Conflict

Prevention,
Management,
Resolution and
Transformation(
CPMRT)
Introduction
 Zimbabwe has established the National Peace
and Reconciliation Commission whose mandate
includes ensuring post-conflict justice healing and
reconciliation, prevention of conflicts and
promotion of peace

 The goal of CPMRT training is to enhance

capacities for non-state actors in Conflict
Preventing, Management, Resolution and
Transformation so that they are conflict sensitive in
discharging their mandates.
Objectives
 To enhance capacities for non-state actors to run
Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and
Transformation (CPMRT) training
 To increase conflict sensitivity in discharging
mandates.
 To create an environment which enables
constructive management and peaceful
resolution of conflict and reconciliation of
individuals, communities and the nation
 To enhance equal participation of women and
men in governance and development issues.
Organisation of the training
 The training is organised into the following 8
modules which cover basic CPMRT concept:
 Understanding Conflict, Violence and Peace
 Approaches to conflict
 Conflict analysis
 Inter-personal conflict skills
 Conflict intervention strategies
 Women and Peace Building
 Reconciliation, Justice and Healing
 Enhancing Social Cohesion in Cooperative Groups
 Understanding Conflict, Violence
and Peace

Peace practitioners who subscribe to the notion of conflict as social

relationship have defined it as ‘the energy generated when two or more
individuals or groups compete for seemingly incompatible goals in their
drive to meet their needs and interest’.
Peace practitioners see conflict as:

 A natural expression of social differences.

 An inevitable part of the relationship between
people. Conflict is bound to happen;
 A necessary fact of life:
 Conflict can either be constructive or destructive
 A healthy and a creative way of expressing
difference and disagreements,
 A resource and opportunity that can be used to
bring about change.
 Something that cannot be avoided or wished
away
 Functions of conflict

Generally, conflict should not always be seen as

problem per se because there are many positive
things in world history that have occurred as a result of
conflict.
Positive aspects of conflict
 Conflict helps establish our identity and
independence.
 Intensity of conflict demonstrates the closeness and
importance of relationships.
 Conflict can build new relationships.
 Conflict can create coalitions.
 Conflict serves as a safety-valve mechanism which
helps to sustain relationships.
 Conflict helps parties assess each other’s power and
can work to redistribute power in a system of conflict.
 Conflict establishes and maintains group identities.
 Conflicts enhance group cohesion through issue and
belief clarification. Conflict creates or modifies rules,
norms, laws and institutions.
 Common response when a conflict breaks out
Fighting – being defensive People become visibly aggressive, threatening arguing, shouting,
physically fighting, depriving others of their rights, etc.

It often about ‘I win and you lose’, ‘my way and power over
attitudes’.

Flighting - run away from the conflict People become physically or emotionally passive. They withdraw
from the situation due to fear of disapproval or confrontations

People become physically or emotionally passive. They withdraw

from the situation due to fear of disapproval or confrontations

It’s often about ‘you win and I lose’, ‘your way’, and a ‘power under
attitude’.

Freezing Often take place when people are terrified and start to perceive the
situation as hopeless.

Sometimes people pass out, or mentally remove themselves from

their bodies, and don't feel anything.
 Levels and types of conflicts
Level Type
Internal (intra) External (inter)
Individual The conflict take place within a The conflict take place
person. the pressure comes from between two or more people
perceived or incompatible it is reflected in disagreement
goals or expectation or antagonism

Group Conflict take place within a The conflict takes place

group usually over power, between groups usually its
authority and status competition for resources

Organization Conflict take place within an The conflict takes place

organization usually it about between two or more
how things should be done, by organization and usually is
who, when and where? about ideological differences
Causes of conflict
Several theories have been developed on
causes of conflict and each points to some
ways of addressing the conflict.
 Human needs theory
 Value based theory
 Human relations theory
 Conflict transformation theory
 Inter-cultural miscommunication theory
Understanding Violence
 The Webster dictionary defines violence
as use of physical force to harm someone
or damage property. Most peace
practitioner subscribe to the notion of
force and adds dimension of intimidation
and discrimination and defines it as ‘a
deliberate action used to intimidate,,
force and or discriminate against people.
Forms of violence
 Violence is often expressed in form of
attitudes, behaviors, context. The three
elements feed into each other
.
Peace and peace building
 Johan Galtung (1996) describes peace as ‘the framework
within which conflicts unfolds non-violently and creatively
brings a dimensions of a structure and appearances of
peace. He differentiates positive and negative peace

 Negative peace refers to a situation where the war or

visible violent behaviours would have stopped but the
causes of the violence not addressed. People will still be
living in fear and unsettled.

