategy by certain politicians including Mobutu (discussed in section 3A), the genocide in Rwanda and the FDLR’s continued presence in DRC, results in a high level of ethnic tension that flares up when political tensions are high and is used as a way to rally support of different armed groups depending on the geopolitical climate.

Refugees: In 2015, violence erupted in Burundi as President Nkurunziza insisted on securing a third term for himself. This resulted in displacement of families and waves of refugees flooding into DRC, particularly into South . There were over 16,000 refugees living in the Lusenda refugee camp as of April 2016.28 OCHA has recorded 22,026 Burundian refugees living in South Kivu, with around 6,000 living with host families in the communities neighboring the camp.29 Refugee children have been integrated into the Congolese school system, despite protests by their parents. The local schools were not ready for such an influx of students, and there are not enough classrooms for all of the students. The language of instruction also is a problem for many refugee children who speak at home. If ACCELERE! targets non-formal education activities in this area, a strategy will need to be established regarding refugee children.

Child protection: Children in North and South Kivu face elevated child protection risks, many of them associated with the ongoing violent conflicts in the area. Children act as child soldiers for many of the armed groups operating in the two provinces. Many demobilized child soldiers enroll in CRS and CAPs, particularly in North Kivu. Gender-based violence, including rape and sexual exploitation is also common

26 Bulletin Humanitaire R.D. Congo – Numero 1. OCHA. 30 April 2016. 27 OCHA 28 UNHCR. “Burundi Situation.” April 2016. UNHCR.org 29 OCHA. “RD Congo – Sud Kivu. Note d’informations humanitaires numero 10/16.” 25 May 2016. 19 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

in this region. Girls are regularly abducted by armed groups and used as sexual slaves, and rape is used as a weapon of war. In the school setting, exploitative sexual relationships between teachers and female students are widespread.

Economy: The economy in the Kivus is strongly linked to the mining companies and the price of those . With the collapse of copper and other commodity prices, mines in the two Kivu provinces are struggling much like in Haut-Katanga. The economic situation of the Kivus is not yet as bad as that of Haut-Katanga, but the situation is worsening every day. Money is circulating increasingly less. One key informant mentioned that when he used to visit his village, he would buy fresh food and bring it back with him to Goma; now he buys food in Goma and brings it to the village to ensure that they have enough to eat during the visit. As the economy worsens, parents make less money and have less money available to pay informal school fees. This could result in an increase in potential students for CRS and CAPs targeted by ACCELERE!.

Children’s education: North Kivu province had the highest proportion of school-aged children out of school compared to the country’s other provinces in 2013, followed by South Kivu.30 Indeed, the enrollment and attendance rates of children in the Kivus tend to be lower than the other provinces targeted by ACCELERE! Over 50 primary schools in North and South Kivu are closed due conflict, many occupied by armed groups. Itudi primary school in Karhala reopened its doors this school year after having been occupied by FDLR, however children did not want to return to a school which had been occupied and the school has lost over 150 students. Many of the closed schools are located in Beni territory and also in Mpati, an area of Masisi territory, both in North Kivu. Additionally, over 10 CRS are closed in North Kivu due to conflict. In Walikale, the seven CRS were established and functioned for a year, but have been closed since the arrive of the Raia Mutomboki armed group. When the group arrived, they kidnapped young boys from the CRS, and children are too afraid to return to the centers. In Beni, three CRS were closed and have since been occupied by the ADF. A CRS in the Bukombo area of Masisi has been closed since the 2014-2015 school year when it was occupied by an armed group; it has not reopened because it requires rehabilitation.31 SECTION 3: CONFLICT ANALYSIS

The conflict analysis will start at the national level, giving an overall analysis of the situation in the DRC using USAID’s Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF), identifying trends and triggers that are common throughout the targeted areas, as well as community-level connectors and dividers common throughout the targeted provinces. The second level of analysis is at the provincial-level, including an individual analysis of each of the provinces targeted by ACCELERE!.

A. National-Level Analysis

Grievances:

Poverty: In the DRC, a large part of the population lives on less than two dollars a day and 1.4 million households are in a situation of acute vulnerability.32 There is widespread poverty in DRC, and an environment of scarcity breeds competition for resources. An environment of scarcity against a backdrop of communal violence heightens the potential for destructive conflict when development assistance of any

30 EPDC extraction of DHS dataset (2013). 31 Key informant interview. 32 OCHA. Apercu des besoins humaanitaires 2016. 07 Déc 2015. 20 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

form is introduced. Although this grievance is longstanding and latent, as most people have become used to coping with a high level of poverty, the worsening economy could stir this latent grievance.

Insecurity: This grievance is particular to the more violent conflict-affected areas such as North and South Kivu. With more than 20 years of cycles of violence and war, there is a particular grievance against the national government for not being able to end the violence. As with poverty, many people have come to accept the situation in the East and feel there is little that they can do about it. However, this remains a latent grievance that is shared among a large population in the ACCELERE!-targeted provinces of North and South Kivu, as well as areas of the ex-Katanga province neighboring ACCELERE!-targeted sub- provinces.

Poor Governance: Congolese across the country are united by the grievance of poor governance. There is a shared dissatisfaction that the Congolese population feels with the lack of services provided to them by the state. Those who pay taxes see little to nothing in return. As ACCELERE! will partner with the government, it is important for project staff to ensure they are supporting and not replacing government service provision.

Land: Grievances over land are one of the main conflict drivers in DRC. The grievances are held by individuals and also by entire ethnic groups. There is poor governance of land allocation and transfers in the country, with no central land register. Multiple people have the power to distribute land, including various chiefs. There is very little documentation of many of these transactions, so later when a conflict arises there is no paperwork to prove ownership and resolve the issue. Additionally, with massive population displacements over the past 20 years, many of the people who moved return home to find that someone else is occupying their land. Without documented proof that the land belongs to them, this develops into a conflict. Armed groups, particularly in the east, have used land grievances to mobilize support, further fueling the violence and conflict in the region.

Identities:

Gender: Like many countries, the DRC is highly patriarchal and women have few opportunities to exert influence and power in the public sphere and even in the private sphere. In many communities, particularly rural ones, there is a preference placed on sending boys to school rather than girls. Although this is a widespread practice, there are several exceptions to this generality in specific contexts. For example, in Equateur province, many families prefer to send girls to school because boys stay home and help to support the family. In areas of the Kivus where there has been recent conflict including recruitment of child soldiers, many families keep their sons at home to prevent them from the possibility of recruitment. Also, in urban zones the trend is changing towards sending children deemed more intelligent to school. Therefore, this may be changing.

National identity: Congolese identity is strong throughout the country, and the notion of who is and who is not Congolese is important. Due to its importance, the use of identity and also citizenship as political strategy has been commonplace for decades. When Mobutu was President, he united the country by making everyone within the borders Zairans, including Rwandaphones. Mobutu gained power through this, as many Rwandaphones managed resources in the Eastern region of the country. However, as the political climate changed, Mobutu took away the citizenship of Rwandaphones living in the East in order to gain the support of the masses.33 The implications of this power play are still present in North and

33 Mahmood Mamdani (2014). Tutsi Power in Rwanda and the Citizenship Crisis in the Eastern Congo, Chapter 8: “Understanding the Kivus.” 21 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

South Kivu, as there is widespread dislike of Rwandaphones in the region which sometimes boils into violence and killings, particularly along the Plain de Ruzizi in South Kivu.

Ethnic identification: Lack of tolerance and respect for differences is a common characteristic of societies divided along identity lines. A narrative around who is “indigenous” to the area versus who is an “outsider” often fuels conflict and is used to justify violence. This is evident in the Kasai vs Katangan conflict in the Haut-Katanga province, and by the Rwandaphone versus non-Rwandaphone in the provinces of North and South Kivu which are both explored further below in the provincial sections of this analysis. In the following passage, the author describes how ethnicity is mobilized for violence in the DRC and in the Kivus, in particular:

“The Congolese wars and widespread violence have seriously aggravated the dynamics of rejection between ethnic communities. Just like ‘warmongers’ who exploit ethnicity as a means of mobilizing people, some of the elite take advantage of the regionalization of wars to promote political agendas concerning ethnicity at local and provincial levels. This often aggravates relations between ethnic groups. During the wars, different communities were generally associated with one adversary or another and violence was often targeted along ethnic lines. This remains largely true today in terms of confrontations between armed groups. In this way, insecurity and violence reinforce the dynamics of rejection and stigmatization between different ethnic communities. Violence continues to be widely used as a strategy for imposing personal political, economic and land-related interests.”34

This pattern of violence is cyclical in the Kivus, with seemingly endless cycles of violence which pass from generation to generation. Although there is less violence in the targeted regions of Haut-Katanga, this same pattern still exists. Generations of ethnic tensions, with intermittent violence, is passed from one generation to a next. A parent in Haut-Katanga shared the example of a student in a CRS who was punished at school, who assumed that he had been punished because his tribe was different from that of his teacher. The child went home and told his parents that he was being discriminated against because of their tribe. The child’s father visited the school to the situation with the teacher and the student, and it was explained what fault the child had committed, and that he was punished because of the fault and not because of his tribe. This example shows how even though there may not be active conflict, latent conflict lies just beneath the surface. This is the case for many of the communities in which ACCELERE! intervenes.

A survey research study conducted by Search for Common Ground, a well-known international peacebuilding NGO, found that respondents perceived land conflicts and ethnic conflicts to be the most common types of conflicts in the four provinces where the study was conducted, including Equateur and North Kivu.35 This means that identity issues and relations between natives and non-natives, and Bantus and Pygmies, for example, are factors to be considered in increasing equitable access to education. Special measures to target and conduct outreach to those who are typically excluded would advance this goal as well as help to address a core grievance that is fueling conflict.

Institutional performance:

Poor governance and corruption: There is widespread perception that the DRC is a highly corrupt country where corruption permeates every level of the government, as well as is regularly present in business and other affairs. The country ranks 147 out of 168 on Transparency International’s 2015

34 International Alert (2015). Beyond Stabilization: Understanding the Conflict Dynamics in North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. 35 Search for Commong Ground (2012). “Education and Conflict.” 22 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Corruption Perceptions Index.36 Corruption is one manifestation of poor governance in DRC. As summed up by a 2013 International Crisis Group report:

“Despite a decade of efforts to rebuild the Congolese state, the government remains ineffective in rural areas, leaving customary chiefs, whose role is recognized by the constitution but not fully defined, virtually in charge. They use their key position between the state and communities to benefit from any state and international investments and to protect their own interests. This fuels conflict, with inter-communal rivalries playing out in state institutions and among local and national politicians.”37

A common theme, which surfaced in focus group discussions with education stakeholders in Lubumbashi, is the need for transparency in all programming decisions. Underneath this call for transparency was a deep mistrust of those in power. While consultation with and involvement of stakeholders is a key principle of development in order to foster ownership, in a conflict-affected society, consultation and involvement are deeply felt needs rooted in self-protection.

Non-respect of Free Primary Education policy: The government continues to proclaim free primary education for students in first through fifth grades, but it does not provide the financial support to ensure that this policy can be applied throughout the country. If teachers are not paid by the government, they must find a way to make a living and that comes from the students and their families. The issue of informal school fees as a consequence of unpaid teachers and under-financed schools is present in every area targeted by ACCELERE! This issue is the root cause of most school-centered conflicts. Not only does it create conflict between teachers and the students who they send home from class, it creates conflicts between teachers and parents who struggle to pay, and it also has a huge impact on the quality of education provided in the schools. All teachers who participated in the 2016 focus groups indicated that they had second jobs in order to ensure their survival. This additional work required that they spend the minimum amount of time required at school to teach classes, and they often ended up preparing lessons at night by candlelight. They said they want to provide quality education and most of them try their best, but they are also unmotivated because they are not well paid for their work. They want school to be free, and they are uncomfortable sending children home from school due to non-payment, but without that practice they are unable to make a living. Some school directors and teachers make exceptions and allow students to study without paying, including displaced students and particularly vulnerable students, however this also has an effect on the school staff’s ability to make a living.

At the start of the 2015-2016 school year, the government launched a massive back-to-school campaign, highlighting the Free Primary Education policy, including radio spots and also asking schools to go door- to-door to register uneducated children. Additionally, in areas of Haut-Katanga where ACCELERE! was going to intervene, the government also shared that ACCELERE! would be supporting children in the first and second grades. Many children enrolled in school, and many parents assumed that the first and second graders would study freely thanks to the project. As the school year continued, and parents realized that they still had to pay school fees, many children dropped out of school due to their inability to pay. Directors in one focus group in Haut-Katanga said that vulnerable parents begged them to stop sensitizing them and going door-to-door, because it gave them false hope and they were unable to pay school fees.

36 Transparency International (2015). Corruption Perceptions Index Report. 37 International Crisis Group (2013). Understanding Conflict in Eastern Congo (I): The Ruzizi Plain 23 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Informal school fees have an additional major effect on the quality of education that teachers are able to provide. Although there are many students who are unable to return to school after being kicked out due to nonpayment, there are many other students who are absent for the period of time it takes them to find the necessary money to pay school fees. These types of absences are commonplace in primary schools, CRS and CAPs. This results in teachers having additional difficulties in continuing with planned lessons, as when children return from being absent, the teachers often backtrack and recover material which they have already taught in order to try to catch-up the kids who were absent. This happens throughout the school year, ending with teachers feeling as if they are constantly advancing and backtracking and repeating material.

Lack of supplies and inadequate education infrastructure: Inadequate government funding of schools results in limited school supplies and inadequate education infrastructure which schools try to finance with the informal school fees. But as the school fees remain a problem, many schools do not have sufficient materials or infrastructure, including classrooms and latrines. Many schools, particularly in rural areas, have a lack of school desks which provides a particular challenge for the implementation of ACCELERE! which places an emphasis on teaching students to read.

Teacher payment: In addition to the lack of payment of teachers, there is a problem with the way in which teachers are paid in DRC. Recently, the government instituted a new banking policy in order to be able to pay teachers directly to their bank accounts. This method works well for teachers who are located in cities where there are banks, but it is not helpful for those teachers in rural areas. Teachers in rural areas are able to receive their salaries in one of two ways: 1) payment by Caritas Congo (an ACCELERE! project partner, although not for the purpose of teacher payments), and 2) payment by sub-contractors of banks. Both of these methods are organized in a similar fashion: either Caritas or the bank sub-contractor bring money to a centralized location in a rural area and teachers come to collect their salary. This system causes a range of problems for teachers and schools. Often, payments are made late. In 2015, Caritas was 2-4 months behind in payments for thousands of teachers in North Kivu province.38 In addition to late payments, there is a problem around communication when payments are made as scheduled. Often the date of payment is communicated at the last minute to protect the transport of cash and to mitigate the risk of theft, however this results in some teachers not receiving the information in time to travel to pick up their salary; some even receive the communication after the pay day already took place.39 This payment method has a direct impact on the quality of education in the schools because on pay day, many classes do not take places because the teachers and directors are absent.

