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Democratic Republic of Congo

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Community Recovery: helping communities build their own future

The populations of eastern DRC have suffered from insecurity, human rights violations and extortion from both government and militia representatives. Displacement, disruption of opportunities to earn a living and breakdown of trust in and between communities have contributed to continued conflict, impoverishment and instability.

DFID is supporting a three year programme called Tuungane – “Let’s build together”. This £24 million programme will work in 1,400 villages in some of DRC’s most war affected areas to provide a tangible “peace dividend” for communities divided and destroyed by conflict.

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Tuungane helps communities work together to decide their priority needs and provides funding to enable communities to address these needs. The community projects include the construction of schools, clinics, feeder roads and bridges and well as agricultural support to households, through tools and seeds. These projects will be managed by the communities themselves, giving people an early experience in democratic decision making and contributing to peace building and reconciliation.

DFID has also supported peace and reconciliation projects in eastern DRC. For example, we have provided funding to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) who, since 2004, has worked with the Church, human rights and women’s rights groups in North Kivu province to build trust and reconciliation between communities previously in conflict. We have funded Christian Aid to promote human rights and democracy in eastern DRC. So far over 300 policemen and women and more than 1,000 local leaders and government officials have received human rights and democracy training. 6,000 teaching guides have been distributed to schools and teachers from more than 1,000 schools have been trained so they are now able to teach over 88,000 pupils about their human rights and the democratic process.

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