 Positive peace is filled with positive content such as the

restoration of relationships, the creation of social systems
that serve the needs of the whole population and the
constructive resolution of conflict and functional justice
systems.
Peace building
 Peace building is a strategy that aims to address
structural issues and the long-term relationships.
 it include activities that people do in different
fields at personal, group, community and national
level. The following are some of the peace
building activities :
• conflict or dispute resolution activities
• increasing the role of women in public arena
where decisions are made
• promote adherence to universal principles such as
the declaration such as The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights’
Cont….
• promotion of reconciliation and healing (
inner Peace)
• establishing a social contract – constitution
• overcoming violent and promotion of
positive changes in attitudes
• Economic development, social justice,
reconciliation,
• empowerment of disadvantaged groups,
• Humanitarian support.
Approaches to conflict:
 CPMRT
 Rights,power and interest based
approaches
 Power approach
 Community based and traditional
approaches
 Conflict Early Warning and Early Response
systems (EWER)
The table below outlines the three approaches,
strategies used and their strengths and weaknesses
APPROACH STRATEGY STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

Power-based Use of Positions or Immediate outcomes or People do things out of

approach authority results fear. Damages
relationships and trust
WIN-LOSE

Rights-based Arbitration, Courts, Fairness and enforceable Parties may be

Adjudication unsatisfied
Approach
Destroys trust, not good
for people who have
interrelations

Interest & needs Mediation Solutions are based on The process is time
based approach the needs and interests consuming and may
Facilitation,
of the parties reach a stalemate or go
WIN-WIN

Negotiation,
on and on without a
Informal
solution
discussions
Cultural and traditional
approaches to conflict
 Cultural and traditional approaches refer to indigenous
methods that are rooted in people’s cultural values, moral
ethics and traditional beliefs that are used in dealing with
conflict.
 Indigenous knowledge is different from other types of
knowledge in that they are adaptive, creative and
experiential rather than theoretical.
 They are local in nature, context-specific and take into
consideration the unique resources, actors, experiences
and knowledge inherent in the conflict-dynamic.
 They provide local people with a platform for addressing
local conflicts without resorting to state-run judicial systems,
police, or other external structures.
Values and systems that
inform indigenous systems
 Ubuntu
 Kinship
 Respected elders
 Taboos
 Traditional leadership courts
 Ritualization
 Cleansing ceremonies
 Mental and emotional healing
Conflict analysis:
Conflict analysis is a process of assessing
and documenting information on the
nature, actors and dynamics of a potential
or ongoing conflict in order to get a
comprehensive and shared understanding
of the situation in order to determine the
appropriate conflict sensitive intervention
strategy.
The Why and when to do a
conflict analysis
Doing a conflict analysis gives us some ideas on:
 The issue at stake – source of the tension, linkages and
synergies
 The actors involved directly or indirectly (potential spoilers),
their perspectives and how they relate to each other, their
positions, interests and needs and their motivation
 How the conflict is unfolding (conflict dynamics, trigger,
moderators) and likely future scenarios
 The level of sensitivity needed.
 Conflict analysis is an ongoing process. I can be done prior
to designing an intervention and can be re-done when
there are dynamics or shift in its nature or the environment.
Conflict analytical framework
and tools
Conflict analysis tools are based on a certain
logic. It is therefore to select one that is most
suitable for a particular situation. Tools includes:
 The conflict tree –analyse the two levels at
which conflict occurs
 The Onion tool –unpack the positions, interests
and needs
 The ABC triangle – analyse visible and
invisible factors
 Force-field analysis – factors influencing the
conflict
 Conflict mapping –analyse the actors and
their relationship
Women and Peace Building
 Conflict and peace building are gendered issues
but gender analysis is absent in the mainstream of
these processes.
 Research has shown that many conflicts recur
after short periods of peace due to lack of local
capacity to sustain the peace.
 Post conflict peace processes tend to pay more
attention to high-level and official negotiations
and conflict resolution dominated by men.
 Often grassroots experiences, voices, power,
resourcefulness of women and youth which are
critical for sustaining peace are often ignore or
marginalized in peace building process
ISSUES THAT DISTURB PEACE FOR WOMEN AND
GIRLS IN COMMUNITIES