Social patterns:

Elitism: Coupled with the widespread poverty in the country is elitism which creates a separation of two classes: “haves” and “have-nots.” In DRC, there are two elite classes in the country. One is the successful business owners and politicians. These are mostly Congolese citizens with extreme wealth. There is anger and resentment by the “have-nots” because they see these elites as profiting off of the natural resources of the country, which they believe should benefit the society as a whole. The other class of elites are the UN workers. In areas where there are peacekeeping operations or UN offices, the general population sees UN workers traveling around in armored vehicles and large jeeps, and frequenting expensive hotels and restaurants. Focus group participants in Goma mentioned how often that frustration results in people throwing rocks at UN vehicles driving around town. As a large portion of the general population has

38 Voice of America. “Catholic Church in DRC Defends Role in Paying Teachers.” 23 June 2015. http://www.voanews.com/content/catholic-church-in-drc-defends-role-in-paying-teachers/2833919.html 39 Focus groups, Katanga. 24 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

faced decades of poverty, many have become resigned to it but seeing the elites tends to stir up the latent frustration.

Exclusion: The three main groups excluded in DRC are: 1) Pygmies/Batwa, 2) Rwandaphones, and 3) citizens living in Eastern Congo. The minority group which is consistently excluded across the country are the pygmies, or Batwa. The following gives an example of the discrimination against and exclusion of Batwa in Katanga province, and this example is representative of the challenges faced by Batwa communities in the other provinces.

The Batwa Community in Katanga

The Batwa are indigenous, traditionally semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers. As in other parts of central Africa, the Batwa and other “Pygmy” communities have suffered systematic discrimination and exclusion from society. During the colonial period, Belgian authorities considered “Pygmies” sub-human, kidnapping their children and transporting them to zoos abroad and to the World’s Fair in the United States in 1904.

Today, Batwa in Katanga are denied fair working conditions, have little to no access to land and basic services such as health and education, and have no political representation. Due to deforestation, logging, and cultivation, the Batwa’s traditional way of life in Katanga and elsewhere in the country is at serious risk.

Some Congolese officials recognize that addressing the underlying discrimination against Batwa is crucial to ending the intercommunal violence. Kitungwa, Katanga’s provincial interior minister, told Human Rights Watch on July 10, 2016:

“The Pygmies felt like they were living under an apartheid situation. This conflict won’t end today or tomorrow. It’s a movement for the emancipation of a people. We won’t stop the movement, but it needs to be contained. One of the solutions will be in improving access to education and access to land for the Pygmies. They’re a nomadic people that lived in the bush as hunters, but with the changes to the ecosystem, they’ve started to settle in villages, and it’s like they’re now treated as sub-humans who are forced to work for the Luba. We need to find ways to break the cycle of dependency between the colonizer and the colonized, the dominant people and the dominated people.”

Ensuring that the basic rights of the Batwa are met is an important goal, but the government has not put forward a clear and credible plan for ending discriminatory practices against them, Human Rights Watch said. This will be even more difficult in the tumultuous political climate engendered by the July subdivision of Katanga into four new provinces, most of which have very limited resources and infrastructure.40

As discussed in the identity section above, Rwandaphones were first included by receiving Congolese citizenship, and then were excluded by being stripped of that citizenship by President Mobutu. There is also a strong sense of exclusion in Eastern Congo. As war has continued to erupt in Eastern Congo for the past two decades, people in the Kivus and parts of northern Katanga feel excluded as they feel forgotten and ignored by the rest of the country, and particularly by the politicians in Kinshasa.

40 Human Rights Watch. DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga. 11 Augus 2015 25 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Chronic capacity deficits: The exclusion felt in Eastern Congo is linked to the chronic capacity deficits of the government, as those living in the region feel that their region is persistently being neglected. However, these chronic capacity deficits are noted throughout the country, including the provinces targeted by ACCELERE!. There is widespread failure to deliver basic services, such as education, health care and basic infrastructure. This is evident by the lack of paved roads in the country (only 2,250km of paved roads)41, as well as by the problems discussed above linked to non-respect of the Free Primary Education policy. Another major chronic capacity deficit is the mismanagement of strategic natural resources in the country, such as copper and coltan. This results in the country not benefiting from the largescale mining occurring in many parts of the country, including five of the provinces targeted by ACCELERE!.

Corruption: As mentioned in the Institutional Performance section above, DRC ranks 147 out of 168 on Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.42 Corruption is prolific in the DRC at all levels of society through bribery, nepotism and fraud. It became widespread through President Mobutu’s leadership style as he neglected to pay many state agents, and encouraged them to use their power to make a living. Bribery is routine in both public and private business transactions. Interviewees mentioned the terms of “tea money” and “soft drink” which are used by officials to encourage bribes. They also mentioned that it is hard to see what is corruption and what is culture, and corruption has simply become a part of the fabric of Congolese society.

Key mobilizers:

Politicians: As 2015 and 2016 were both scheduled to be election years in DRC, 2015 for provincial elections and 2016 for the presidential elections, politicians are key mobilizers in the society at this time. Thus far, they have rallied their supporters for their own political pursuits as well as in opposition of a potential third term for Kabila. Politicians have joined together with the movement Front Citoyen 2016 to organize successful protests across the country in both major and smaller cities.

Local chiefs: In some areas of Congo, local chiefs play a role close to that of a deity; such is the level of their importance. In other areas, they also maintain a high level of influence and power at the community level. The level of influence they have over those in their chiefdom is higher than those of politicians or local administrative chiefs. The importance of the chief is not only for those who live in the area which he controls, but also extends to those visiting the area. As one Sous Proved employee in Haut-Katanga mentioned during this study, if a visitor does not visit a local chief before visiting the schools they will probably be bitten by a snake; but if they visit the chief when they arrive, he will ensure their safety while they are in his area. These local chiefs are born into their roles, and they hold the position until they die. Most Congolese people would obey what a chief says without questioning, and most of them do. Additionally, chiefs hold a key position between the government and local communities. Many use this position to benefit from investments in their area. Additionally, chiefs are perceived as influential during elections since they are connected to the political patronage networks.

Media: Radio media plays an important role in the daily lives of Congolese people, and it is influential in terms of what it reports and what people hear. There are many local radio stations, but the most influential ones are those at the national level which are also controlled by politicians and political groups and have the largest audience. Radio Cinquentenaire is the mouthpiece of the government as is able to inform and rally its supporters with what it broadcasts. The other influential radio stations belong to opposition

41 United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC). DRC Snapshot – Roads in the DRC. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/296FAADD2CD1C4EF852571B5005CD59C-unjlc-cod-24jul.pdf 42 Transparency International (2015). Corruption Perceptions Index Report. 26 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

politicians and tend to provide more information including information and stories which are critical of the government. Radio Nyota is a radio station controlled by the governor of Katanga and Radio Jua is a radio station owned by an opposition politician named Muyambo who is currently in prison. These two radio stations most easily rally the population in opposition to the government.

Front Citoyen 2016: A new movement was created in December 2015, bringing together civil society groups and opposition politicians that has proved a strong mobilizer in its first six months of existence. The group consists of civil society groups such as FILIMBI, youth-led movements such as LUCHA (Lutte pour le Changement), and opposition candidates including Moise Katumbi, and Felix Tshisekedi. On 16 February 2016, the movement succeeded in paralyzing parts of the country by carrying out “ville mortes” (ghost towns) in major cities throughout the country in protest of a draft law that would have enabled Kabila to seek a third term. Again on 26 May 2016, during the field study for this report, Front Citoyen 2016 carried out mass demonstrations across the country again in opposition of Kabila seeking a third term, and more specifically in response to the Constitutional Court’s ruling that Kabila may stay in office if Presidential elections are not held according to schedule. Crowd sizes of the protests varied from approximately 6,000-10,000 in Kinshasa, to several dozen in Bunia, a town in North Kivu.43

Youth-led movements: Recently, youth-led movements have taken a more active role in the political and social conversations taking place in the country. Youth, particularly in the Kivus and in Kinshasa, have organized themselves into mouthpieces for their generation, often clashing with the government. These groups, such as LUCHA which is based in North Kivu, are gaining an increasing following across the country. Two members of LUCHA have been held in a prison in Kinshasa without trial since January 2015, and this has also rallied additional supporters for the group.

Catholic church: Catholicism is the dominant religion in DRC, and the Catholic Church plays an influential role in Congolese society. The Catholic church and its charity, Caritas Congo, are active throughout the country through their vast network of churches and administrative offices. The church plays a particularly large role in education, as Caritas is responsible for the distribution of salaries to school staff in both Catholic and non-Catholic schools in rural areas of Congo which do not have banks. There are also a large number of Catholic schools which have the reputation of being the best in terms of quality and teaching conditions. In the two focus group discussions held in Lubumbashi 2 and Likasi with education officials from the public schools, there was a mixture of admiration and resentment for the outsized role of Catholic education. One person said “the Catholic schools are the top – better even than the [other] private schools.” Others intimated that they prioritize their own schools in terms of allocation of resources and timeliness of salary payments. The church also occasionally throws its weight behind political issues, most recently behind the protests in January 2015 against President extending his rule. The church spoke out against the possibility of Kabila extending his rule to a third term, and encouraged participation in peaceful protests across the country.

Trends:

Crackdown on nonviolent citizen movements and political opposition: Since January 2015, there has been an increasing trend of arrest and detention of pro-democracy activists. When in May 2016, the DRC constitutional court ruled that President Kabila would be allowed to stay in office if the presidential

43 Congo Research Group. “What is there to learn from the May 26 demonstrations?” 27 May 2016. http://congoresearchgroup.org/what-is-there-to-learn-from-the-may-26-demonstrations/ 27 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

elections planned for November 2016 did not take place, protests were planned throughout the country. During the same month, main Presidential opposition candidate Moise Katumbi, the ex-governor of the ex-Katanga province, was detained and processed in court and then hurt when security forces attacked his group of protestors. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and a few days later he was “medevacked” to South Africa seeking further treatment for the injury he suffered during the violent protests.

Focus on quality of education, rather than access: Some Congolese interviewed for this report felt that he Minister of Education has made quality education his priority, with less emphasis on access to education. This is evident in the Plan Intermiaire de l’Education (PIE) which some critics feel glosses over access and education in emergencies. Although quality of education is also important, it is focusing on the quality of education who are already able to access education. Without finding a sustainable plan to pay teachers and provide sufficient infrastructures to schools, the quality of education will continue to suffer.

Decoupage: In an already tense political environment with an uncertain election calendar, the process of decentralization could have a further de-stabilizing effect on the country, most particularly where the changes are largest such as in Katanga, Kasai Oriental, former Kasai Occidental, and Equateur provinces. As noted elsewhere in the report, the decoupage process is welcomed overall, but if not properly funded it could result in further weakened governance.

Proliferation of armed groups: As mentioned above in the context of North and South Kivu, there is a proliferation of armed groups since 2013. As groups continue to splinter and divide, this could result in increased fighting in more areas, specifically in the Kivu provinces targeted by ACCELERE!. An increase in violent conflict could also result in more CRS and CAP students, including former child soldiers and those who have been exposed to war.

Increasing tension in neighboring countries: Widespread violence erupted in Burundi in 2015, resulting in over 20,000 refugees fleeing into DRC and they continue to cross the border. The violence is linked to the Burundian President insisting on staying in power for a third term. Similarly, in Rwanda the constitution has been changed to allow President Kagame to stay in power past the original constitutional term limit. There are also upcoming elections in Uganda, where Museveni is attempting to remain in office past his term limit. The tensions in the Great Lakes region are steadily increasing, and what occurs in the neighboring countries could have an increasing impact on the situation in DRC.

Weakening economy: With the reduction of commodity prices such as copper, and the subsequent fractioning and closing of mines, the DRC economy is beginning to struggle. Money is circulating less in many areas of the country, and more people are struggling to provide for their families. The government budget will likely need to be cut due to a decrease in tax revenues, and this could have an immediate impact on service provision including for the Ministry of Education. Not only will many parents be increasingly unable to pay school fees, as was already noted by all focus groups, but it is possible that the Ministry of Education will struggle to pay more teachers due to a limited budget.

Triggers:

Delayed elections: Current threats to stability include the government’s attempts to amend the constitution and electoral law to allow President Kabila to run for a third term and postponement of elections. These developments leave much unknown in terms of how the political environment will develop leading up to elections, but unfortunately the outlook leaves cause for concern. If Presidential elections are not held as scheduled, there is a high risk of additional and widespread violence in the country. If the elections are held, there is also a high risk of election violence.

28 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Arrest of opposition party candidates: There is currently a warrant issued for the arrest of Presidential opposition candidate Moise Katumbi. There is a possibility that if the candidate is arrested or if his security becomes a major risk, it could trigger further unrest in the country, particularly in Katanga province with the possibility of spreading across the country.

Both of these triggers have the potential to disrupt the education system and prevent children from going to school. Violence in rural areas could also likely lead to further displacement and suspension of the school year at least in affected areas, which could have a direct impact on the implementation of ACCELERE! activities in targeted schools. Additionally, general unrest could lead to security situations which might require ACCELERE! to scale down or suspend activities for a period of time until security returns to the targeted project areas.

B. Community-Level Connectors and Dividers Provincial analyses showed that the community-level connectors and dividers which are present in the targeted provinces are the same. These are outlined below. The specificities of how these connectors and dividers manifest in each province are explained in further detail in the subsequent provincial analysis sections.

