Centre for Conflict Resolution Uganda (CECORE)
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CECORE
P.O Box 5211
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256- 31-2-262265, +256-41-255033
Cell: +256-77-2-551633, +256-77-2-462319
Fax: + 256-255033/ 251922
Email: cecore@africaonline.co.ug
Website: http://www.cecore.net
Ms. Stella Sabiiti, Executive Director
Ms. Rose Othieno, Administrative Officer
Description
The Center for Conflict Resolution (CECORE) is a not-for-profit NGO founded in 1995 by a number of Ugandans aspiring to promote alternative and creative means of preventing, managing, and resolving conflict. Above all, CECORE seeks to empower individual women and men, communities, and organizations to transform conflict and to establish a culture of active tolerance and peace. CECORE’s area of focus is Uganda, the Great Lakes Region, and the Greater Horn of Africa, though its services and involvement have been requested and provided beyond these areas.
CECORE is guided by a vision of a society where peace, tolerance, and human dignity prevail. Many conditions must be fulfilled if the dignity of each and every human being is to be established and maintained. A host of economic, social, cultural, and political factors are significant. But peace—in the fullest sense of the word—is a prerequisite, and tolerance, based upon mutual understanding, respect, and forbearance, creates the foundations upon which peace may be built. Thus, the Center’s mission is to promote a culture of peace. CECORE commits to work with people—particularly but not exclusively—in areas where conflict is present or threatened, to awaken and develop their awareness that peace is within their grasp; to empower them with the knowledge and skills relevant to their situation; and to facilitate conflict resolution, transformation and prevention. This involves training, sensitization, advocacy, mediation and research. It requires a profound understanding of the causes of conflict, a readiness to listen, learn, and mould approaches that respond to specific circumstances, and the capacity to deliver services that are relevant, timely, and effective.
CECORE has six programs: Training in conflict prevention, transformation and resolution (CRTP) and peace-building; ‘Building Bridges’: creating links between parties in conflict for dialogue and reconciliation; Research, documentation and information dissemination; Networking and advocacy; Working with and through the media to promote peace-building; Facilitation of CPTR and peace-building events—conferences, workshops, meetings.
Track Record
Capacity building: CECORE employs a participatory, interactive workshop-based methodology that helps groups understand and analyze conflict. There are numerous examples of the successful application of this approach. In the mid-1990s, the Oxfam Special Program on the Great Lakes Region contracted CECORE to work with women in Rwanda, one of the first initiatives in conflict transformation and healing in post-genocide Rwanda. The women’s national collective Pro Femme was subsequently given the UNESCO non-violence peace award in 1996. In 1997 CECORE carried out a needs assessment for UNHCR of Southern Sudanese women living as refugees in camps in North Western Uganda. This led to the development and implementation of CPTR training not just for the women but for all the refugees, government, military, and relief agency personnel working in the camps, and the local Ugandan population.
In 2001, UNESCO invited CECORE to carry out Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction training of trainer’s courses for staff of the Ministry of Education, schools, police, and the military in Liberia. In 2003, USAID and a consortium of international agencies contracted CECORE to carry out a needs assessment and produce and test training materials for Acholi traditional chiefs in Uganda. In 2001, the Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry, Pretoria and civil society in South Africa together with CECORE carried out trainings on Dispute Resolution and Team building; Resolving Public Policy and Environmental Disputes with the aim of arriving at a consensus on resource distribution and utilization.
Building Bridges: CECORE aims to ‘build bridges’ between parties in conflict, both through training and direct intervention in conflict situations. Specific examples of ‘building bridges’ include: the mobilization of Burundi women on behalf of the OAU Women’s Committee for Peace and Development in the search for peace (1997); the introduction by CECORE of Karachunas (armed youth warriors) in Karamoja to non-violent means of dealing with conflict (1997); CECORE contract work at GTZ’s behest to work with pastoral communities in the Karamoja region on conflict resolution and peace building (2000-2002); facilitation of a multi-stakeholder dialogue in conflicts arising from the proposed hydro-electric scheme on the River Nile at Bujagali Falls (2001); appointment by the International Community, the Government of Uganda, and the Uganda National Rescue Front to facilitate training skills in negotiations to end conflict in North West Uganda, as a result of which a peace agreement was signed (2002).
