5) Description of initiative: The widespread use of violence over the past two and half decade’s civil war in Afghanistan has caused extensive physical, political, economic and social upheavals for the Afghan people. Community-based Peace building Program is primarily concerned with strengthening the role-of local people and their institutions for the promotion of socio- cultural resources for peace. People themselves and their very culture are the best resources for building and sustaining peace in the long run. In other words socio- cultural resources for peace means generating a widespread sense of shared responsibility for constructive transformation of conflict to prevent violence, to be able to deal with violence proactively and ultimately building and sustaining peace at the community level. In the context of humanitarian work, a community-based approach would imply establishing partnership between people, social institutions and operational organizations to take joint actions. This can best be achieved in a developmental environment, which is based on genuine participation of the focus groups and existence of social structures representing all segments of society. As the main points the role of SDO in this program are to assess /survey, to select the most affected post war areas, to select the direct beneficiaries(members),to establish male and female PEACE SHORAs(non profit, independence, community based institution dealing with community conflicts)train /monitor/supervise the PSs on how to receive,assess,analyze,transform/resolve the conflict cases in target araes.Total direct beneficiary of the program is 2860 individuals, both male and female, based in the target communities roughly broken down by the following percentages: 45% Teachers from government schools 28% Government Representatives 25% Community representatives, such as Peace Shura members, Mullahs, commanders, village elders, women’s associations representatives. 2% Students from Youth Associations, High Schools

6) Description of innovation: Community based Peace building program is the first innovative under taken by SDO (Sanayee Development Organization)in Afghanistan, SDO is working since 1996 through implementing many peace building program and Peace Education projects in Peshawar-Pakistan and Afghanistan. Research and practical implementation of peace projects undertaken by SDO has formed the basis of substantial local and technical understanding of the root causes of conflict and Peace Building needs in Afghanistan. This experience has developed methods of addressing the multiple issues causing conflict that are most appropriate and successful in mobilising communities at a local level and enhancing their capacities to transform and resolve conflicts, and has gained national recognition for his work in the areas of peace building, conflict analysis and approaches.

7) Delivery model: 1-Research on the post war / violated communities: SDO has under taken some primary specific research on the post war communities to find out the exact information on the conflict, violence, human rights, gender situation in Afghanistan. 2-selection of the most war affected districts / provinces in the country to start the peace building program in close coordination of the stakeholders, governmental officials. 3-Conduction of the Base line survey to see the current situation on the conflicts and violence in the targeted areas 4-Mapping / cauterization of the target district(according to geography of the area)in 11 zones (10 zonal area+1 central area) 5-Selection of the community representatives and some local governmental representative as PEACE SHORA (non profit, independence community institution to deal with community conflict) members. 6-Establishing of male and femle PEACE SHORAs (PS)in each zone totally 11 PS(10 zonal +1 Central)in whole the disrict 7-Conduction of the peace building introductory and refresher trainings to build the members capacity to receive, assess, analyse, constrictive transform / resolve the referred conflict cases, using proper methodology (Negotiation, communication, Mediation, etc) 8-Develop and include a peace education curriculum to Afghanistan national education curriculum 9-Dissemination of the peace education messages through media and other broad casts( Magazines, Movies, Flip charts)

8) Key operational partnerships: SDO has close and mutual productive partnersip with Afghan government, Internationa organizations working for peace and devolopment,Int donors for peace and devolopment,e.g TROCAIRE, UNHCR, DED, NCA the government support,funds given by the partners are the importent supports to continue and sustain the program till the objectives are achieved

9) Financial model: In this program there is a small budget($2000) allocated for each PS to run some micro projects supprtive to the program eg building a room for PS meetings, to establish a library, to use for capacity/skill building of the PS members and also there is some, food/refreshment costs and transportation allowances allocated for the PS members (direct benificiaries) when they are attending the workshops and meetings

          • Costs as percentage of income: N/A

          • Financing: Currently SDO's peace building program is funded by two donors,TROCAIR and UNHCR, since the peace building program is a community dependant /based program so in long term the members, the community and government have comminted to continue / sustain the program by their own supports

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: The program have targeted 2860 male and female direct benificiaries Results through program: -88 zonal and district level institutions targeted and trained in conflict resolution, peace building and advocacy skills -Micro projects being managed and implemented through the peace councils(Central Peace SHORA) -Increased interaction(economic,social)between zonal and district regions at the zonal, District and government levels -Exposure visits among PS at the zonal and district level have been achieved -Gort officials trained in certain key skills (participatory techniques, reconciliation mediation,negotiation,civil and human rights,Gender) -Initial discussions over inclusion of peace education curriculum in the national curriculum started with ministry of Education

          • Number of clients in past year: 1-Directly 2860(male and female individuals) 2-Indirectly:in 8 district(Jaghatoo,Ghazni City, Polialam,Mohammad Agha, Paghman, Qarabagh, Robat Sangi, Karrokh) of four provinces of Afghanistan(Logar, Herat, GHazni, Kabul)more than 250000 individuals

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: 1-The initiated efforts has to be promoted further. 2-To extend the program in new communities in whole Afghanistan after receiving new peace building funds 3-To include peace education curriculum(which has already been developed by the SDO peace building department and approved by related organizations)to National Education Curriculum of Afghanistan 4-To develop more peace education materials(Magazines, publications, posters,films) 5-To conduct specific research on the conflict at community level in Afghanistan 6-To integrate the national efforts on the peace building into regional(South Asia)peace efforts to share the lessons learned and to use the regional network as a platform for more peace interventions globally 7-To integrate the peace building program as cross cutting issue in any governmental and national development programs

12) Origin of the initiative: A Traditional Afghan Shura (community institution) is a place where all men/women in the community can meet to discuss issues of mutual interests. Its membership is not fixed, but varies from one meeting to the next.SDO (www.sanayee.org) has been working in the sector of peace building establishing Peace SHORAs from 1998 -2001 in Peshawar, Pakistan for Afghan refuges and from 2002 – present in different provinces of Afghanistan. SDO’s approach to peace building has been focused mainly at grassroots. However, we have also targeted high ranking government authorities and official in different provinces and the capital,SDO has gained national recognition for his work in the areas of peace building, conflict analysis and approaches.

Contact Information:
Ahmad Rashed  Wassif
Peace Building Program Officer
Sanayee Devolopment Organization SDO
(NGO)
sdfpbd@yahoo.com
Afghanistan
Tel: 0093 799201038 OR 0093 799325171
Fax: N/A
Email: sdfpbd@yahoo.com
Website: www.sanayee.org // www.nawidefarda.com