Community-level connectors which are common throughout the targeted provinces:

 A high value is placed on education in almost all communities throughout DRC. When asked what they like about their school, participants in focus groups in Haut-Katanga spoke of how educating children is a way to develop their communities, and that through education children can build a better future and would have the opportunity to become ministers or President one day. This is a common sentiment shared in both peaceful and conflict-affected communities. A 2014 study done in IDP camps in North Kivu and Ethiopia found that 30% of those surveyed ranked education first, more than any other need (health, water, food, shelter, psychosocial support). Additionally, one child said, “I chose food, because without this you can’t go to school.” Further, a father in North Kivu said, “Education is the most important thing. Without education we are nothing.”44 An educations stakeholder in Katanga also explained that unlike healthcare where parents can seek the assistance of witch doctors instead of going to a clinic, there is no replacement for education. Parents place a high value on education, making financial sacrifices for students to attend. According to parents in Haut-Katanga, their children and other kids in their school sometimes walk up to 12 kilometers in order to get to school, and when certain kids are kicked out when their school fees are not paid, they go to work themselves to get money for their school fees and then return to school. And some marginalized groups, such as the Batwa, see access to education as a key pathway to greater equality.  Ethnic and tribal identification are a strong connector in uniting particular groups of people at the community-level. This identification can also serve as divider, as explored in the list below.  Throughout Congo, there is a strong national identity. This has the capability of connecting almost all people in DRC, through pride of their country and common national culture.  Parent Committees (COPA) are connectors in the education system. When they are well-trained, organized and engaged with the school, they help foster cooperation, transparency, and accountability (see Vas-y-Fille! as an example). The COPA in particular tends to play the role of mediator between parents and the school, and is able to find solutions with both parties. A concrete example of this arose in Haut-Katanga during a focus group, when a parent voiced a

44 Save the Children (2014). “Hear it From the Children.”. 29 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

problem they had faced and immediately after the meeting the President of the COPA went to meet with the school director and the parent to address the issue.  Opportunities to dialogue and exchange experiences was seen as a connector. For example, when structured opportunities were provided for teachers to exchange on their experiences in implementing new curricula or using new teaching tools, this enhanced trust and respect among different identity groups. Similarly, Vas-y- Fille!’s strategy – providing structured opportunities for parents to talk together about the challenges they face and ideas they have – created a stronger sense of community and social cohesion.  Recreational activities were found as a source of connection, particularly for youth in the non- formal education setting. Focus group participants pointed to recreational activities as a key opportunity for youth from different communities, different ethnic groups and different life experiences to come together and form relationships. This was found to be particularly important in non-formal education settings, like the ones ACCELERE! will target, which often bring together former child soldiers from different armed groups, as well as those who were traumatized by armed groups.

Community-level dividers which are common throughout the targeted provinces:

 Informal school fees create tensions between students and their teachers, and between parents and school management. When school fees aren’t paid, children are almost always sent home when they try to attend school. This upsets the student who is excluded from school, and often results in an angry or frustrated parent visiting the school to try to find a solution. In all focus groups and key informant interviews, this was highlighted as the main conflict faced by public schools. Inability to pay school fees can lead to “payment in kind” arrangements which can include forced labor of children and sexual abuse of children. In cases where an assistance program is covering school fees for students, delays in payment can also lead to these same consequences; girls benefiting from the Vas-Y Fille program were kicked out of school when the program was behind on paying the girls’ school fees.  Beneficiary targeting can lead to division within schools and among schools and community. For education programs, it leads to some children, teachers, schools and/or communities feeling excluded. This can lead to teasing between children, and also to frustration and anger in general. Examples of projects creating this division are plentiful. When the Eagle project distributed school kits during school hours, tensions erupted between the beneficiary and non-beneficiary students. The Vas-y Fille program’s beneficiaries were exclusively girls, and boys and parents who had either all or mostly male children felt excluded and angry. Additionally, the ACCELERE! program thus far has directly supported first and second grade students and their teachers, causing divisions between the students and teachers who benefited and the students and teachers who did not. One teacher in a focus group in Haut-Katanga said “Part of our school is ACCELERE!, and part of our school is not.” In another focus group, a teacher joined late and the other teachers exclaimed “Here he is, ACCELERE!” because the teacher was a first grade teacher who had benefited from the ACCELERE! training.  Ethnic and tribal identification which can be a connector within groups can also serve as a divider between different groups. As discussed in the analysis above, ethnic and tribal identification have been mobilized by armed groups and politicians to gain power. This is the most common divider that exists in the community unrelated to school and project implementation which has the biggest potential to cause harm for the ACCELERE! project if not monitored and acknowledged.  Lack of transparency and accountability with regard to financial management in the schools creates tensions between the school management and the parents, and between citizens and the government. It also creates distrust on the part of parents. The most common cited example of this by focus groups was schools who receive funding through an external donor that are not 30 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

transparent with the project objectives and budget. Some education stakeholders also noted that the budget of the education ministry was not transparent.

Children’s Education:

Overall, gross attendance rates for primary school are well over 100% and are much higher than net attendance rates. This shows that there are many over-age children in the formal school system. Based on the analysis above, it is likely that the increased number of older age children is due to repetition of grades or late enrolment, due to war or inability to pay school fees. Parents often can only educate a fraction of their children at a time. When one fails, they give the chance to another child who perhaps did not enroll at the proper time and is over-age when he or she begins school. The data shows that for the gross attendance rate, there is almost parity between boys’ and girls’ attendance rates. In North Kivu and South Kivu, the rate for girls is even slightly higher than boys.

Gross Attendance Rate 160.0 140.0 120.0 100.0 80.0 60.0 40.0 20.0 -

Boys Girls Total

Data source: EPDC extraction of DHS dataset (2013)

The net attendance rate reflects what was expected regarding the effect of conflict on children’s access to education, retention and learning. Net attendance rates are lower in the targeted provinces most affected by active violent conflict: North Kivu and South Kivu. It would appear that the violent conflict has a strong immediate impact on student’s attendance. As noted in the limitations section, data for the DRC is often incorrect. The net attendance rate data for Kasai Oriental is likely incorrect, as it reports 87.7% as the net attendance rate for both boys and girls. Although it is likely that the rates are close to even, it is highly unlikely that the rates are exactly the same. Unlike the gross attendance rates, the net shows that more school-age boys are in attendance than school-age girls. This reflects the general preference to send boys to school rather than girls, and as the rate in the gross attendance rates for girls is higher, it shows that more girls are enrolled at an older age than boys.

31 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Net Attendance Rate 90.0 88.0 86.0 84.0 82.0 80.0 78.0 76.0 74.0 72.0 70.0 68.0

Boys Girls Total

Data source: EPDC extraction of DHS dataset (2013)

Data for the gross enrollment rate was not available from the same data source as the gross and net attendance rates. The gross enrollment rate data shows that overall there are more boys than girls enrolling in primary school. It does also show higher enrollment rates in the more stable provinces of Kasai-Oriental and former Kasai-Occidental. Surprisingly, Haut-Katanga appears to have lower rates than all of the other provinces.

Gross Enrollment Rate 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Boys Girls Total

Data source: Ministry of Primary, Secondary and Professional Education Statistical Yearbook – School Year 2013-2014. Published July 2015.

C. Haut-Katanga Province

Native vs. Non-Native

32 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

A narrative around who is “indigenous” to the area versus who is an “outsider” often fuels conflict and is used to justify violence. The most widespread conflict of this type in Haut-Katanga is between Kasai and self-identified “native Katangans.” The native Katangans view Kasai people as outsiders. There is a long history to this conflict, which began when DRC was still a Belgian colony before 1960. The colonizers needed people to work in their fields, but the Katangans refused, so the Kasai were brought in as laborers. With time, the Kasais became higher qualified and began to work in the major enterprises in Katanga, working their way up to management level. “Native Katangans” became frustrated that “outsiders” were getting better jobs than they were, and around the time of independence, violent conflict broke out between the two groups. Many Kasais returned to the Kasai provinces due to the conflict, and many people died. Between 1990 and 1995, a Katangan politician mobilized the anti-Kasai sentiments again and forcibly sent many Kasais back to their provinces. The conflict is heard in common language used on the street in Katanga today. To call someone a “Kasaian” is an insult, and people from Kasai (even if they have lived in Katanga their entire lives) are referred to as “kilulu,” which means “insect” in Kiswahili. ACCELERE! staff confirmed that even on the road, if you make an error while driving, it is very likely that another driver will yell “Kasai” at you. One interviewee in Lubumbashi even said that it was a “sin” to call someone a Kasai.

Land conflict

One of the most common conflicts throughout Haut-Katanga is land conflict. There is a long history of land conflict in the province. This conflict manifests at all levels, from provincial politics to neighbors fighting over their property limits. Around 2000, a provincial politician began to politicize land by declaring that there were two parts of Katanga: Katanga “utile” (useful) and Katanga “inutile” (useless). Useful Katanga was the southern part of the province where the mineral riches are concentrated, and useless Katanga was the northern agricultural area. With this political message, different local chiefs started searching for ways to have some of the “useful” land. This created many north vs. south conflicts, with a large amount of violence which continued intermittently for years.

Anti-government armed groups

The armed conflict currently affecting areas targeted by ACCELERE! is in the area of Mitwaba, where anti-government armed groups terrorize civilians in an effort to disrupt the government. In 2012, the mai mai groups alleged that desire for the secession of Katanga was behind their insurrection.45 Politicians also mobilize these groups as needed to gain additional power. Their attacks have caused mass displacement of the population, resulting in the arrival of IDPs in over seven schools targeted by ACCELERE! The IDP population tends to be even more poor than the autotochtone population because of their displacement, and they struggle to educate their children. Some schools have accepted IDP children without requiring them to pay school fees. Parents in focus groups in Haut-Katanga said that the children of the two groups get along, but the IDP children tell their experiences of war to the autochtone children who have never known war.

45 Georges Berghezan, Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security. “Armed Groups in Katanga, a Region at the Heart of Multiple Conflicts.” 09 June 2015. 33 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Pygmies and Bantus

Among minority populations suffering particularly from the continuing conflict in the east, chronic poverty and marginalization are the Congolese Batwa/Bambuti.46 Although this conflict has not yet had an impact on the zones targeted by ACCELERE!, it is important to be aware of it as there is a possibility it could have an impact on the project in the next few years as the conflict borders targeted areas. The following excerpt from a recent Human Rights Watch article sheds light on some of the dynamics of ethnic conflict, in particular between Batwa and Luba, and how ethnic-based discrimination by those in power can fuel injustice. One of the solutions proposed by the Interior Minister of Katanga interviewed in the article is increasing access to education and land for the Batwa.

Conflict between the Batwa and Luba in Katanga (excerpt, Human Rights Watch, DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga, August 11, 2015)

… Since large-scale fighting broke out in 2013 between ethnic Luba and the Batwa, the United Nations (UN) has reported hundreds of civilians killed, dozens of villages burned to the ground, and tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes. The fighting in Katanga has received little national or international attention, while the plight of Batwa communities in Congo, indigenous groups that have long been the target of discrimination from local authorities and other communities, is often ignored …

Simmering tensions between Batwa and Luba in Katanga erupted in major fighting in mid-2013 in Manono territory, after Batwa started demanding respect for their basic rights, including access to land and an end to alleged forced labor or a form of slavery. Both communities formed loosely organized militias and the fighting spread to Kabalo, , and southern Nyunzu territories.

In January 2015, over 3,500 families fleeing violence in southern Nyunzu and Manono territories gathered outside of the town of Nyunzu. The site became known as the Vumilia 1 camp. Most camp residents were Batwa, while Luba who had fled the violence largely sought refuge with families in the surrounding community. In the first few months of 2015, Batwa fighters known as “Perci” armed with bows and arrows and machetes brutally attacked Luba in southern Nyunzu and northern Manono territories, killing and kidnapping civilians and burning entire villages. …

After news of these attacks reached the town of Nyunzu, Luba fighters organized an attack on the Batwa in the Vumilia 1 camp. The Luba fighters, known as “Elements,” were armed with machetes, axes, and bows and arrows, wore amulets and other witchcraft symbols, and allegedly cut off the genitals of some victims. “People started to flee, not knowing that the Elements were everywhere in the camp,” a Batwa woman told Human Rights Watch. “They started to shoot arrows at us. We had no arms to protect ourselves. They massacred us. They killed so many Pygmies. They killed us like animals, like things with no value.” …

Local authorities have warned aid workers and local human rights activists not to speak out about the attack or the number of people killed. In interviews with Human Rights Watch, local and provincial government and army officials – many of whom are Luba – sought to minimalize the Vumilia 1 killings. Without backing up their claims, they said the number of Batwa killed ranged from none to four. …

46 Minority Rights Group International. “Batwa and Bambuti.” http://minorityrights.org/minorities/batwa-and- bambuti/ 34 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

D. Equateur Province

Ethnic tensions:

A range of conflicts are present in Equateur which have varying effects on education of children and youth. Calm returned to Equateur a few years ago, after rival ethnic communities clashed most recently in 2009 and 2010, resulting in 200,000 people fleeing their homes.47 These people have since returned, but fear and speculation remain widespread. Although there is no violent conflict present in the province, there remain latent tensions and resentment. Most of the conflicts in the area are related to tribalism, ethnic rivalry and land disputes. These sentiments affect the schooling of children, causing favoritism and exclusion in the school environment. Some parents in Equateur reported:

Children belonging to the ethnic groups or tribes of the schools’ headmaster or principal are kept in schools even if they have not paid the fees. This is done at the expense of other ethnic groups which are in the same situation.48

Land conflict:

Refugees from the Central African Republic are present in the Equateur province, but not in the areas targeted by the ACCELERE! project. Most IDPs from the 2009-2010 conflict have returned home, but some remain displaced. This population movement has resulted in an increase in land property disputes stemming from theft, illegal occupation of land and problems with land ownership documents. In Mbandaka, there were also a few cases of conflicts between schools and their surrounding communities related to the boundaries of the school compounds.

Land conflict between the Monzaya and Enyele tribes is a major cause of conflict in the Dongo region. Linked to both land conflict and ethnic tensions, there is also competition over natural resources between the Loloba and Boba tribes in the Dongo region. This is an ethnic conflict which has manifested over different natural resources over several decades. This zone is not specifically targeted by ACCELERE!, but as in Katanga, there may be spillover effect.

Pygmies:

There are also reports of discrimination against Pygmies by Bantus in different areas of Equateur. For example:

In Mbandaka, a school was built by Oxfam in partnership with UNICEF in the Pygmies area to encourage cohesion between these minorities and the Bantus of the area around the school. The Bantus refused to send their children to the school (Ngonde Primary School), due to the presence of Pygmies who suffer rejection and discrimination from the Bantus.49

Language as a Connector

47 IRIN (2010). “Return to Equateur requires peace and prospects.” http://www.irinnews.org/report/89088/drc-congo-return- equateur-requires-peace-and-prospects 48 Search for Commong Ground (2012). “Education and Conflict.” 49 Search for Commong Ground (2012). “Education and Conflict.” 35 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

The large presence of refugees in the northeast area of the province has not created noticeable conflict. The refugees and Congolese speak local dialects, Kigbandi and , which are closely related and are spoken on both sides of the border, which facilitates communication and understanding between the two groups.

