Governance & Cross border Peace Building Initiatives
Aridlife promotes civic engagement on local governance, provide logistical and research backgrounds on local natural resource and cross border conflicts for local authorities, governments and development partners to contribute to durable solutions and promotion of community cohesion, mitigation of natural resource conflict and displacement among cross-border communities
We address cross-border issues by promoting peaceful co-existence, cross-border engagement of communities on either side of the common borders and sharing vital natural resources and trade. Our interventions similarly link civil society and local administrators to work together, given the communities on either side know each other and sometimes share common heritage despite being in different states. We design initiatives that strengthen local peace and harmony.
Cross-border communities suffer disproportionally during drought crisis and conflicts as they are usually found in terrains beyond the reach of state authorities. Aridlife provide support to humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable for special support with food relief, awareness creation and disseminating information on migration, population affected and need assessments to inform response strategies.
On the Kenya/Ethiopia corridor, Aridlife has established working relationships with local community leaders, local governmental admonitors and local CBO such as Pastoralist in Action to monitor and respond to natural resources related conflcits, provide relief and humanitarian interventions in times drought and build capacity of peace committees in Qadaduma/Irresteno border area, Malkamari/Banisa/Lulis corridor, Sukela Burki/Eymole area, Moyale/Kiliwelhiri/Burduras area. In these border areas, AridLife has local contacts that monitor and provide early warning information on conflicts, disease outbreaks and migrations of people and livestock.
Our interventions in these cross-border areas include:
- Engage in advocacy activities at the local, national and regional level to foster understanding and acknowledgement of the positive dimensions of cross-border trade and to stimulate livestock marketing, address poor market access of pastoralists and enable internal and cross-border movement.
- Provide logistical and research backgrounds on local natural resource and cross-border conflicts,
- explore CVE and deradicalization initiates
- Support peace meetings where local decision-makers (e.g., elders, clan leaders) can meet to resolves local conflicts, and
- Working with government agents, support and strengthen District Peace Committees with regular capacity-building activities;
- Empower youth, women and marginalized communities with income generating projects