The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted over 3,400 Congolese civilians since 2008. In February 2014 alone the LRA abducted 35 people in Haut Uele district of the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Orientale Province. In response to this enduring violence, Conciliation Resources and 58 other civil society groups have sent a joint letter to the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUSCO). The letter provides concrete recommendations on how peacekeepers deployed in LRA-affected zones can better protect civilians.

In this paper, Conciliation Resources and Saferworld set out a vision for including gender, violence and peace in the post-2015 framework. A gender, violence and peace approach to post-2015 includes but also goes beyond a focus on women’s empowerment. Inter alia, it means paying attention to the links between gender and violence and prioritising inclusive decision-making. Building on our previous recommendations for including peacebuilding commitments in the post-2015 development agenda, we suggest targets and indicators that illustrate how gender, violence and peace issues can best be integrated into the framework.

There is continuing uncertainty at the policy level over how and when to engage non-state armed groups (NSAGs). There has also been little focus on how community-based actors reach out to and are reached by NSAGs. Understanding local interactions with NSAGs may provide better analysis of a group’s dynamics as well as provide entry points for dialogue when formal channels are blocked. However there are a number of challenges and risks, as well as opportunities, for those that reach out to NSAGs.