E. Kasai Oriental Province

Native vs. Non-Native

The native vs. non-native conflict in Haut-Katanga has had spillover effects in Kasai Oriental. At the root of this conflict is competition over limited resources in a poor province. The Baluba population which has been chased from the Katanga province for over 10 years bears the brunt of this discrimination because they are considered to be “new arrivals.” Informally, they are referred to as “Bena Katanga” which translates as “the people from Katanga.” It is important to note that this is a division among the same ethnic group, between those who have spent some time away from their native land and those who remained behind when others pursued economic activities in neighboring provinces.

Inter-communal conflict:

These conflicts reflect conflicts between chiefs and between communities. This is one of the most common types of conflicts in Kasai Oriental. Most often, there are disputes over who should take control when a chief dies with communities dividing along loyalty lines. These conflicts often do not result in largescale violence, however the intercommunal conflict in Miabi caused the displacement of hundreds of people with over 600 houses burned to the ground and destroyed.50

Decoupage and land conflict:

Since the decoupage went into effect, there is a new land conflict which has developed along the border of the new Kasai Oriental province and the new Kasai Central province. This conflict is over control of the diamond mines which are located along the border between the two new provinces. Additionally, there are land conflicts between chiefs over control of diamond mines and other natural resources including forests.

F. Former Kasai Occidental Province

Inter-communal conflict:

Conflict between traditional chiefs is one of the most frequent forms of conflict in the former Kasai Occidental. Most often, they are disputes over power which arise when a chief dies. In the former Kasai Occidental, there are no recent conflicts of this type which have erupted into violence. Most are non- violent conflicts which eventually find a peaceful solution. For example, in Muamba Mbuyi which is 35 kilometers from Kananga, two descendants are fighting over power left behind by the death of a chief to whom they are both related. There is no violence, but the conflict is ongoing with the community divided and no solution in sight.

Land conflict:

50 Key informant interview. 36 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

The other main source of conflict in former Kasai Occidental are disputes over land ownership. These conflicts arise between families and also between communities and ethnic groups. For example, in Dimbelenge which is 154 kilometers from Kananga, there is an ongoing dispute between Bakua Ngula and Bena Kalombo over farmland which both communities want to cultivate.

G. North and South Kivu Provinces

Ethnic tensions:

Ethnic tensions run wide and deep in North and South Kivu provinces and, as discussed above, are often used to mobilize people and justify armed conflict. Typically, these tensions are a means to an end, and not the root cause of the problem. Most of these ethnic tensions are very localized, with different tensions in each community. These will have specific implications on ACCELERE!’s implementation if the project decides to target CAPs and CRSs outside of the main urban centers in the two provinces. However, rural ethnic tensions often manifest in CAPs and CRSs in the urban centers as well, as they often have students who come to the centers from different rural areas of the province. Focus groups in Goma indicated that often the rural ethnic tensions result in tensions and fighting between students in the first few months of classes, as they learn to adapt to their new environment and get along with each other. This most often happens when the students are former child soldiers, or those who have been indoctrinated by an armed group. CRS and CAP staff see a main part of their responsibility as trainers to help youth adapt to a multi-ethnic environment, and to an urban environment where people “learn to live together, as we are all living in the city together.”

Anti-Rwandaphone ethnic tensions:

The most widespread ethnic tension in North and South Kivu is the tension between Rwandophone ethnicities (Hutus, Tutsis) and non-Rwandophone ethnic groups. Often when these tensions are heightened, there are attacks on Rwandophone university students in Goma. This most recently happened in 2012 before M23 took over Goma. These tensions are visible not only at the university level, but also among younger students. One CRS teacher said it was not uncommon to hear anti-Rwandophone remarks in the classroom, and gave the example of one young girl telling her fellow student: “Go back where you came from!” As with the management of other ethnic tensions, CRS and CAP staff continuously reinforce the lesson about peaceful cohabitation with other ethnic groups and being part of one community.

Population movements:

There is a large amount of population movement in North and South Kivu. Most is linked to armed conflict, but there is also confusion around other movements which seem to be directly politically motivated in preparation for elections. This is increasing tensions particularly between the Nande and Hutus in North Kivu, specifically in the Beni area. As there are new arrivals, lots of rumors, and no fact- based understanding of the situation, targeting of CRS and CAPs in the Beni area by ACCELERE! will require special attention to ethnic balance of students and teachers in the centers, as well as increased attention to promoting peaceful cohabitation in the center communities.

Land conflict:

37 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Land conflict in Eastern DRC is inextricably linked to the population movements and ongoing violent conflict. Every community, both rural and urban, is affected by land conflict at either the small or large scale. Although most of these conflicts are between families, there are also larger-scale land conflicts that have mobilized entire armed groups. The dynamics of these conflicts differ from one community to another.

H. ACCELERE! and Conflict As the 2016 field work in Haut-Katanga province was done six (6) months into the implementation of project activities in schools, this allowed for an initial analysis of the project’s relation to the conflicts explored in the sections above. Overall, there was widespread appreciation and enthusiasm for the project by all stakeholders. Those interviewed and those who participated in focus groups gave countless examples of how the teaching methods reintroduced through ACCELERE! and the manuals distributed to students have already had a visible impact not only on the beneficiary children, but also on children who do not attend school and their older siblings and parents. Parents gave examples of exploring the manual with their children at home, and being taught by their children. One parent gave an example saying that her neighbors were discussing how to say “shoes” in Kiswahili, and there was a disagreement about what the correct plural form was; it was their first grader who told them the correct word for “shoes.” Parents said that they sing the ABC song, and they often hear kids who are not in school sing the song. With just a few months of implementation of activities in primary schools, both school staff and parents are very happy with the impact the project has already had on first and second graders. Despite all these positive effects, there are two main issues related to conflict sensitivity that require further reflection by the project: language of instruction and inclusion/exclusion. With the large amount of enthusiasm around the project from all stakeholders, it is the perfect opportunity to mitigate these emerging issues which could lead to conflict later if not addressed at this early stage.

Language of instruction: When the subject of language of instruction came up in focus group discussions, there was generally a strong positive reaction to the fact that ACCELERE! would be providing instruction and materials in local languages. However, some interviewees expressed concern around the issue of regional variations in the local languages. For example, Kiswahili is spoken differently in Katanga than it is in the east of the country. From a conflict sensitivity perspective, the choice of which Kiswahili or which version of the three other official languages is used may have repercussions on intergroup relations. This is an issue which the Ministry of Education may have already thoroughly considered and worked out, but nonetheless it merits further investigation to discover whether political or ethnic biases (conscious or unconscious) are involved, and anticipate possible repercussions. Language of instruction can be a deeply contentious topic in divided societies. Since language is an identity marker, it can be a way for groups who feel excluded or marginalized to assert their identities. If there are disagreements in the DRC around the policy or the process to create the policy (e.g., lack of broad consultation), the issue could become a source of conflict sooner or later.

In Haut-Katanga, the Kiswahili manuals distributed by ACCELERE are in a version of Kiswahili that is not the local version. Most focus group participants assumed that the manuals and materials provided by ACCELERE! were written in Kiswahili from the Kivus. There are words in the manuals that many teachers did not recognize, for which they had to consult others to discover the meaning. The education stakeholders consulted that at this point this has not caused any larger problems, and they are incredibly grateful to have the manual despite the difference in language.

The issue of language presents another practical implementation challenge. There are areas of Katanga where Kiswahili is not spoken at all, and where the local language is not in the same family of languages as Kiswahili. This results in teachers not speaking the language which they are supposed to teach with, and students not speaking any language related to the language in which they are supposed to learn. In

38 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

this situation, should Kiswahili be the teaching language? From a pedagogical perspective, it may be preferable to continue teaching the early grades in French until accommodations in the local language can be made since all schooling will transition to French in any case beginning in the third grade. If the decision is made to use Kiswahili in this area, teachers will need lessons in Kiswahili before they will be able to teach their students in that language. These are the kinds of issues that need discussion with the Ministry, educators, and other stakeholders, including technical specialists, to resolve successfully. Further research should be done to determine if a similar language problem exists in the Equateur, Kasai Central and Kasai Oriental provinces.

Inclusion and exclusion: One of the main challenges of implementing a project in a conflict-sensitive way is avoiding problems of exclusion. The ACCELERE! project will directly target students and teachers of first through fourth grades in public schools, as well as students and teachers in non-formal education settings. As the project is being implemented progressively, it first is targeting students and teachers of first and second grades in public schools. Targeted students have received workbooks which they bring home from school, and teacher beneficiaries have received trainings and teaching materials. According to focus groups in Katanga, this implementation method has created tensions both in schools and at home. Teachers who have not yet benefited from training feel excluded, and it was common during the field mission to hear them call beneficiary teachers “ACCELERE!.” One teacher described it as, “Part of our school is ACCELERE!, but the other part is non-ACCELERE!.” There is a palpable division between the two parts, and teachers who have not benefited from trainings have a strong desire to be trained on the ACCELERE! methods. The project has caused similar tensions in the homes of students, where older siblings are jealous of the workbook their younger siblings bring home. This leads to older siblings stealing the book, teasing of the younger children and arguments in the home. Parents in Haut- Katanga also mentioned some older siblings feeling excluded as they see their younger siblings already being able to read and write better than them, knowing they will leave primary school without being exposed to those teaching methods and materials.

Another issue of exclusion has materialized in the targeting of public schools and not private schools in Haut-Katanga. Teachers, directors and parents in multiple focus groups seemed to echo each other in saying that private schools should also benefit from ACCELERE! because the students of the private schools are the same as the public schools: “They are all Congolese children.” One group of directors thought it would be likely that next year enrolment would decrease in private schools in their communities since the families have seen the impact that ACCELERE! is having on those children benefitting from the project, and everyone wants their children to benefit. They predicted increased enrolment in public schools from children who had dropped out of private schools. SECTION 3: RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Project Recommendations

Commitment and Accountability

 Ensure that staff have a solid understanding of the context in which they are working. Being aware of the ethnic make-up and conflicts of the specific communities where ACCELERE! is implemented will be essential to ensuring that the program is truly inclusive and avoiding reinforcing cleavages. A literacy program such as ACCELERE! can play an important role in counteracting intolerance not only in the classroom but by modeling inclusive behavior in all aspects of programming (e.g., selecting participants for training programs,) and administration (e.g., hiring project staff). Additionally, including project staff in the implementation of conflict

39 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

analyses at the local level as ACCELERE! moves into new communities will reinforce their understanding of the context.

Strategy

 Avoid disrupting the school calendar by planning trainings in advance and coordinating with the Ministry of Education and the Division of Social Affairs. Starting teacher training and implementation of the teaching methods introduced by ACCELERE! in the middle of the 2015- 2016 school year was disruptive and did not allow students as much time with the materials as they should have. By working with the Ministry of Education and following the school calendar, ACCELERE!’s implementation will have the largest impact possible. Additionally, avoiding the disruption of the school calendar minimizes potential conflict between project staff and the government ministries. ACCELERE! discussed with the local ministry the possibility of embedding project staff in sub-provincial offices, and this may help in avoiding the disruption of the school calendar. Advance planning of project activities will also help mitigate disruption of the school calendar.  Train education staff on emergency preparedness. As the conflict analysis shows, this is an instable time in the country overall, with a continuously changing context. For a five-year project in a conflict-affected country, it is important to train education staff on emergency preparedness to continue learning (e.g., alternative learning spaces) if services are disrupted.  Allow for grants in Activity 1 to include classroom construction for overpopulated schools. The sensitization campaign done by Vas-y Fille as well as the one launched by the government as ACCELERE! was beginning resulted in the overpopulation of some of the targeted schools. More children in school are sharing the limited school infrastructure, which means that classes are overpopulated and many children do not have desks or chairs to sit on. Although the ACCELERE! project does not include a construction component, it is advised to allow some of the grants promoting access to allow for construction of classrooms as well as the distribution of desks and chairs for the students. Students of a literacy program need a classroom in which to learn and a desk on which they can practice writing.

Equitable Access

 Train education personnel on increasing the protection of learners and education personnel in and out of school. There are a range of teacher training manuals already approved by the Ministry of Education including Peace Education, Psychosocial Support and Healing Classrooms. Primary school, CRS and CAP staff could all benefit from these trainings. Whether experienced directly or indirectly, trauma resulting from violence and conflict can affect a child's learning and behavior, not to mention its effects on teachers, parents, and other adults. This type of training will ensure that teachers are equipped to manage the specific learning needs of trauma-affected children. Focus groups with teachers in Haut-Katanga province who welcomed conflict-affected internally displaced children in their classrooms revealed that these teachers did not have an understanding of potential additional needs of conflict-affected children, aside from their increased economic vulnerability.  Train peer educators to sensitize and teach their peers on issues of peaceful cohabitation, children’s rights, child protection, exploitation and abuse, etc. Children learn well from their peers, and this kind of peer-to-peer education can capitalize on that learning pattern. As one ACCELERE! staff mentioned, in his experience children who are trained as peer educators feel responsible in school and therefore are less likely to drop out of school; therefore, this activity could also have other indirect positive effects.

40 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Curricula, Teaching & Learning Materials, & Methods  Investigate whether policy on national languages is politically biased and anticipate potential repercussions on intergroup relations. Promote dialogue on the subject; consider sponsoring or co-sponsoring a lessons-learned conference on national language policy formulation and execution focusing on overcoming obstacles and on experiences from other African nations.  Conduct further research on targeted areas which do not speak one of the four selected local languages, including the relation between their language and the selected languages. It is important to identify early on if there are areas of Equateur, Kasai Central and Kasai Oriental who do not speak Tshiluba, Kikongo or Lingala in order to find an implementation strategy for those areas that mitigates potential conflicts. People in identified areas should be consulted as well as technical experts to brainstorm possible implementation strategies.  Discuss with the Ministry of Education an implementation strategy for zones which speak languages unrelated to the four selected languages (Kiswahili, Tshiluba, Kikongo, Lingala). Evaluate whether continuing to teach early grades in French is an option until an implementation strategy is determined. Once an implementation strategy is determined, support the Ministry in developing a strong communication strategy around the new policy.  Review developed materials to ensure that they are non-discriminatory. Developed materials should be reviewed by a multi-ethnic and multi-province team to look for possible discriminatory inclusions, including both local and external viewpoints. The materials should be vetted before publication and widespread distribution. Additionally, after the first year of use, materials should be reviewed with the input of education personnel and students.  Review developed materials to ensure that they are culturally appropriate. Developed materials should be reviewed by a multi-ethnic and multi-province team to review their cultural appropriateness, including the version of the local language used in the materials. The materials should be vetted before publication and widespread distribution. Additionally, after the first year of use, materials should be reviewed with the input of education personnel and students. During field work for this analysis, one education specialist relayed how literacy materials from a previous project he had used in the past were directly translated from the original French into Kiswahili and were not contextualized. One story referred to a little boy and his friend the monkey. The story caused a strong negative reaction in the community because the monkey was thought to be a racist reference. The anecdote underscores the importance of vetting materials for cultural sensitivity as well as conflict sensitivity.  Clarify with Ministry of Education and at school level how ACCELERE! interacts with other interventions in terms of what curriculum, teaching methods and learning materials are used in the classroom. There is confusion among teachers about which curriculum, teaching methods and learning materials they are supposed to use. There have been many education interventions in the schools targeted by ACCELERE! and there is a need to clarify to teachers how to integrate these different elements which have been introduced by different partners. Without this clarification, teachers select the ones they like best, and also change what is being used in the classroom when different partners visit the school.

