National governments affected by ongoing or protracted armed conflicts are increasingly understanding the importance of working with Civil Society Organizations for sustainable peace and are demonstrating an openness towards supporting and integrating their (formal and informal) community-based approaches to reintegration and promoting local reconciliation solutions.
With the civic space increasingly opening for a strong involvement of CSOs in the reintegration process, as outlined in various regional and national policies throughout Africa; the network presents an inclusive approach to reintegration that maximizes CSO´s potential to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of these approaches.
The Network has established a sub-regional chapter of civil society organizations working on community-based reintegration in the Lake Chad Basin Countries; with future sub-regional chapters envisioned to launch soon; leading to an Africa Wide Civil Society Network on Inclusive Reintegration and Community Based Peace Building Strategies.
The network, which is comprised of a self-sustaining virtual and on-the-ground infrastructure, has three core objectives:
To increase advocacy from civil society vis-à-vis national governments and the international community on the added value of inclusive and comprehensive approaches to reintegration. To this end, the network formulates country specific advocacy strategies tailored to the context and (implementation status of) national reintegration policies; and
Integrate civil society’s sustainable reintegration expertise and knowledge into the formal criminal justice and rule of law sector. The network thereby integrates informal transitional justice practices as well as approaches for prevention of violent extremism (PVE) into the security and Criminal Justice and Rule of Law sector.
The network acknowledges that the sustainable reintegration of former associates of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, as well as groups that fall outside of this category but provide a violent extremist threat, requires a multifaceted solution. The network directly contributes to the three sub-components of Sustainable Development Goal 16 and indirectly contributes to SDG 10 on reduced Inequalities.
The network, which is comprised of a self-sustaining virtual and on-the-ground infrastructure, has three core objectives:
1.
To support CSOs working on reintegration in to build their technical capacities in different facets of community-based reintegration, such as but not limited to reconciliation, mental health and psycho-social support, disengagement and prevention of re-radicalization as well as strategic partnerships and dialogues with government actors in the domain. Peer-to-peer learning, based on actual experiences in host communities where the CSOs in the network are on the frontline to address reintegration challenges are a crucial tool for the capacity building component;
2.
To increase advocacy from civil society vis-à-vis national governments and the international community on the added value of inclusive and comprehensive approaches to reintegration. To this end, the network formulates country specific advocacy strategies tailored to the context and (implementation status of) national reintegration policies; and
3.
Integrate civil society’s sustainable reintegration expertise and knowledge into the formal criminal justice and rule of law sector. The network thereby integrates informal transitional justice practices as well as approaches for prevention of violent extremism (PVE) into the security and Criminal Justice and Rule of Law sector.
The network acknowledges that the sustainable reintegration of former associates of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, as well as groups that fall outside of this category but provide a violent extremist threat, requires a multifaceted solution. The network directly contributes to the three sub-components of Sustainable Development Goal 16 and indirectly contributes to SDG 10 on reduced Inequalities.
