Nick is a barrister based in chambers in London, where he works in the fields of public and criminal law and heads up the Inquiries, Inquests and Public Law team. He has experience in charity and public appointments over many years and was until recently trustee of a modern slavery charity and Vice Chair of UK Anti-Doping, which fights doping in sport.
The Central African Republic’s contested elections in 2021 have led to an increasingly polarised political space, making high level political dialogue across conflict divides a highly sensitive and contentious endeavour. Previous national peace efforts focused on high-level political negotiations with little more than symbolic input from communities, faith leaders, women, and youth. This lack of engagement left local conflict drivers and causes largely unaddressed.
Complex conflicts can't be solved through national deals alone - local peace networks need to be supported to address community violence. Despite the existence of local peace mechanisms in communities across the Central African Republic, their input has historically been symbolic and leaves local conflict drivers and causes largely unaddressed.
Megan Fearon is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly and government minister in Northern Ireland.
Henry has forty years experience advising Boards and CEOs on legal, regulatory and financial issues, as well as reputation management and strategy.
Young people in Kaga-Bandoro and Sibut, in the Central African Republic, have lived in the shadow of three decades of conflict. All have had their lives in some way shaped by violence. While the physical consequences of conflict are easy to see, the effects on mental health are less obvious but no less damaging. Unresolved distress and trauma is often a driver of ongoing cycles of conflict.
Gender can shape people’s motivation to engage in violence, their experiences when reintegrating into society, the types of traumas they confront and their ability to process these. If left unaddressed, the gendered causes and legacies of conflict eventually resurface over time, so are a critical part of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and peacebuilding interventions. This report explores the links between gender, mental health and reconciliation in the Central African Republic and provides recommendations for policy and practice.
Connecting people and peace efforts is an essential part of building sustainable peace. In May, Conciliation Resources organised a conference in Cotabato, Philippines, bringing together Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from the Bangsamoro region, including island provinces, and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA). The conference was part of a wider project to improve accountability and build stronger relationships between government and civil society.
Dr. Shidiki Abubakar Ali is a senior lecturer at the Department of Forestry in the University of Dschang, Cameroon, a part-time lecturer at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon, and works as a consultant on rangeland management. He has published widely on natural resource governance, pastoralism and natural resource conflicts.