Community Engagement

 Sensitize communities on increasing the protection of learners in and out of school. Sensitizations targeting parents focused on peaceful cohabitation, children’s rights, child protection, exploitation and abuse, etc. These sensitizations would reinforce the trainings of education staff on similar topics. As the analysis showed that community-level conflict has an impact on students’ learning capacity, it is important that the project target not only conflict within schools but also in the schools’ communities.

41 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

 Develop risk reduction plans with community engagement in each of the targeted schools to mitigate both external and internal risks to child protection. The inclusion of parents, COPA members and local leaders in the development of risk reduction plans increases community ownership of these plans and of the school or learning center.  Sensitize communities on the importance of COPA members being representative of their communities. COPA members should be reflective of their communities, including minorities and IDPs.

Monitoring and Evaluation

 Disaggregate all data by sex. Ensure that all data collected by the project is disaggregated by sex to be able to evaluate gender-specific disadvantages, needs and potentials.  Establish baseline and monitoring & evaluation tools which include key education indicators and conflict-sensitive education indicators. Baseline, monitoring and evaluation tools should include school enrolment data disaggregated by sex, collected in the targeted schools before, during and after the intervention to be able to monitor the effect of ACCELERE! on school enrolment and possible overpopulation of the targeted schools. Data collected should also include # of schools closed and/or operating at reduced capacity due to conflict, # of academic calendar days lost due to conflict, as well as perceptions regarding safety, security, inclusion and exclusion. Consult the USAID Checklist for Conflict Sensitivity in Education Programs for more data that should be collected by the project to allow for sufficient analysis in a conflict-affected environment.

Inclusion/exclusion

 Strengthen communication strategy to ensure that important project information is shared with both targeted and non-targeted communities. The field study uncovered that targeted communities had a limited understanding of the ACCELERE! project, and some non-targeted communities did not understand why they were excluded from the project. COPA members should be associated into the communication strategy, particularly in the targeted communities as they are well-placed to share information. Additionally, school general assemblies before the start of the new school year are a key moment to share information with parents. Perceptions of bias in distribution of resources and privileging one’s own group or interests of authorities surfaced as a key theme in field work discussions and interviews. For example, the coordinator of the Islamic schools in Lubumbashi 2 pointedly noted that none of the Islamic schools had ever received any external assistance from donors, and none are targeted by the ACCELERE! project in year one. As ACCELERE! targets all schools within an education sub-division, this exclusion occurs when there are no public schools associated with a particular religion in the targeted sub-division. It is important that education officials including the Proved and Sous Proveds have a solid understanding of the target criteria in order to explain to schools why they are not benefiting from the project.  Explore ways to involve non-targeted schools. Another way for ACCELERE! to address the exclusion felt by private schools would be to include them in some teacher training activities, or other project activities such as football matches between schools if those are implemented to promote inclusion and cohesion between Congolese children among all schools.  Train all teachers in the targeted schools on the ACCELERE! materials and teaching methods. This will minimize exclusion, but also ensure that teachers can be replaced if ever there is a need. ACCELERE! trained a few replacement teachers, all female, specifically to cover female teachers during maternity leave. As few replacements have been trained, the current situation could require a female teacher to switch to a distant school in the case of the death of a teacher, for example. 42 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

 Integrate themes of marginalization and stigmatization into the teacher training activities and COPA trainings or sensitizations. As many of the ethnic tensions that were identified in the conflict analysis are latent, it is important to train and sensitize education stakeholders on the causes and effects of marginalization and stigmatization at the individual and community level.  Promote participation of women in implementing ACCELERE!. As discussed above in the analysis, the unequal power between men and women results in women’s voices not being heard as well unless they are actively sought. In order to benefit from the experiences, ideas and leadership of women in implementing ACCELERE!, as well as to harness the role they can play in conflict prevention and revolution, the project will need to conduct specific outreach to them. Monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as additional conflict analyses should include focus groups for women to ensure their input is heard.

External threats

 Advocate strategically and continually at the highest level of government to promote the respect of free primary education and the payment of teachers. The largest external threat to the ACCELERE! project is the non-respect of free primary education, including non-payment of teachers. As one education specialist in Kinshasa said, “You can have all the programs in the world, but if the teachers are not getting salaries, it’s not going to work.” Thus, ACCELERE!’s efforts to advance the efficient and appropriate compensation of teachers under its governance activities will be key to the overall success of the project and of education reform in general. This sentiment was echoed by every participant in all 2016 focus groups, as well as every interviewee. Teachers in particular are very excited about the project, but say that the quality of education which they are able to provide is limited as almost all of them have to work second jobs to be able to survive, which takes time away from lesson preparation and also results in them coming to the classroom tired from their external work.  Develop risk reduction plans with community engagement in each of the targeted schools to mitigate both external and internal risks to child protection. These strategies may include negotiating with local militias and the FARDC to establish schools as zones of peace, clearly demarcating schools, and working with parents to organize accompaniment of children to and from school.  Develop a localized security plan including risk mitigation to ensure the safety of ACCELERE! staff members. Some of the environments in which ACCELERE! will be implemented are instable, and all precautions should be taken to ensure the safety of the staff members.

Internal threats

 Develop risk reduction plans with community engagement in each of the targeted schools to mitigate both external and internal risks to child protection. These strategies may include addressing rehabilitation needs to ensure that conflict-affected schools are physically safe environments for children and sensitizations on children’s rights.  Implement an “early warning system.” In terms of a mechanism for reporting abuse, civil society representatives consulted called favorable attention to an “early warning system” funded by DFID. This system allows community members to report abuses, such as corruption, non- application of FPE, and physical or sexual abuse, by entering certain codes into their cell phones. They noted that the system has been effective in increasing the reports of abuse in schools and raising awareness. Civil society members in the DFID-funded project are trained to triangulate and analyze information then decide on one of several responses depending on the severity and extent of the problem: a) facilitate a local resolution of the problem; b) advocate to the General Assembly; c) do a Press Release; d) conduct a tribunal. Thanks to this system, they report that 43 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

citizen engagement on education issues is growing and that in Katanga, in particular, civil society focused on education is increasingly organized and active.  Build capacities of COPAs and COGES on their role, financial management and conflict resolution. COPAs in particular play an active role in conflict mediation between parents and school personnel, so this role can be capitalized on through further training.  Children’s and youth committees can be established in schools to play a similar conflict mediation role between students and school personnel. Some schools and centers already have these established, and in those institutions the role of the committee is appreciated by parents and school personnel as a way to address conflicts that arise between students, and also between students and school personnel.  Support sanctions against education personnel guilty of abuse and exploitation of their students. This will help increase pupils’ respect for teachers and potential decrease dropouts.  Institute a code of conduct for education personnel which is also shared with students. This code of conduct can build from sensitizations and trainings on positive discipline and children’s rights.

It should be noted that a recent conflict study showed that there is a direct link between teaching conditions and the large majority of conflicts that arise in schools. These teaching conditions are related to teacher payment and educational infrastructure. The study found that through paying teachers and providing adequate educational infrastructure to schools, 70-80% of school-related conflicts would end.51 The studies’ findings were echoed by all focus groups and key informants during the 2016 field study. Therefore, if ACCELERE! would like to address school-related conflicts, it should focus on ensuring that teachers are paid and providing adequate infrastructure for the schools.

B. Conflict Sensitivity Implementation Strategy

Guiding Principles of the Conflict Sensitivity Strategy: Based on the preoccupations and lessons learned the following core principles are offered to guide the strategy and assess whether conflict sensitivity is being practiced:

 Transparency & Communication: make decisions transparently and communicate the rationale clearly, consistently and in multiple ways to prevent rumors, misunderstandings, perceptions of unfairness – all of which can trigger conflict.  Respect & Dignity: demonstrate respect for all groups. Respect hierarchy and education policies, such as school calendars. Be culturally and politically sensitive.  Inclusion & Participation: ensure project policies, practices and activities are genuinely inclusive of all groups, including marginalized groups. Prioritize a high degree of consultation and participation.52  Prevent harm: “do no harm” is a core principle of conflict sensitivity. Taking action to prevent harm to community relations and individual groups, including children, through assessment, implementation and monitoring of conflict-sensitive strategies is a way to put this principle into practice.  Foster Community, Joint Ownership and Joint Responsibility: this grouping of principles serves to remind all involved that a conflict-sensitive project strengthens community and creates a shared sense of responsibility for achieving and sustaining results, even after external assistance has ended.

51 Search for Commong Ground (2012). “Education and Conflict.” 52 Placing priority on consultation and participatory processes impacts sequencing and timing of activities which would mean adjusting current timelines. 44 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Elements of the Strategy and Rationale The strategy takes into account several factors. First, the DRC context is filled with localized conflicts that are different from one province to another, from one community to another and from one school to another. This initial conflict analysis allowed for community-level analysis in the targeted zones, however it is important that with each new targeted area of the project, a more localized conflict-analysis takes place to gather details on conflict drivers, connectors and dividers at the most localized level. Periodic visits to these areas should be conducted, with appropriate updates to this analysis as needed, to capture changes and trends in the areas where ACCELERE! is working.

The second factor this CSA-IS takes into account is that ideally conflict analyses are developed jointly with implementing staff. As ACCELERE! has not yet hired all of its its field-level staff, nor fully deployed to all of the provinces where they will be working, they will need to be implemented in further ongoing conflict monitoring and analysis. Staff discussion on the strategies and action planning is an essential part of the implementation strategy. Additionally, successful conflict sensitivity requires institutional commitment. Formulation of a conflict sensitivity policy can support execution.

Third, ACCELERE! needs to appoint one chief focal point as well as local focal points in the sub- provinces where ACCELERE! is and will be implemented to help ensure implementation and monitoring. The chief focal point could be selected either from program staff or M&E staff, as this type of monitoring and analysis requires the input from both of these teams.

Fourth, this CSA-IS must be considered a starting point, and further analysis of the context and refinement of the strategy based on joint discussion is needed throughout the five years of the ACCELERE! project, as the context is not static and adaptations will need to be made. It is suggested that the ACCELERE! staff make use of available conflict sensitivity tools to support the continued monitoring and analysis.

Strategy sequence steps:

1. Management review and discussion of the CSA-IS; identification of conflict sensitivity chief focal point and local focal points, timing and modality of staff discussions and action-planning; identification of facilitator. Consider developing and instituting a project and/or organizational policy on conflict sensitivity.

2. Translate CSA-IS into French and distribute to all ACCELERE! staff to read.

3. Organize meetings in each ACCELERE! office to discuss the CSA-IS and to analyze the project from a conflict-sensitive perspective. Discuss in plenary:  The value and relevance of a conflict sensitivity strategy to ACCELERE!’s success.  The challenges it poses and how to overcome these challenges.  The recommendations in the CSA.

Form teams to discuss the recommendations, review the ACCELERE! project and to create draft action plans. The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Reflection Tool for Designing and Implementing Conflict Sensitive Education Programmes in Conflict-Affected and Fragile Contexts can serve as a guide for the team activity. After draft plans are created, they should be discussed in plenary to allow for a multi-disciplinary exchange and to check each other’s assumptions.

Guiding questions and suggested structure:

45 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

 Which conflict sensitive strategies should be adopted now and integrated into ACCELERE!’s project activities, policies, work plans and monitoring and evaluation strategies?  Which conflict sensitive strategies need to wait pending further analysis, readiness of implementing partners and other considerations?  Create action plan for those strategies which are ripe for implementation: who, what, when, where, how.  Decide who, how and when local-level analyses will occur for newly targeted areas

4. Develop a conflict-sensitive M&E strategy and plan. 5.  Include quantitative indicators related to conflict sensitivity, including but not limited to: o # of schools closed and/or operating at reduced capacity due to conflict o # of academic calendar days lost due to conflict  Baseline, monitoring and evaluation tools should include school enrolment data disaggregated by sex, collected in the targeted schools before, during and after the intervention to be able to monitor the effect of ACCELERE! on school enrolment and possible overpopulation of the targeted schools.  Track complaints and criticisms (particularly around issues of transparency, inclusion, fairness, respect, distribution of resources, accountability, and cultural sensitivity).  Conduct perception surveys of various stakeholders around safety and security, inclusion and exclusion, and school-level governance.  Conflict sensitivity indicators should measure both unintended/unforeseen negative impacts and positive impacts. o Examples of negative impacts relevant to ACCELERE! include: . Is the assistance provided benefiting one or more sub-groups more than others? . Are people being hired more from one sub-group than another? . Are people being selected as participants or beneficiaries disproportionately more from one group or another? . Are assistance goods (such as school supplies) stolen or misused? . Are people complaining of or do certain groups perceive a lack of inclusion, lack of fairness, lack of respect, lack of consultation, lack of transparency, lack of clarity in relation to implementation of activities? . Has the project resulted in depopulation of neighboring schools or schools in neighboring sub-provinces? . Has the project resulted in class sizes increasing and becoming overcrowded? . Has administration of block grants created tensions, resentments, or violence?

o Examples of positive impacts (including on social cohesion) include: . Have relationships between different groups (teachers/parents, students/teachers, government/citizens, ethnic groups) changed for the better? . Are there signs of increased cooperation? . Are committees that have been formed to help shepherd the project been productive and engaged? . Has the project harnessed local resources? . Do community members have a positive perception of the project (particularly with regard to inclusion, respect, fairness, transparency, equitable distribution of resources, etc.)? . Do community members demonstrate a clear understanding of the goals and philosophy of the project? . Has access to education increased for groups that have been marginalized? 46 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

 Put conflict sensitivity on the agenda of staff meetings at least once per month to track progress as well as provide staff a structured opportunity to raise any issues that have come up which relate to conflict sensitivity and to develop a proactive response.  Incorporate conflict sensitivity indicators into the project’s M&E plan and/or rolling assessments. Alternatively, conduct a separate M&E activity for conflict sensitivity every six months with the second one being more comprehensive and timed at the end of the school year to inform strategy the following year.  Make adjustments or changes to project design and/or implementation if results from assessments or M&E activities so indicate.

