What’s Next?

I left Burundi just over two weeks ago, but it is constantly on my mind.

It was a wonderful work experience; my coworkers were all beyond lovely and the actual work I did was challenging and, hopefully, useful for AFSC.

I found Burundi to be, despite the State Department travel warnings, quite calm and easy to navigate. However, I worry about the potential upswing of violence as elections near. The civil war in Burundi went from 1993-2006, but the final cease-fire wasn’t signed until 2009. Peace is still very recent for Burundi, shorter than the duration of the violence. Although the 2010 elections occurred with minimal political violence, there are serious concerns about what the 2015 elections will bring.

Amnesty International has already issued a report condemning the ruling party for its intimidation tactics. In November, new legislation on public gatherings began limiting how people could organize. As such, opposition leaders and members of civil society have been, at times, denied permission to assemble. There are highly substantiated rumors that the ruling party’s youth wing is receiving military training in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). President Nkurunziza has made initial attempts to run for a third term, in violation of Burundi’s constitution.

The potential for violence goes beyond Burundi. Burundi and Rwanda, and Rwanda and the DRC have all experienced violence that flows across boarders. Burundi is slated to hold presidential elections in 2015, with Rwanda following in 2016, and the DRC holding elections in 2017. In post-conflict societies, elections are one of the most potentially volatile times, as people become polarized. For three countries that have experienced enormous violence, the next three years are absolutely vital.

On Neutrality

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor – Desmond Tutu

It has been several weeks since I left Palestine and travelled around Europe and finally settled back in DC. Although in the last week there has been a lull in the fighting in Palestine and Israel, nevertheless it has flared up once again.

As part of the fellowship, and being emotionally and personally invested in the conflict, my experience had a ‘different’ edge to it. I was not only working with Palestinian and Israeli bereaved families, but I also wondered what will become of my people and my country.

Community Mediation in Liberia

Blogger’s note: Unfortunately the questions/answers are lighter than I would normally post, but I am no longer in Liberia and did not have the opportunity to interview Thomas Tweh in person prior to leaving. IREX felt the Ebola crisis required evacuation within a 24-hour notice. 

On the beach side of Monrovia’s downtown is West Point. The square mile peninsula squeezes more than 75,000 Liberians in slum conditions. Sexual assault, poverty, and crime are high, while housing, jobs, and basic serves like water are low. Residents have little to nothing, making the traditional justice system too expensive.

Thomas Tweh, a West Point resident, stepped in with a solution: community mediation. He leads a team of volunteer mediators who have completed trainings and who are embedded in the community. The service is free, and residents hear about the services through a daily town crier.

 Tweh and I were able to briefly email. The following includes highlights from our interview: 

Victoria: How do you enforce agreements?

Tweh: At the end of every case, both parties sign an agreement form. We follow up to cases resolved. We never experienced recurrence of any resolved cases.

Victoria: Why do you think parties involved follow through with agreements despite your lack of legal backing? 

Tweh: We advised them on the cost-saving opportunity for not getting to the court of the police, and we do not impose fine on any party during and at the end of every case. Parties are also given options.

Victoria: How long are your cases?

Tweh: Several months depend on the nature of the case. 

Victoria: What issues do you tackle? 

Tweh: Rent, debt, credit, child support, home support, and loving affairs. 

To learn more about the Community Justice Team follow the below links. 

Re-Designing Justice in Liberia

Give to the Community Justice Team

If the police and judiciary fail you, what do you do? 

Would You Rather: Post Conflict Liberia Edition

“Because words matter. When we think we are using language, language is using us. As linguist Dwight Bolinger put it (employing a military metaphor), language is like a loaded gun: It can be fired intentionally, but it can wound or kill just as surely when fired accidentally. The terms in which we talk about something shape the way we think about it—and even what we see.” -Deborah Tannen in Argument Culture, page 16-17

On Saturday, July 12, Accountability Lab (AL) hosted their monthly Social Impact Tour. The tour showcases 4 to 5 local businesses in Monrovia that AL supports through technical and financial assistance. At each location, participants tour the business site and speak with Liberian entrepreneurs about their business plans, rebuilding after 14 years of civil war, and Liberia’s most pressing socio-economic challenges. Our tour included a woman-owned clothing boutique, press initiative, art school/studio, and community mediation center. Each business was clearly well-planned and tackled a specific socio-economic problem. I found it one of the more encouraging activities I participated in while in Liberia. 

Approved Wear Fashion House

However, one business stood out as problematic: the press initiative called Daily Talk.

Daily Talk is a classroom-sized chalkboard on Tubman Blvd, a central street in Monrovia, that presents local and national news. The initiative addresses the problem, how do you disseminate news to populations without reliable access to information or widespread literacy? The UNICEF estimates that the total adult literacy rate between 2008-20012 is 42.9%. And the majority of Liberians, whether rural or urban, do not have access to consistent internet; nor do the poorer populations have the funds to purchase a newspaper.

Daily Talk addresses these problems through writing news headlines in Liberian English, which passersby often read aloud to the illiterate and through symbols like a UN helmet to signal a UN-related story. The information presented attempts to fill the lack of the issues-focused information desperately needed to improve Liberia’s general discourse, community involvement, and local government.

Tour group at the Daily Talk

While a giant chalkboard is a clever method, there is a major flaw. The concept relies overly relies on the writer’s ability to fairly frame the highlighted news. The medium itself limits all reporting to what can be written large enough for drivers and walkers to see on a chalkboard. These requirements parses all stories into a phrase or sentence. A thorough or fair expression of news is nearly impossible.

