Catholic Relief Services-USCCB/Angola PARTICIPAR Project Participatory Action for Revitalization and Transformation In Community Initiatives and Priorities in Areas of Resettlement. Final Report, October 2004 to September 2006

摘要

Of the three key approaches used, the project was most effective in promoting grassroots relationship-building for reconciliation and conflict management. The CDGs created by participating communities largely function as citizen forums where women are full members and can express their opinions freely and where youth have the same opportunity. CDGs also usually have the participation of local traditional leaders, sobas, that are the legally-recognize interlocutors between their communities and the local Government. Most of these groups have become active participants in community conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution. In one notable case in Utalala (Capupa Commune, Cubal Municipality), CDG members helped stand off an angry crowd that wanted to lynch three UNITA activists dressed in political paraphernalia until police reinforcements arrived four hours later to disperse the crowd and escort the activists to safety. Although this type of violence used to happen sporadically, more than one local government official interviewed in the final evaluation attributed some of the reduction in partisan violence to the work of the PARTICIPAR Project.