6. Plan and conduct local-level Conflict Sensitivity Analyses with field staff before starting work in a new targeted area. The following is a basic framework tailored to ACCELERE!. The USAID Rapid Education Risk Assessment (RERA) can be used in combination with the suggestions below to get a deeper understanding of risk and resilience at the local level. See Annex 3 for additional resources and tools.

. Step One: Understand the Context o What is the socio-economic and political situation in this community? o What is the demographic make-up of the community? o What is the local language spoken in the home? What is the language’s relation to the four approved local languages for school instruction (Lingala, Kiswahili, Tshiluba, Kikongo)? o Is there a history of conflict between certain groups? o What are the types of conflict or current sources of tension in the community and what groups do they involve? o What are the causes? o What are the types of conflict or tensions exist in the school and what groups do they involve? o What are the causes? o Has there been development assistance, including to the education sector, in this community before? What are community perceptions of previous assistance efforts? Did they cause conflict and/or promote social cohesion? How and why? o What are their effects on education (access, retention, learning, and other aspects)? o What groups have access to education and which do not? o What are the barriers to accessing education (include environmental, internal and external threats as well as economic barriers, discrimination)? o What resources exist locally which can be harnessed to advance different aspects of the Project? o Who are the trusted “peacemakers” in the community? What other cultural resources, groups, capacities exist in the community which can be harnessed to promote social cohesion?

. Step Two: Analyze how the Project’s activities intersect with the context and identify key contextual risk factors and opportunities.

. Step Three: Develop conflict sensitivity strategies to address risk factors and harness opportunities at the local level.

. Step Four: Create a plan to implement and track conflict sensitivity. 47 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

7. Conflict sensitivity reflection sessions should be held prior to ACCELERE!’s yearly planning sessions. This provides the opportunity to review M&E reports and any additional local conflict analyses, to determine what needs to be incorporated into the planning process to ensure the conflict sensitivity of the project. The reflection session can stem from three questions based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria, as they apply to conflict sensitivity:53

a. Relevance: Is the intervention responsive and adjusting to conflict context? b. Effectiveness: Are conflict mitigation measures effective in managing conflict? c. Impact: What are the effects, intended or unintended, on tensions, vulnerabilities, grievances, connectors and capacities for peace?

53 Monitoring and evaluating conflict sensitivity: Methodological challenges and practical solutions. Rachel Goldwyn and Diana Chigas, DFID and UKAID. March 2013. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304611/Mon-eval-conflict-sensitivity-challenges- practical-solutions.pdf 48 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

SECTION 4: CONCLUSION

Conflict sensitivity requires the will, time, and capacity to reflect critically on both unintended negative impacts as well as positive impacts of the project. It also requires the will and ability to adjust course and make changes to project design if the feedback from assessments, monitoring and evaluation so indicate. While this can conflict with project timelines and deliverables, those priorities need to be weighed against the importance of preventing harm to a community, including relations within that community, as well as the potential of endangering the reputation and long-term success of the project.

Conflict sensitivity is a sensitive subject both in the communities in which an assistance project is implemented and within the organizations implementing an assistance project. How assessments, monitoring and evaluation are executed need to be culturally sensitive. Also, pressures to demonstrate the success of a project and other factors can lead implementers to overlook negative impacts. Therefore, there must be an organizational commitment to conflict sensitivity in order for any strategy to be successful. Training and more participatory approaches to developing a conflict sensitive strategy can help ensure that all staff understand the value of such a strategy, jointly contribute to it and commit to executing it.

Finally, as mentioned earlier but bears repeating, this CSA-IS should be considered as a starting point. The conflict sensitive strategy should be revisited periodically and revised according to information gathered from local-level analyses in newly targeted areas, rolling assessments, and monitoring and evaluation activities. It should also be based on additional discussions with implementing partners and beneficiaries.

49 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ANNEX 1: SOCIETAL RISK FACTORS THAT INTERACT WITH ACCELERE!

Some of the strategies below are already a part of ACCELERE!’s project design, but were perhaps not articulated as conflict-sensitive strategies. Their inclusion here serves to underscore the aspects of the project design which are conflict-sensitive and to highlight the risk factors they address as well as additional risk factors and strategies.

SOCIETAL RISK FACTOR CONFLICT-SENSITIVE STRATEGIES Poverty / unequal distribution of Avoid assistance that creates visible differences between resources children (e.g., new school uniforms for some and not others). ______Alternatively, and this is less desirable, distribute assistance Activities this applies to: outside of school hours to avoid causing jealousy and Block grants resentment and making beneficiaries vulnerable to personal Any selection process (such as attack and theft. training participants or hiring staff) Ensure all selection criteria are jointly developed with diverse Procurement stakeholders; communicate them clearly and apply them consistently. Consider Eagle’s strategy of anonymous surveys (coded) with objective criteria to strengthen neutrality of process. Locally source whenever possible while maintaining standards. Balance the need for quality with sustainability considerations. Communicate a clear explanation for why something was not locally sourced. Lack of access to health care and Contextualize materials in a way that helps to meet basic and information pressing needs such as hand-washing to prevent disease Activities this applies to: transmission; for example, use leveled readers to promote Materials hand-washing. Teacher-training Enlist the help of a local healthcare professional.

Malnutrition Consider instituting school feeding or nutrition programs ______(such as Vitamin A supplements) and de-worming to help Activities this applies to: ensure minimum conditions are in place for children to be able School infrastructure to learn. If funds aren’t available, investigate partnering with Increasing access and retention another organization, local or international. strategy Investigate other school feeding programs for successful Partnerships models. Ensure school has appropriate facilities to store / cook food Political instability Design a contingency plan in the event of violence and ______displacement of children, teachers, and families. Activities this applies to: Consult with humanitarian organizations on providing Contingency planning education in crisis and emergency situations. Communicate Training of staff contingency plan to staff and personnel See www.inee.org and http://eccnetwork.net/resources/ for resources on education in emergencies Poor governance, corruption While respecting the role of authorities, resist the ease of ______letting them speak alone for what’s best for the community or 50 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Activities this applies to: where to direct resources. Establish a community/team-based School mapping and selection approach. Engage with civil society leaders, COPAS and Communication strategy COGES early on and make them an integral and continual part Administration of block grants of the team that will help shepherd the Project and implement Financial management activities in each community. Provide opportunities to GDRC representatives (national and local) to interact directly with beneficiary communities and civil society in order to encourage information-sharing and transparency, and promote better citizen-government relations. Be transparent and communicative to a fault to counter the high levels of distrust and fear of discrimination or marginalization. Model and insist on transparency and accountability in all financial transactions. Prioritize having strong financial oversight measures which include community members’ participation before dispersing grants. For example, consider training COPAs and others on these committees as a first step. Also have in place a clear conflict-sensitive policy around grants eligibility and selection processes that is communicated transparently and consistently.

Tribalism and Ethnicism Ensure that selection criteria for committees, project ______participants, project personnel includes diversity (ethnic, Activities this applies to: religious, gender, etc.) Hiring practices Consider incorporating peace education concepts and values Participant selection of acceptance and respect for differences into teaching Materials materials. Evaluation of teachers Education materials should be vetted for political, ethnic, and Registration of students gender bias. Policy development Establishing clear selection criteria and adopting a clear project policy concerning inclusion in order to prevent ethnic group favoritism from replacing meritocracy and diversity. This project policy should be well-communicated internally and externally. (This would also apply to other marginalized groups, such as women and the handicapped.) Use anonymous teacher evaluations Encourage non-discriminatory student registration and teacher recruitment procedures.

51 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Power relations (politics, gender, Exercise political sensitivity – be aware of political dynamics religion) and strive for political neutrality while upholding the values Activities this applies to: and principles of inclusion and diversity in the execution of Policy development the Project. Managing relationships Triangulate information. Do not rely on one source of School selection process information. Distribution of resources Institute an organizational or Project policy around inclusion and diversity which will support Project implementers’ calls for inclusion. Consider the use of quotas to ensure diverse participation in Project activities, such as training, committees, etc. Neutralize tendency of some who are in positions of authority to privilege their own group or interests through formation of committees with broad representation; e.g., “school mapping and selection committee.”

Violence, insecurity, and trauma Consider targeting the most vulnerable children, including street children and lone orphans, who are easily recruited by the armed groups as they have no family and often perceive that they can gain from joining an armed group (e.g., food security and protection). Due to their lack of familial or societal protection, they are also easy targets for forced recruitment and abduction. Consider integrating trauma awareness into training of teachers in order to help them identify cases of trauma (including their own), reduce the impact, and accommodate students within the classroom setting. Contextually appropriate trauma-counseling for parents could also improve the safety of children and promote a healthy involvement of parents in their children’s education.

52 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ANNEX 2: LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER LITERACY PROGRAMS IN DRC

Vas-y Fille

Project Overview: The project aims to improve education for around 137,360 girls through four main activities: (1) providing financial support to families through scholarships for girls and the creation of savings and loan associations ; 2) improving the quality and number of teaching hours through continuous training of teachers, tutoring for children with learning challenges and through community activities to promote reading ; 3) promoting community participation; and 4) re-activating civil society in organizing accelerated learning programs.54

Lessons Learned: They experienced unintended negative impacts in their selection process for scholarships. They worked with the COPAs (Parents Committees) to select recipients based on need. However, they found through the process that they were introducing a conversation and a value judgment in the community that hadn’t existed before: who is poor and who is not poor? Who is rich and who is not rich in the community? This created a conflictual situation among the parents. If someone was not selected, this sparked the question “why did you judge them not worthy?” It also created conflict between the students – between girls who were chosen and those who were not chosen and between boys and girls because boys were not eligible, although they too had financial hardships. Additionally, sometimes the scholarship payments were delayed and the beneficiary students were kicked out of school due to non-payment of informal school fees.

The project leaders decided to change course and focus on the creation of village savings and loan associations called AVEC (Association Villageois d’Epargne et de Credit). The goal is to teach parents how to save and invest in a small enterprise which can improve their financial standing and help them provide for their children’s education. So far this approach has reportedly been quite successful in generating income for families and promoting social cohesion through parent discussion groups. As the interviewee explained, parents never have a chance to sit down and talk with other parents. Through these discussion groups, they can talk not only about their experiences with the small enterprise projects but other issues and challenges as well. The program also builds a sense of community and social cohesion through a special “solidarity fund” which each family contributes to in order to address community problems jointly. Additionally, with the AVEC activities, both parents are trained and sensitized together which was greatly appreciated by female focus group participants in Haut-Katanga. The combined training of couples made it a family affair, and not only a woman’s responsibility.

An additional negative side effect was the exclusion which this project created by focusing on girls. Parents with all or mostly male children felt marginalized and excluded. One mother in a focus group in Haut- Katanga asked if ACCELERE! could not create a Vas-y Garçon project to help the boys which were excluded from the Vas-y Fille project, and the other mothers supported this suggestion. As the mothers explained, they want to educate all of their children, but it is financial barriers which prevent them from doing so. The impact of Vas-y Fille in terms of access to education, they thought, would last only as long as the project. However, they all appreciated the introduction of AVECs and said those should help them longer term, however were somewhat doubtful due to the weakening economy.

54 La Reference (2013). http://www.lareference.cd/2013/06/lancement-national-du-projet-valorisation-de-la- scolarisation-des-filles-vas-y-fille.html 53 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

EAGLE

Project Overview: The Empowering Adolescent Girls to Lead through Education (EAGLE) project aimed to equip adolescent girls with the educational, life and leadership skills to become change agents in their communities. FHI 360 is implementing a series of multidisciplinary activities that address education, health and gender-based violence, and that engage girls, boys, women and men in examining and altering traditional gender norms. EAGLE will award scholarships to 3,000 primary school students, called EAGLE scholars, to help improve the transition from primary to secondary school and increase completion rates for lower secondary school.55

Lessons learned: The interviewee, who is implementing the project in Lubumbashi, emphasized that problems begin when you do not work with the Ministry of Education. Not respecting the school calendar creates problems. All trainings need to be scheduled during school breaks. On selection of scholarships, they formed a committee at each school composed of seven members (the principal, two teachers, two students, two COPA members and a community leader. All applicants had to complete an anonymous coded questionnaire which evaluated two aspects: vulnerability and performance. The strength of the process was that it was objective and transparent. However, the first time they distributed school kits to students, they did it during school hours and this created jealousy and hurt feelings among children who were not selected. One child plaintive question stuck with the interviewee, “but why do you hate us?” And, some students even chased the program administrators as they left the school and started beating up students who had received the kits. So, project staff changed the practice to distributing resources after school hours with parents present. This change in strategy may have protected project staff, but likely only delayed the negative reaction from other students who did not receive the materials to the children returning home with the new materials, or to the next day at school when the children arrived with their new materials.

A strength of the design was they created a control group and compared results between the two groups of schools. While the learning outcomes were positive in the beneficiary schools and both access and retention for girls increased between 30% and 40%, there were some unintended negative impacts. Neighboring schools saw their enrollment numbers drop which also created financial instability and some resentment. The beneficiary schools dealt with the issue by creating parallel classes to make room for the influx. The interviewee also stressed that it can create problems if the funds for the scholarships from a separate pot. It is better for them to be combined with school resources and then distributed to the students. It was not clear what effect that had on transparency or whether some of the resources were used towards salaries. The increase in enrollment does increase the amount school fees collected which creates financial incentives to support the program. In terms of sustainability, the Ministry has called for the creation of “proximity networks” so other schools can benefit from the training.

OPEQ

Project Overview: The The Opportunities for Equitable Access to Quality Basic Education (OPEQ) project aimed to improve teachers’ motivation and performance, children’s access to quality education in 350 communities, and social-emotional learning, literacy and math abilities of hundreds of thousands of children in DRC.56 It was a five-year project with three key interventions: 1) an integrated curriculum including both social-emotional learning as well as reading and math, 2) continuous in-service teacher training and coaching, and 3) strengthening COPAs and COGESs.

55 http://www.fhi360.org/projects/empowering-adolescent-girls-lead-through-education-eagle 56 http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/ihdsc/opeq 54 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Lessons learned: In an effort to motivate teachers, OPEQ gave rewards to the top three teachers in each school. Some school directors voiced their concern about this activity, as they complained that this was discriminatory and would create conflict between the teachers. Former OPEQ staff members confirmed that this type of motivation strategy caused tensions between teachers within the same school. An interviewee also said that the issue of motivation that exists in DRC is the non-payment of teachers, and therefore strategies that motivate teachers which do not involve ensuring that they are paid do not actually help motivate teachers.

