Culture and Conflict Transformation

Creative Exchange is currently seeking funding to develop this area of the website into a resource centre on Culture and Conflict.

Below we feature information on our pilot project in Burundi, A Cultural Approach to Conflict Transformation in Burundi.

Cultural dimensions of conflict transformation

• What role does culture play in conflict prevention and transformation?
• How do cultural activities contribute to the process of building cohesion within communities?
• What skills and experiences of this field do NGOs and local partners in Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern Congo have to share?
• How could this knowledge improve development practice and responses to conflict in this region of Africa, and in other conflict zones around the world?

Creative Exchange is bringing together Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs working with cultural approaches to conflict transformation in Burundi to explore these issues, build local networking, learning and skills in this area, and develop new sources of data and knowledge about the role of culture in conflict.

We aim to build on regional experience of community level work and its impact, in order to strengthen conflict management and conflict transformation processes, both within communities locally, and at the level of policy and practice among implementing and donor NGOs.

We want to:

• provide a platform for sharing of skills, knowledge and experience between partners in this region
• assess the potential and constraints of cultural approaches to conflict transformation through research
• develop learning resources and case studies inspired by practice in the region
• transfer the lessons learned within this region into wider conflict scenarios and policymaking internationally.

We have developed a project partnership with 5 CBOs and 5 INGOs for the first phase. We have identified a further 13 CBOs and are building relationships with other major donors and policy influencers in the Great Lakes region. The first phase of the project will outreach to about 25,000 beneficiaries via CBOs. and involves exploring impact of current projects through reflective learning with CBOs and INGOs, developing materials on monitoring and evaluation, producing a set of evidential case studies and an event to share knowledge and outcomes of the first phase with 50-75 other CBOs, NGOs and donors.

For further information contact Helen Gould - hgould@creativexchange.org