Uganda women peace builders to visit Kenya and Tanzania

A group of 45 women community peace builders fromUganda will visit different women groups in Kenya and Tanzania from 17th to 21st June 2003. The exchange visit is the climax of the four year (1999 - 2002) training that Isis-WICCE has conducted on conflict resolution and peace building.

The aim of the visit is to enable the group express solidarity with women of other ethnic groups who have gone through violent conflict as well as other conflicts and share the best practices, mechanisms and strategies utilised in their localities. The visit will also enable the women peace builders to form a strong network that will instill a culture of peace in communities.

While in Kenya, the Ugandan group will meet a number of women peace groups among which are; the NCCK Peace Programme the Rural Women's Peace Link, in Eldoret, Mchanganyiko Women's Centre and Kibera Inter-Faith women, People for Peace in Africa in Nairobi, and other groups in Namanga.

The visit is organized by Isis-Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Uganda) in conjunction with People for Peace in Africa (Kenya).

Background to the National Exchange Training and Visits

Isis-WICCE started National level Exchange Visits and Training Workshops in 1999. The initiative was driven by the organisation’s 15 years of experience of organizing International-level Exchange Programmes and a considerable period of the documentation of women’s experiences of armed conflict, which gave new insights into women’s core concerns that needed to be addressed.

Because of Uganda’s devastation by civil strife and armed conflict in the last 30 years, Isis-WICCE embarked on tapping the women’s voices on these conflicts and their consequences. The documentation of women’s experiences revealed a lot of ethnic differences, anger and bitterness, arising from gender specific forms of violations and the seclusion of women, which isolated them and made them inherit the prejudices of the men in their lives about other groups

As an intervention mechanism, Isis-WICCE has been running national Exchange Visits and Training workshops on the theme From Grassroots to Parliament: Women Building Peace and Good Neighborliness in the Great Lakes Region”

The objectives of these visits are:

To express solidarity with women from other ethnic groups, especially those in armed conflict areas;
To break the isolation of rural women and expose them to different skills and strategies;
To enable rural women in different areas of Uganda and her immediate neighbours who have experienced similar problems, to deliberate, form networks and participate in establishing a culture of peace;
To build the capacity of women leaders at the grassroots level with the tools that will enable them to effectively lead in their communities.

The training is envisaged to build the capacity of women leaders to be involved in peace building and negotiation to promote social justice and conflict transformation.

Methodology

The national exchange visits are implemented in collaboration with national level as well as community level women’s organisations. This collaborative effort has empowered all the parties concerned to participate in promoting a national culture of peace and good neighbourliness. The project has been a long-term one, since sustainable peace demands time, skills and protracted engagement

Isis-WICCE embarked on this training in 1999, and since then has been training the 40 participants from the districts of Apac, Arua, Gulu, Kasese, Katakwi, Kitgum, Lira, Luwero, Soroti and women from Sudan. One training institute has been held every year, lasting one week. At the end of the training, participants draw up plans of action to be carried out in their home districts as a team of women leaders. These plans were implemented for nine months while being monitored by Isis-WICCE.

With training in subsequent years at the intermediate and advanced levels, participants would make improved plans of action and new strategies in training women for sustainable peace building.

Plan Implementation and Follow up

This is a nine-month period in which the team of women from each district jointly implement their plans of action. Isis-WICCE closely monitors these teams; to make assessment, ensure efficiency and effectiveness, to participate in some of their workshops, and to act as resource persons for some of these groups.

What has been done over the period

Training using organised sessions and skits, in the issues of:

Understanding Conflict: (Overview of conflicts in Africa; Historical, economic, psychological sources of conflict or stability; Systematic view of conflict; Tools for analysing/ understanding conflict; Conflict cycle and working definition of conflict; Social transformation of conflict; Latent to overt conflict to peace.)
Developing a Framework for Peace Building: (The architecture of peace building; Approaches, levels and actors; Working with dilemmas; From crisis to long-term vision)
Responding to Conflict: (Negotiation and mediation).
Looking forward and Visioning: (Integrated framework for peace building; Concrete action plans and way forward).
Gender, Leadership and Trauma Management.
Conflict resolution and peace building.
Women’s participation in reconstruction and rehabilitation after armed conflicts.

Exchange Visits

In 1999 all the participants had the opportunity to visit an income-generating project (poultry) and selected women’s groups in districts that have been affected by armed conflict in Uganda. They also visited Kaya in Southern Sudan to enable them have an exposure to the challenges of a community in the midst of armed conflict.
2 National Exchange participants participated in the solidarity visit to Eritrea in 2001. This included representatives of Uganda and Sudanese women and women of the National Union of Eritrean Women.
2 participants of the National Programme also benefited from the solidarity and exchange visit to Burundi as part of the Regional Exchange Workshop in 2002

Exposure and Learning from the Cross-Cultural Experiences of other women globally:
The National participants benefited from the 2 parallel women’s events which took place at Makerere University Kampala from 21-27 July 2002. The two activities were the 7th Interdisciplinary Congress on Women’s World’s: Gains and Challenges and the KnowHow Conference on Women’s Knowledge Exchange.

Skills Replication:
Each district group has been carrying out various activities on conflict resolution and peace building in line with the plans that they develop after each training.

Contact:

For additional information, contact:
Juliet Were
Isis-WICCE
Email: isis@starcom.co.ug

Last update: June-14, 2003