55 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ANNEX 3: CONFLICT SENSITIVITY RESOURCES AND TOOLS

The Conflict Sensitivity Consortium’s How to Guide on Conflict Sensitivity, February 2012. http://www.conflictsensitivity.org/how-to-guide/.

The “Do No Harm” Framework for Analyzing the Impact of Assistance on Conflict: A Handbook. http://www.cdacollaborative.org/media/52500/Do-No-Harm-Handbook.pdf

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Educational Block Grants to Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University, September 2011. http://www.bu.edu/cghd/files/2011/12/Block-Grant-Final-Report-9.30.11-Full-Report.pdf.

The International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Conflict Sensitive Education Pack. http://toolkit.ineesite.org/inee_conflict_sensitive_education_pack.

USAID Checklist for Conflict Sensitivity in Education Programs, November 2013. https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/USAID_Checklist_Conflict_Sensitivity _14FEB27_cm.pdf.

USAID Guidance Note: Literacy in Conflict-affected Contexts. http://eccnetwork.net/wp- acontent/uploads/Literacy-In-Conflict-Guidance-Note-FINAL.pdf

World Bank Resilience in Education Systems (RES360) Rapid Assessment Manual (2013). http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/17708055/resilience-education-system-res- 360-degree-rapid-analysis-manual

56 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ANNEX 4: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDES

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Directeurs

Welcome Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec vos écoles et vos communautés, les relations entre l’école et la communauté, avec les élèves, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ca va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Parlez-moi un peu de la relation entre vos écoles. Quels sont les interactions entre vos écoles ? 2. Quel est la relation entre les écoles et la communauté ?

3. Sur le plan général, est-ce que vous pensez que la qualité d’éducation est diffèrent d’une école a une autre ? Cela pourrait être les infrastructures, les matériaux didactiques, la qualité d’enseignement ou n’importe quelle autre différence entre vos écoles. B o Est-ce que ca crée les difficultés dans la communauté ou au sein des écoles? 4. Quels sont les défis que vous rencontrez en tant que directeurs dans la gestion et la fréquentation des enfants en âge scolaire au sein des écoles ? 5. Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé entre les écoles et la communauté dans le passé ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées ?

57 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées ? 6. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 7. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a l’insécurité dans les environs de votre communauté ? Si oui, est- ce que ça a un impacte sur vos écoles (fréquentation, régularité des élèves) ? 8. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a de la violence ou comportement qui a un impact sur la relation entre les élèves et les enseignants dans vos écoles ? o Si oui, quels sont les mesures palliatives à ce genre de comportement ? 9. Comment avez-vous étés associé au projet ACCELERE ! ? 10. Quelle est votre expérience avec ACCELERE! ? o Comment est-ce que le projet encourage la cohésion et l’inclusion dans le projet ? o Est-ce que le projet a créé des conflits ou les tensions dans vos communautés, vos écoles, entre vos écoles, entre les enseignants, entre les élèves, etc. ? 11. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation de l’école, sur l’éducation es enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) 12. Y’a-t-il quelque chose en plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

58 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Enseignants

Bienvenue Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec votre école et votre communauté, les relations entre l’école et la communauté, avec les élèves, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ça va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Qu’est-ce que vous permet de sentir comme membre de la communauté dans cette école ? 2. Est-ce que la langue d’enseignement affecte l’apprentissage et la fréquentation des élèves ? Si oui, comment ? 3. Quelle est votre expérience avec ACCELERE! ? Comment est-ce que le projet interagit avec vous ou quel est votre implications dans le projet ? 4. Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé des groupes d’élèves, entre les élèves et les enseignants, ou entre l’école et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ? 5. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 6. Quel est le plus grand défi au sujet de l’instruction des enfants quant a l’accès, l’accessibilité et la fréquentation à une éducation de qualité ?

59 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

7. Est-ce que le programme d’éducation permet à tous les enfants d’avoir le même niveau de qualité d’éducation. (Est-ce que ça répond aux besoins en éducation de tous les enfants ?) 8. Est-ce que la représentation ethnique, religieux, tribal, sociale des enseignants reflète la représentation des élèves ? Est-ce que les minorités sont représenté au sein de vous ? 9. Les groupes minoritaires ont-ils des défis additionnels dans leur accès, fréquentation et réussite a l’école ? 10. Qui sont les minorités ou les groupes vulnérables dans votre communauté et comment le projet ACCELERE! interagit avec eux? 11. Selon vous, est-ce que le projet ACCELERE ! crée des tensions/problèmes dans votre communauté ? Ou est-ce que le projet ACCELERE ! a amené une inclusion dans votre communauté scolaire ? Dans l’avenir, est-ce que vous pensez que le projet ACCELERE ! a créer des confits ou dans votre communauté scolaire ? 12. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation de l’école, sur l’éducation des enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) Voyez-vous un défi à venir qui pourrais rendre difficile votre profusion de l’éducation de qualité aux enfants de votre communauté ? 13. Y’a-t-il quelque chose de plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

60 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Parents, Membres du COPA/COGES, Leaders Locaux (Communauté de l’École Primaire)

Bienvenue Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec votre école et votre communauté, les relations entre l’école et la communauté, avec les élèves, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ça va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Parlez-moi un peu de votre communauté et quels sont les relations entre les membres de la communauté ? 2. Quelles sont les relations qui existent au sein de votre école ? 3. Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé des groupes d’élèves, entre les élèves et les enseignants, entre les parents et les enseignants ou entre l’école et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ? 4. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 5. Quels défis les garçons et les filles rencontrent pour accéder, fréquenter et réussir a l’école ? 6. Quelle est la relation entre le COPA/parents et le staff scolaire ? 7. Quelle est la relation entre le COPA et le COGES de l’école ? 61 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

8. Est-ce que les membres du COPA et du COGES sont choisis d’une manière équitable en termes de genre, classe socio-économique, groupe ethnique, etc.? Est-ce que la composition (genre, ethnique, classe sociale, etc.) des membres du COPA et du COGES reflète les qualités des membres de la communauté ? 9. Comment aviez vous été associé au projet ACCELERE! ? 10. Quelle est votre expérience avec le projet d’ACCELERE! ? Comment est-ce que le projet crée des tensions ou promouvait la cohésion dans votre communauté ? 11. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation de l’école, sur l’éducation des enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) Voyez-vous un défi à venir qui pourrais rendre difficile votre profusion de l’éducation de qualité aux enfants de votre communauté ? 12. Y’a-t-il quelque chose de plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

62 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Staff CRS

Bienvenue Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec votre centre et votre communauté, les relations entre le centre et la communauté, avec les élèves, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ça va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Parlez-moi un peu de votre CRS. Qu’est-ce que vous permet de sentir comme membre de la communauté dans ce centre ? 2. Quelles sont les relations entre les élèves au sein de votre centre ? 3. Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé entre les groupes d’élèves, entre les élèves et les enseignants, entre les parents et les enseignants ou entre le centre et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ? 4. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 5. Quels sont les défis en tant qu’enseignant à donner une éducation équitable à tous les élèves? 6. Est-ce que le programme d’éducation permet à tous les enfants d’avoir le même niveau de qualité d’éducation. (Est-ce que ça répond aux besoins en éducation de tous les enfants ?)

63 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

7. Est-ce que la représentation ethnique, religieux, tribal, sociale des enseignants reflète la représentation des élèves ? Est-ce que les minorités sont représenté au sein de vous ? 8. Est-ce que la langue d’enseignement affecte l’apprentissage et la fréquentation des élèves ? Si oui, comment ? 9. Quels sont les groupes minoritaires et les groupes vulnérables dans votre communauté ? Est-ce qu’ils ont des défis spécifique dans leur accès, fréquentation et réussite au centre ? 10. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation du centre, sur l’éducation des enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) Voyez-vous un défi à venir qui pourrais rendre difficile votre profusion de l’éducation de qualité aux enfants de votre communauté ? 11. Qu’est ce qui devrait être fait pour améliorer l’inclusion et la cohésion entre vos élèves ainsi que dans votre communauté ? 12. Y’a-t-il quelque chose de plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

64 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Staff CAP

Bienvenue Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec votre centre et votre communauté, les relations entre le centre et la communauté, avec les apprenants, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ça va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Parlez-moi un peu de votre CAP. Qu’est-ce que vous permet de sentir comme membre de la communauté dans ce centre ? 2. Quelles sont les relations entre les apprenants au sein de votre centre ? Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé entre les groupes d’apprenants, entre les apprenants et les enseignants, entre les parents et les enseignants ou entre le centre et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ? 3. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 4. Qu’est ce qui permet aux jeunes de réussir et de mieux s’appliquer au centre ? 5. Qu’est ce qui permettrait une meilleure rétention des apprenants au centre ? 6. Quels sont les défis auxquels les jeunes faire face dans l’accès, la fréquentation et la réussite dans le centre ? 65 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

7. Est-ce que la représentation ethnique, religieux, tribal, sociale des enseignants reflète la représentation des élèves ? Est-ce que les minorités sont représenté au sein de vous ? 8. Est-ce que la langue d’enseignement affecte la présence ou l’apprentissage des apprenants ? Si oui, comment ? 9. Quels sont les groupes minoritaires et les groupes vulnérables dans votre communauté ? Est-ce qu’ils ont des défis spécifiques dans leur accès, fréquentation et réussite au centre ? 10. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation du centre, sur l’éducation des enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) Voyez-vous un défi à venir qui pourrais rendre difficile votre profusion de l’éducation de qualité aux enfants de votre communauté ? 11. Qu’est ce qui devrait être fait pour améliorer l’inclusion et la cohésion entre vos apprenants ainsi que dans votre communauté ? 12. Y’a-t-il quelque chose de plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

66 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Groupe de Discussion – Guide – Parents, Membres du COPA, Leaders Locaux (CRS/CAP)

Bienvenue Merci d’accepter de faire partie de ce groupe de discussion. J’apprécie votre volonté de participer.

Presentations Shannon Staff d’ACCELERE ! Participants

Objectif du Groupe de Discussion Il nous a été demandé par ACCELERE ! de diriger des groupes de discussion. La raison pour laquelle nous avons ces groupes de discussion est de connaitre plus en rapport avec vos centres et vos communautés, les relations entre l’école et la communauté, avec les élèves et les apprenants, et quel est l’impact du projet d’ACCELERE ! aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir. Nous avons besoin de vos avis et voulons que vous partagiez vos idées ouvertement avec nous, parce que ça va nous aider dans le projet dans l’avenir.

Lignes Directrices 1. Je voudrais avoir la participation de tous. L’avis de tous le monde qui participent ici est très important. J’invite à chacun de donner son avis. 2. Il n’y a pas de bonnes ou mauvaises réponses. Chaque expérience personnelle ainsi que chaque avis individuel sont importants. Exprimez-vous qu’il s’agisse d’un avis pour ou contre. Je veux entendre ce que tout le monde a à dire, même si vous n’êtes pas d’accord avec certains éléments. 3. Ce qui se dit dans le groupe reste ici. Je veux que vous vous sentiez à l’aise en partageant vos réflexions, avis et expériences. 4. Nous serons en train de prendre des notes qui nous aiderons à nous rappeler de ce qui a été dit pendant le groupe de discussion. Nous voulons retenir tout ce que nous nous dirons. Nous ne mentionnerons le nom de personne dans le rapport. Vous resterez anonymes. La présentation qu’on a fait au début c’était pour se connaître, nous n’avons pas pris note de vos noms.

Avez-vous des questions avant que nous ne débutons ?

Questions du groupe de discussion : 1. Parlez-moi un peu de votre communauté et quels sont les relations entre les membres de la communauté ? 2. Quelle est la relation entre la jeunesse et la communauté ? 3. Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé des groupes d’élèves/apprenants, entre les élèves/apprenants et les enseignants, entre les parents et les enseignants ou entre l’école et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ? 4. Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ? 5. Quels sont les défis auxquels les enfants/jeunes font face dans l’accès, la fréquentation et la réussite dans le centre ?

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6. Qu’est ce qui constitue un empêchement aux enfants/jeunes pour leur enrôlement dans le centre ? 7. Est-ce que le CRS/CAP diminue les défis que les enfants/les jeunes rencontrent ? 8. Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a une situation dans l’avenir qui aura un impact négatif sur la situation de l’école, sur l’éducation des enfants, sur leur fréquentation ? (Ca pourrait être politique, économique, etc.) Voyez-vous un défi à venir qui pourrais rendre difficile votre profusion de l’éducation de qualité aux enfants de votre communauté ? 9. Qu’est ce qui devrait être fait pour améliorer l’inclusion et la cohésion entre les jeunes ainsi que dans votre communauté ? 10. Y’a-t-il quelque chose de plus que vous aimeriez partager ?

Conclusion Ceci conclut le groupe de discussion. J’aimerais vous remercier pour votre temps et pour votre participation aujourd’hui. Merci encore.

68 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ANNEX 5: KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW GUIDES

UNICEF – National Level

Focus of interview: Context of education in DRC overall, Equateur in particular.

 Would you explain to me the context in Equateur in general?  Please tell me more specifically about the educational context in Equateur.  What are the main educational challenges in Equateur?  What sets Equateur apart from the other provinces? What is unique about its context?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in Equateur?  What problems or existing tensions should an education actor take care not to exacerbate when intervening in schools?

In general:  Can you give me a few examples of education interventions which exasperated existing conflicts, or created additional tensions with their interventions?  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they want to avoid causing tensions or conflicts in the school, with administrators and in the community?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they would like to promote social cohesion and peace in the school and the community?

69 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

ACCELERE! Staff in Lubumbashi

Haut-Katanga  Would you explain to me the context in Haut-Katanga ?  What are the main educational challenges in Haut-Katanga?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in Haut-Katanga?  What conflicts exist in Haut-Katanga? How have they affected children’s access to education, retention and learning?

Lualaba  Would you explain to me the context in Lualaba ?  What are the main educational challenges in Lualaba?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in Lualaba?  What conflicts exist in Lualaba? How have they affected children’s access to education, retention and learning?

Katanga in general  How does violent conflict affect the targeted areas in Katanga?  Have you worked in other provinces? If so, what is unique about the educational context in Katanga?  Can you give me a few examples of education interventions which exacerbated existing conflicts, or created additional tensions with their interventions?  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  There are areas of Katanga where Kiswahili is not spoken at all. Should it still be taught? How should ACCELERE! adapt its programming for this context?

