General Resource
Best practices in community-led peacebuilding: A learning compendium from the Mobilizing and Enhancing Local Actors for Peace project
October 23, 2024
Peace and conflict
Ethnic conflict in Ethiopia, particularly struggles over land and other resources, has soared in recent years, with the civil war in Tigray resulting in the highest levels of political violence in more than two decades. Ethiopia’s 10 semi-autonomous federal states are organized along ethnic lines, with most violent inter-communal conflicts between ethnic and religious groups occurring in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions. Misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, often originating on social media, quickly circulate offline and further stoke these tensions. Amid the rise in violence, traditional dispute mechanisms and community leaders continue to play important roles in mitigating conflict and promoting peace.
Pact, in collaboration with Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus Development and Social Services Commission (EECMY-DASSC) and Zinc Network (Zinc), co-designed a project grounded in indigenous conflict mitigation systems to support Ethiopian communities affected by violence to build a foundation toward a more stable and socially cohesive environment. Mobilizing and Enhancing Local Actors for Peace (MELA-Peace), with ‘mela’ meaning ‘solution’ in both Amharic and Afan Oromo, is an 18-month project targeting 18 clusters of kebeles (districts) in 10 woredas under six zones of Amhara and Oromia regions. While conflict was present throughout the Amhara and Oromia regions since the launch of the project and MELA target communities were among the areas affected by instability, a shared commitment and vision among the Pact and DASSC teams made success of the project possible, even amid these conditions.
The project strategy emphasized building capacities of community structures with peace building and conflict management techniques. Through partnership with community leaders, MELA for Peace rekindled and revitalized the role of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms that had eroded over time. These local leaders, spread across the target locations, now serve as valuable resources for peace and stability in their communities and they are regularly consulted by local peace and security structures to inform various peacebuilding activities. Information sharing has also improved between stakeholders: Local leaders of bordering communities share conflict information and address conflict issues before they escalate and field-level Community Facilitators and mobilizers in all 18 project target locations maintain close communication with each other via mobile and email, fostering collaboration and a sense of kinship.
Learn more in this project compendium.

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