Hands Across The Border: This project focused on diffusing tensions on the Teso-Karamoja border resulting from cattle rustling. A series of trainings and meetings were carried out for the political leaders, Members of Parliament, Ministers, UPDF, local administrative officers, government representatives, kraal and religious leaders as well as security officials and community representatives.
Knowledge Sharing: CECORE has a strong track record in conducting research on the sources and types of conflicts. Research topics have included African Traditional Methods of conflict resolution, Best Practices of conflict resolution; Reconciliation efforts between the Uganda Government and dissidents in the North and Northeast of the country, where agreements have been made and opponents returned from exile; Conflict handling in Western Uganda; Karamoja Disarmament; Use of the Internet in Peace-building in the Great Lakes Region; and The LRA invasion of Teso. CECORE has established a documentation center where research results, published and unpublished works, and audio-visual aids are easily accessible.
Networking and Advocacy: CECORE maintains a wide network of individuals and organizations in the field of CPTR and peace building that facilitates extensive sharing of ideas and experience. The Center is represented on the boards of various key organizations—including the Human Rights Network (HURINET) Uganda; Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA); Network for African Peace Builders (NAPS); The Coexistence Initiative (TCI); and ACORD-Agency for Cooperation in Research and Development. CECORE lobbies relevant bodies for effective and positive policy formulation at national, regional, and global level. CECORE is particularly concerned with developing early warning and early response (EWER) systems, and control of small arms and light weapons (SALW).
Media and Peace-building: CECORE trains media personnel in CPTR skills, stressing the important role the media plays in society. With funding from USAID, it implemented a program on The Role of the Media in Peace-building, which involved research on the media’s role, especially in relation to conflict resolution. Workshops were held in which media representatives participated, and recommendations were formulated for training and involving the media in peace building.
Facilitation of CPTR: CECORE has frequently been asked to facilitate at major conferences, workshops, meetings, etc. This has usually involved the Executive Director, though other members of staff have also carried out facilitation assignments.
Early Warning and Early Response (EWER): CECORE, together with the Africa Peace Forum (APFO, see separate profile), has carried out a consultative meeting on the range of EWER mechanisms in place to mitigate conflict situations in different regions. The two organizations were also part of the civil society partners that were instrumental during the process of developing the IGAD early warning system (CEWARN).
The Conflict Sensitive Approaches (CSA) Project: With a consortium of five other international organizations—SaferWorld, Forum on Early Warning and Early Response (FEWER), International Alert, APFO, and the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies—CECORE has worked to develop tools to mainstream conflict sensitivity in all interventions of donors, governments, and NGOs in areas of peace-building, development, and humanitarian assistance. The current phase of the project focuses on awareness of and training on the use of these tools for the different stakeholders, and mainstreaming conflict sensitivity in all programs of these stakeholders.
A Resource Pack for practitioners working in the areas of humanitarian assistance, development, and peace building has been produced, and training of practitioners on its use and application is currently under way.
Small Arms And Light Weapons: CECORE is activity involved in the fight against SALW, and is a committee member as well as the national focal point for SALW in Uganda. Training is also conducted on peace and the effects of SALW. Currently, CECORE is an active participant in the drafting of guidelines for Policy and Legislation Review, which stipulate how, who, when and where an individual could possess a firearm, conditions and penalties.
International Conference on The Great Lakes Region: CECORE serves on the Uganda national Thematic Technical Task Force of the preparations towards a regional pact on ‘Peace, Stability Security and Development in the Great Lakes Region’, signed by the Heads of State of the countries of the Great Lakes Region in November 2006. The Initiative, a joint effort of the UN and the AU, is geared towards addressing and preventing the conflicts that have plagued the Great Lakes Region for several decades.
Challenges
The Center has been confronted by the perennial challenge of securing sufficient and sustainable funding to enable it to effectively implement its projects and programs. Its annual budget is US$130,000, and is supported by Saferworld, a UK-based NGO, and GOPA in Germany. To bolster its revenues from donors CECORE also undertakes short-term consultancies at the behest of its partners, including UNHCR, World Vision-Uganda, the African Union, and European Center for Development Policy Management. Another challenge, related to the above, is to build CECORE institutional capacity, including in terms of facilities and organizational equipment.
Opportunities
CECORE could benefit from larger volumes of support (including core funding), as well as funding and technical assistance to ensure its sustainability as an institution. Such support could include assistance to develop a viable business model and outreach strategy, as well as to strengthen CECORE’s current governance and management structure.