ACCELERE!  Where are the ACCELERE! program staff from?  Is there a diversity of ethnic group, religion, and sex among the ACCELERE! program staff?  Has the project already caused any tensions or problems in the targeted schools or communities that you are aware of?  Can you think of any potential problems that ACCELERE! might cause in the future?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they want to avoid causing tensions or conflicts in the school, with administrators and in the community?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they would like to promote social cohesion and peace in the school and the community? Other projects:  What other education projects have you worked on?  What were some of the challenges/problems faced by those projects?  How can ACCELERE! avoid having the same problems?

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ACCELERE! Staff in Goma

North Kivu  Would you explain to me the context in North Kivu?  What are the main educational challenges in North Kivu?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in North Kivu?  What conflicts exist in North Kivu? How have they affected children’s access to education, retention and learning?

South Kivu  Would you explain to me the context in South Kivu?  What are the main educational challenges in South Kivu?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in South Kivu?  What conflicts exist in South Kivu? How have they affected children’s access to education, retention and learning?

Kivus in general  How does violent conflict affect the Kivus?  Have you worked in other provinces? If so, what is unique about the educational context of the Kivus?  Can you give me a few examples of education interventions which exacerbated existing conflicts, or created additional tensions with their interventions?  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on education service provision? On the ability of education actors to implement projects?  Are there areas of the Kivus where Kiswahili is not spoken? If so, are the local languages which are spoken related to Kiswahili? If not, should it still be taught? How should ACCELERE! adapt its programming for this context?

ACCELERE!  Where are the ACCELERE! program staff from?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they want to avoid causing tensions or conflicts in the school, with administrators and in the community?  What suggestions do you have for ACCELERE! project staff if they would like to promote social cohesion and peace in the school and the community? Other projects:  What other education projects have you worked on?  What were some of the challenges/problems faced by those projects?  How can ACCELERE! avoid having the same problems?

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Sous Proved

Comme vous savez, le projet ACCELERE ! est financé par l’USAID et UKAID.

 La raison que je suis ici c’est d’étudier le contexte dans lequel Chemonics est en train de mettre en œuvre le projet ACCELERE!.  J’ai été engagé par le projet pour faire une étude du contexte, pour donner les recommandations dans l’orientation du projet dans l’avenir.  L’entretien ne prendra pas plus qu’une heure.  Tout ce que vous dites pendant l’entretien sera confidentiel. Je ne vais pas écrire votre nom dans mon rapport.  Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à les poser maintenant ou pendant l’entretien.  Il n’y a pas des bonnes réponses ou des mauvaises réponses. Vos avis et vos expériences sont très importants.  Soyez à l’aise.  Est-ce que vous avez des questions avant qu’on commence ?

General questions:  Quel est la situation générale dans le sous-division de ?  Quel est la situation socio-économique dans le sous division de ?  Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il y a l’insécurité dans les environs de la sous-division ? Si oui, est-ce que ça a un impacte sur vos écoles (fréquentation, régularité des élèves, infrastructure, comportement des enfants, etc.) ?  Est-ce qu’il y a d’autres tensions ou problèmes dans la communauté ? Si oui, lesquels ?  Est-ce que tous les enfants vont à l’école ? o Est-ce qu’il y a un certain groupe ou type d’enfant qui ne fréquente pas l’école ? o Quelles actions sont en cours pour améliorer leur accès a l’éducation ?  Est-ce qu’il y a des enfants déplacés dans le sous-division ?

Administration :  En tant que Sous Proved, quels sont les problèmes ou défis auxquels vous faites face en fournissant une éducation de qualité aux enfants dans la sous-division ______?  Est-ce que le système de paiement des enseignants fonctionne bien ? Si non, pourquoi ?  A votre avis, quel est le plus grand problème dans le secteur éducation aujourd’hui dans la sous division ______?  Merci de m’expliquer un peu de la politique de l’utilisation des langues locales comme la langue d’apprentissage dans l’école primaire. Comment va la transition vers la nouvelle politique ?

Relations scolaires :  Comment sont les relations entre les écoles dans la sous-division ?  Est-ce qu’il y a des tensions ou problèmes spécifiques qui existent dans les écoles de la sous- division aujourd’hui ?

ACCELERE! :  Comment avez-vous étés associé au projet ACCELERE ! ?  Quelle est votre expérience avec ACCELERE! ?  Est-ce que, jusqu'à la, le projet ACCELERE! a déjà créé des problèmes dans la sous- division ? Si oui, lesquels ?

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 Le projet ACCELERE! appui les écoles publique et pas les écoles privées, est-ce que vous pensez que ca a créé des tensions ou des problèmes entre les écoles publiques et les écoles privées ?  Comme le projet ACCELERE! Cible spécifiquement les élèves et les enseignants de la première et la deuxième année, est-ce que ça pose problème avec les élèves et les enseignants des autres années ? o Si non, pourquoi ? o Si oui, qu’est-ce que vous suggérez pour améliorer les relations ?

Assistance :  Est-ce que vous pouvez me donner un exemple d’un projet d’un ONG qui a travaillé dans les écoles et qui a créé des problèmes ou des tensions dans les communautés ? o Comment est-ce que cette situation a été réglé ?  Pouvez-vous me donner un exemple d’un projet d’un ONG qui a travaillé dans les écoles et qui a promut l’inclusion et la cohésion dans la communauté scolaire ?  Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour les agents du projet d’ACCELERE! qui voudrait éviter de créer des problèmes dans les communautés scolaires ciblées par le projet ?  Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour le projet d’ACCELERE! de promouvoir la cohésion social et la paix dans les écoles et les communautés ciblées ?  Avec qui peut le projet travailler localement pour promouvoir la cohésion sociale et la paix dans les écoles et les communautés ciblées ?

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Chef de la Division des Affaires Sociales – Katanga

Comme vous savez, le projet ACCELERE ! est financé par l’USAID et UKAID.

 La raison que je suis ici c’est d’étudier le contexte dans lequel Chemonics est en train de mettre en œuvre le projet ACCELERE!.  J’ai été engagé par le projet pour faire une étude du contexte, pour donner les recommandations dans l’orientation du projet dans l’avenir.  L’entretien ne prendra pas plus qu’une heure.  Tout ce que vous dites pendant l’entretien sera confidentiel. Je ne vais pas écrire votre nom dans mon rapport.  Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à les poser maintenant ou pendant l’entretien.  Il n’y a pas des bonnes réponses ou des mauvaises réponses. Vos avis et vos expériences sont très importants.  Soyez à l’aise.  Est-ce que vous avez des questions avant qu’on commence ? deneral questions :  Il y a combien de CRS publiques dans le Katanga ? Haut-Katanga ?  Avez-vous une idée de combien d’enfant fréquente les CRS ?  Est-ce que vous avez une idée sur le nombre d’enfant qui ne sont pas a l’école ?  Merci de me donner un peu d’idée de la population scolaire (genre, âge, socio-économique, etc.)  Pourquoi est-ce que ces enfants fréquente le CRS et pas les écoles formelles ? o Qui les a poussées d’enregistrer dans les CRS ? o Quelles sont les mécanismes pour les maintenir au centre ? o J’imagine qu’il y a certains enfants qui abandonnent leurs études. Quels sont les raisons d’abandonnement ?  Qu’est-ce qui fonctionne bien dans les CRS ? Quels sont les défis dans le fonctionnement des CRS ?  Comment est-ce que le processus du découpage a affecté votre travail et le fonctionnement et gestion des CRS ?  Est-ce que vous pouvez partager un peu les différents tensions ou problèmes qui ont existé dans les CRS dans le passé ? Par exemple, entre les élèves, ou entre le centre et la communauté ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés ressenties/manifestées dans la communauté scolaire ? o Si oui, comment ces tensions/problèmes ont étés réglées dans la communauté scolaire ?  Est-ce que ces tensions/problèmes existent toujours ? Ou bien, il y a d’autres genres de tensions/problèmes aujourd’hui ?

Enseignants  Est-ce que les enseignants suivent un code de conduite ? o Si un enseignant/une enseignante fait quelque chose contre le code de conduite, quel est le processus pour punir cette faute ?

Administration :  En tant que ____, quels sont les problèmes ou défis auxquels vous faites face en fournissant une éducation de qualité aux enfants dans les CRS ?  C’est quoi le système de paiement des enseignants ? o Est-ce que le système de paiement des enseignants fonctionne bien ? Si non, 74 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Relations scolaires :  Comment sont les relations entre les différents CRS ?  Quelle est la relation entre les CRS et les écoles formelles ?  Quelle est la relation entre les CRS publiques et les CRS privés ?

Accès :  Est-ce que tous les enfants qui ont besoin de ce type d’éducation accéléré ont accès à un CRS ? Comment ? Ou pourquoi pas ?  Quels sont les défis sur lesquels les enfants font face en essayant d’accéder à l’éducation ?

Assistance :  Est-ce que vous pouvez me donner un exemple d’un projet d’un ONG qui a travaillé dans les CRS et qui a créé des problèmes ou des tensions dans les communautés ? o Comment est-ce que cette situation a été réglé ?  Pouvez-vous me donner un exemple d’un projet d’un ONG qui a travaillé dans les CRS et qui a promut l’inclusion et la cohésion dans la communauté scolaire ?  Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour les agents du projet d’ACCELERE! qui voudrait éviter de créer des problèmes dans les communautés scolaires ciblées par le projet ?  Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour le projet d’ACCELERE! de promouvoir la cohésion social et la paix dans les écoles et les communautés ciblées ?

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Chef de la Division des Affaires Sociales – Nord Kivu

Comme vous savez, le projet ACCELERE ! est financé par l’USAID et UKAID.  La raison que je suis ici c’est d’étudier le contexte dans lequel Chemonics est en train de mettre en œuvre le projet ACCELERE!.  J’ai été engagé par le projet pour faire une étude du contexte, pour donner les recommandations dans l’orientation du projet dans l’avenir.  L’entretien ne prendra pas plus qu’une heure.  Tout ce que vous dites pendant l’entretien sera confidentiel. Je ne vais pas écrire votre nom dans mon rapport.  Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à les poser maintenant ou pendant l’entretien.  Il n’y a pas des bonnes réponses ou des mauvaises réponses. Vos avis et vos expériences sont très importants.  Soyez à l’aise.  Est-ce que vous avez des questions avant qu’on commence ?

General questions :  Il y a combien de CRS/CAP dans le Nord Kivu ?  Avez-vous une idée de combien d’enfant fréquente les CRS/CAP ?  Est-ce que vous avez une idée sur le nombre d’enfant qui ne sont pas à l’école ?  Merci de me donner un peu d’idée de la population scolaire (genre, âge, socio-économique, etc.)  Pourquoi est-ce que ces enfants fréquente le CRS/CAP et pas les écoles formelles ? o Qui les a poussées d’enregistrer dans les CRS/CAP ? o Quelles sont les mécanismes pour les maintenir au centre ? o J’imagine qu’il y a certains enfants qui abandonnent leurs études. Quels sont les raisons d’abandonnement ?  Qu’est-ce qui fonctionne bien dans les CRS/CAP ? Quels sont les défis dans le fonctionnement des CRS/CAP ?  Comment est-ce que le processus du découpage a affecté votre travail et le fonctionnement et gestion des CRS/CAP ?  Quel impact a le conflit armé sur le fonctionnement des CRS/CAP ?

Enseignants :  Est-ce que les enseignants suivent un code de conduite ? o Si un enseignant/une enseignante fait quelque chose contre le code de conduite, quel est le processus pour punir cette faute ?

Relations scolaires : :  Comment sont les relations entre les différents CRS/CAP ?  Quelle est la relation entre les CRS/CAP et les écoles formelles ?  Quelle est la relation entre les CRS/CAP publiques et les CRS/CAP privés ?

Accès :  Est-ce que tous les enfants qui ont besoin de ce type d’éducation accéléré ont accès à un CRS/CAP ? Comment ? Ou pourquoi pas ?  Quels sont les défis sur lesquels les enfants font face en essayant d’accéder à l’éducation ?

Assistance :

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 Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour les agents du projet d’ACCELERE! qui voudrait éviter de créer des problèmes dans les communautés scolaires ciblées par le projet ?  Quelles suggestions avez-vous pour le projet d’ACCELERE! de promouvoir la cohésion social et la paix dans les écoles et les communautés ciblées ?

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Katanga – UNICEF

Focus of interview: Context of education in Katanga

 Would you explain to me the context in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba in general?  Please tell me more specifically about the educational context in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba.  What are the main educational challenges in Haut-Katanga et Lualaba?  Have you worked in other provinces in DRC? What sets Haut-Katanga and Lualaba apart from the other provinces? What is unique about its context?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in Haut-Katanga? And in Lualaba?  What problems or existing tensions should an education actor take care not to exacerbate when intervening in schools?  Do you know how many children aren’t in school in Haut-Katanga and in Lualaba?  Why do you think that kids aren’t going to school?  Where is there insecurity in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba? Or are there areas of these provinces which are affected by insecurity in neighboring areas? o What are the affected areas? o How are the schools affected? o How are the students affected?

In general:  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on education service provision?  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on education service provision?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on the ability of education actors to implement projects?

78 Conflict Sensitivity Analysis and Implementation Strategy Improving Reading, Equity, and Accountability in the DRC (ACCELERE!) Program – October 2015

Katanga – Caritas

Focus of interview: Context of education in Katanga

 Would you explain to me the context in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba in general?  Please tell me more specifically about the educational context in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba.  What are the main educational challenges in Haut-Katanga et Lualaba?  Have you worked in other provinces in DRC? What sets Haut-Katanga and Lualaba apart from the other provinces? What is unique about its context?  Do you know how many children aren’t in school in Haut-Katanga and in Lualaba?  Why do you think that kids aren’t going to school?  Where is there insecurity in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba? Or are there areas of these provinces which are affected by insecurity in neighboring areas? o What are the affected areas? o How are the schools affected? o How are the students affected?  What are some of the main community-level connectors and dividers in Haut-Katanga? And in Lualaba?  What are the tensions/problems which exist in the schools?  Are there any community-level tensions or problems that you see affect the interactions between students? This could be family conflicts, land conflicts, ethnic conflicts, etc.  Caritas is involved in the payment of teachers. Can you explain to me how that system works, and what challenges you face in paying the teachers? o Do you receive any complaints from teachers about the payment system? And if so, what are some of the most common complaints? o Is there anything you would suggest for improving the payment system?

In general:  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on education service provision?  What effect do you think that the current political situation and upcoming election could have on the ability of education actors to implement projects?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on education service provision?  What effect do you think that the decoupage process could have on the ability of education actors to implement projects?

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