 Violence against women and girls VAWGs

 Barriers -Women face multiple barriers as they attempt to
build peace in their communities and these include:
 Sexual discrimination in leadership positions and land
allocation
 Harmful traditional and religious practices
 Intimidation of women leaders to neutralize their power;
 Corruption in public offices
 Inaccessible and inadequate health facilities (960/10 000
maternal mortality);
 Domestic and politically motivated violence
 Public humiliations or flirting
Cont….
 Poverty, lack of access to information and
knowledge;
 Harassment at work - carpet interview
 Economic dependency on men
 Lack of control of property (ownership)
 Droughts , disasters, climate changes and poverty
 Limited access to basic resources such as water
 Unequal distribution of work in the household
 Gender based and domestic violence
Cont…
 Inability to negotiate safer sex due to unequal power relations

 Infidelity- sharing conjugal rights

 Gender imbalances in offices of authority

 Restrictive social norms and attitudes that reinforce traditional gender roles,
making it difficult for women to participate safely and meaningfully in
peacebuilding

 Intimidation and threats to their safety when they try to take leadership roles in
their communities.

 Poverty and economic inequality inhibits women’s involvement in

peacebuilding activities. The double burden of their domestic roles and
income-generation activities as well as a lack of control over household
income.

 Women often de-value their role as peace builders, and despite their
achievements, women do not necessarily recognise the important role they
play in building peace. They tend to focus much more on the importance of
state institutions and local leaders as the key actors in peacebuilding.
Activities that increase peace
for women and girls
 Raising awareness of GBV
 Educate children on values of equality and give equal
value to the work of girls and boys in the household
 Make peace building as cross-cutting issues in our
development activities;
 Use non-violent approach to challenge violent practices
 Break the silence on all forms of violence (talk about it and
strategize);
 Lobby those in key positions to advocate for laws that
protect women against violence;
 Nominate women into leadership position during local
election
 providing information for women and girls
Mainstreaming gender into
peace building
Gender mainstreaming is a strategy and process of:
 Assessing the implications for women and men of
any planned action, including legislation, policies
or programmes, in all areas and at all levels.
 Making women’s as well as men’s concerns and
experiences an integral dimension of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programs
 Making women and men benefit equally and
inequitably
 Avoiding perpetuating social inequality in division
of roles, access to power and value given to roles
assigned to women and men.
identifying and mainstreaming
gender issue into peace
building
Identifying the nature of power relationships
between women and men during the pre-
conflict phase, during the conflict and
anticipated changes after the conflict. The
analysis focuses on:
 gender division on labour:
 type of work done by women and men
 access to and control over resources,
benefits, legal and social protection, justice,
 practical need and strategic interest
Reconciliation, Justice and
Healing
o Violent conflicts leave a lot of bitterness, fear, trauma and
mistrust which often divides communities and makes it very
difficult not only for a country to recover after a negotiated
peace but also to stop the conflict from restarting again.

o The level and speed at which a country is able to recover

from the effects of conflict is dependent on how well it
manages to create conditions that can sustain negotiated
peace, reduce reoccurrence of violence, and restore
livelihoods and human dignity.

o Reconciliation is core to a post- conflict phase of any

country coming out of a protracted violent conflict.
Why reconciliation is important
after violence conflicts
Writers such as Bloomfield, Robert Rothstein and Michelle
Parlevliet and many other noted reconciliation as:
 A necessary requirement for the long-term survival of
democracy. Unreconciled relationships i.e. those built on
distrust, suspicion, fear, accusation... will effectively and
eventually destroy any political system based on respect
for human rights and democratic structures.
 Lack of attention to the legacy of past violence and the
related call for accountability will not make it disappear
but undermine even the best democracy.
 Unreconciled issues from past violence never disappear
simply by default, and the potential threat to stability and
security suggests a need to ensure they are dealt with.
 bringing justice to bear on past misdeeds is one of the most
effective means to build a guarantee against future
violence
Enhancing Social Cohesion in
Cooperative Groups
 Co-operative groups play a significant
role in economic recovery, political
integration and social cohesion and
reconciliation in a post-conflict phase.
 Co-operative groups provide access to
financial services and spur employment
as exemplified in their valuable role in
rehabilitating survivors of a violent conflict
Group development
processes
 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Adjourning
 Task Performing
THE END