interactions:
1. There should be substantial time allocated for public participation, and clear guidelines should be provided to local government offices or municipalities on staffing requirements and responsibilities for public participation units. These should be established in every local government office or municipality.
2. The convening ofcommunity forums needs careful consideration so that these are carefully designed to facilitate meaningful contributions from communities to the planning processes. Appropriate use should be made ofcommunity media to publicize public participation processes, disseminate informa
tion and make them more accessible.
3. Anew and common system for performance management needs to be developed, and clear guide lines established for municipalities on how to incorporate communities in the evaluation of municipal
performance andservice delivery to stakeholders.
4. Greater clarity is required on the role ofcommunity committees, and appropriate systems developed to address problematic issues encountered. Issues of training and incentives for community committee
members should also be addressed.
5. The interactions between higher levels ofgovernment and the local government or local municipality
should be addressed. Officials should be accountable, represent the interests oftheir constituencies and
report to their constituencies.
6. Astrategy needs to be developed for community-based planning that gives a clear direction on im plementation. Development ofguidelines for CDD would aid in addressing the confusion in this area.
Greater value should be placed on local knowledge and the approach to local development should not
be technocratic.
7. The full community participation cycle should be handled at the local level, with better linkages, par
ticularly with planning and implementation activities based on an anticipatory (as opposed to reactive)mind set.
Effective CDD and CDR require acombination of top-down and bottom-up approaches to reduce risk and make post-conflict response and rehabilitation more successful. Effective coordination systems benefit from decentralized governance once clearly defined roles and resources for local government
are in place.
Building Capacityof National Civil SocietyOrganizations in Post-Conflict Countries
While the definition adopted atthe beginning ofthis analysis emphasized the distinction between
civil society and government, it would be useful at this point to highlight the links that exist in practice between Congolese civil society organizations in DRC and the country's political sphere.
There are two such links:
• Civil society acts a springboard to power as shown by the co-option ofcertain civil society
leaders during the National Sovereignty Conference and the peace process. While this practice
is by no means limited to the DRC, it takes on a particular important nature in this country, where civil society is as much a political actor as the political parties themselves.• Civil society provides a basis for mobilization ofpolitical support. Political figures, particularly
in the peace sector; have founded their own organizations. In North Kivu, Eugene Serufuli.the
province's Governor from 2000-2007, established Tous pour la Paix et le Developpement(TPD).
• During interviews for this study, a representative from the peace and reconciliation commission ofthe Programme for stabilization and reconstruction of areas coming out ofarmed conflict (STAREC) felt it perfectly natural to point out that the three organizations chosen to implement the programme's activities were close to or presided over by the province's current
Vice-Governor
Source: International Alert, Small StepsTowards Peace DifferentApproaches to Post-Conflict Local Development
• Decentralized sectoral approaches - service delivery through functionally specialized local or ganizations with operational autonomy through deconcentration ordelegation.
• Local government approaches - policy, fiscal and operational autonomy allocated to territorial
political and administrative institutions through devolution.
• Community support approaches - CDD empowerment of and/or resource transfer to com munity organizations promoting collective action for self-provision and co-production ofin
frastructure and services
Building Capacity of National Civil Society Organizations in Post-Conflict Countries
Tool 29:Transitional Justice5
There are many issues that fall under the area of transitional justice. Each conflict is unique and will call for its own methods of transitional justice. Below are a few examples of how community leaders and
CSOs can work together to ensure that justice is met during the peace-building process.• Criminal Justice: soon after a conflict there must be an investigation process and the local community should decide on the best way to go about any formal prosecution ofinternational
crimes.
• Reparations: Itisimportant togive victims avoice. After meaningful consultation with victims, reparations initiatives are a rehabilitating effort to help meet the victims' needs. CSOs can help provide this voice to victims and advocate these needs. Most ofall, civil society can ensure that the symbolic and or financial measures deserved are provided.
• Truth and Memory: This initiative helps strengthen the overall public understanding ofhuman rights violations and can be used as both awareness mechanisms as well as acknowledgment of
abuses.
• Institutional Reform: post-conflict transformation usually includes democratic transitions which should go hand in hand with overall institutional reform. Civil society should bea part ofthe restructuring ofState institutions, which is agreat way to ensure transparency and public participation. Some measures could include DDR, reforming legal frameworks and structural
reforms.
A recent example of meaningful reparations that also deals with gender justice is when the Presi dent ofSierra Leone formally apologized to women victims in 2010 for the pain and violence they endured during their 10-year armed conflict.This is part of a larger effort to rehabilitate victims and distribute modest compensation to those affected by the conflict.
Gender Justice: local women groups should be encouraged and assisted in influencing transitional jus tice processes. Their voice on the structural causes ofgender inequality isimperative in building public knowledge on the factors that caused such human rights violations. Overall, women's access tojustice should be enhanced during the process of reconciliation and women should have the opportunity to
participate in and influence peace-building processes.
Children andTransitional Justice: Youth are affected by conflict differently from adults. They are usu ally the first forced into recruitment, tortured and displaced. They also respond physically and psy chologically differently. Therefore, it is imperative to have a unique approach to meeting the needs of children and youth while still incorporating their participation.
5 Information gathered from the International Centre for TransitionalJustice(ICTJ)and more information, casesand resourcesare available at: http://ictj.org/
Building Capacity of National Civil Society Organizations in Post-Conflict Countries