On our tour day, Daily Talk challenged the Liberian government on where Ebola prevention aid was being spent. A good question, perhaps, to ask considering corruption tends to be a problem in Liberia. But the question was written with no backing sources or logic explaining its existence. The question merely existed to accuse without attempting to seek truth. Such practices with no guidance of fact or access to further information promotes wild speculation, especially when the question is presented by press. Their inherent, perceived credibility, small it may be, legitimizes the questions they present.

When the problematic question/phrase, Daily Talk founder Alfred Sirleaf (no relationship to President Sirleaf) answered, “Where there is smoke, there is often fire.” He did not respond by citing a fact or report. Instead, he cited how the government had not defended themselves from the accusatory question Daily Talk was asking. Therefore, the government must be hiding something. He continued by noting that these questions would be left up for contemplation until the government did respond or the content expired.

A “where there is smoke, where is often fire” attitude legitimizes baseless, accusatory questions. Yes, tough questions must be asked, but there is a responsibility to not incite undue mistrust or violence. A question, especially one that carries an assumption of wrong doing, should be grounded in and presented with evidence and logic.

This is especially crucial in a post conflict zone, where violence is close in memory and distrust is high. False reporting, even irresponsible reporting, makes the public discourse susceptible to propaganda. An ambitious demagogue can easily twist facts or make them up to answer these questions/rumors as continuous accusations without a truth finding followup sparks distrust of an already fragile peace and system.

This situation thus presents us with a horrible, high stakes game of would you rather. Would you rather have misinformation that potentially incites or no information at all?

For additional background information on the Daily Talk, here is Time’s video on the idea.http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,946148958001_2072036,00.html

Collaboration Key in Liberia’s Election Activities

Note: This was written for IREX Liberia’s Quarterly Report and focuses on IREX’s Civil Society and Media Leadership Program election activities.

June 16th marked the official launch of CSML’s election activities. From now until October 14th, the Liberian government’s National Elections Commission (NEC), media outlets, and independent civil society organizations will be preparing for the Special Senatorial Elections as well as the review process for Liberia’s Constitution, which should be completed in 2015.

For the Special Senatorial Election, one Senatorial seat is up for grabs in each county–meaning a total of 15 individuals will be elected. This election is the first of its kind in Liberia’s history. Following the reinstitution of the Constitution after Liberia’s 14-year civil war, two sets of Senators were elected in 2005 for tenures of six and nine years. This was to ensure continuity during election time. Those elected for six years in 2005 saw their seats contested in the 2011 election, and the nine-year Senators are only now defending their seats.

The Constitutional Review Process tackles Liberia’s core governmental framework by opening the Constitution up for discussion and proposed amendments by the general citizenry. Citizens are able to propose changes through their representatives and suggestion boxes throughout the country.

The significance of the Constitutional Review Process and the upcoming election was evident at the CSML election activities launch, which coincided with CSML’s Regional Partners’ Meeting. Through the words exchanged and speeches uttered, one powerful theme emerged: collaboration across societal sectors and government to build a sustainable peace.

NEC Chairman Jerome G. Korkoya (left) and IREX Liberia’s Chief of Party Bill Burke (right)

NEC Chairman Jerome G. Korkoya opened CSML election activities launch by recognizing civil society’s positive role in the electoral process. The act of government and the civil society sector working together inspires public participation and ensures transparent elections.

“Civic education programs and systems designed to motivate citizen involvement in the electoral process are principles that ensure free, fair elections, which we desperately need,” Korkoya said.

His call for a strong civil society sector and collaboration was followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Korkoya, USAID’s Democracy, Rights, and Governance (DRG) Team Leader Nina Bowen, and Eddie Jarwolo, the Executive Director of IREX’s election partner, National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (NAYMOTE).

Vote Smart Van presents a skit on how to vote

NAYMOTE’s key election initiative is the Vote Smart Van Project (VSV), which transports volunteers around all 15 counties within Liberia to educate rural and urban communities alike about the Constitution Review Process and the Special Senatorial Election. Their aim is to increase civic participation and reduce threats to Liberia’s peace.

“[The main] electoral challenges are the issues of high voter apathy; citizens’ limited understanding and knowledge about processes leading up to the election,” said Jarwolo in an interview. “[This makes] their informed participation limited.”

The VSV collaborates with the NEC and other civil society organizations (CSOs) to ensure the information Liberians are hearing is accurate and clear. Conflicting information often blocks voters from participating, especially those traveling from rural communities to the polls.

“[We] liaise with the NEC county office to help distribute IEC materials and buttress NEC’s awareness efforts around electoral processes,” Jarwolo said. Constant communication with the NEC keeps the VSV and those they target abreast with updated election regulations, official polling locations, and voter registration deadlines.

The upcoming senatorial debates is another point of collaboration between the VSV, other CSOs, and the NEC. CSOs like the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), West Africa Network for Peacebuilding Liberia (WANEP), and the Liberia Media Center (LMC) are using the debates and debate preparation to draw out the candidates’ platforms. The VSV will then collect the platforms to share across the country. Liberian citizens are then empowered to decide based off the issues instead of name recognition or family affiliations.

“Our prime target is to engage the candidates,” said Orlind Cooper, the Project Manager for the PUL-organized debates.

The debates’ aim is to challenge the candidates on Liberia’s most pressing issues. The debates will be held in each county through August and September, and each will be moderated by a non-partisan journalist trained by the PUL.  These debates will also be aired live on community radio stations as well as on UNMIL radio. The partnership between the media, civil society, and government to host honest debates and to broaden the audience of those debates to the radio listening audience increases the process’ legitimacy and ensures that all Liberian citizens can be fully informed of their candidates’ platforms.

Through collaboration, society is changed, and, as Jarwolo says, joining forces with like-minded passionate people is what makes democracy work.

We’re All In This Together

For those who don’t know, Ramadan recently ended. As it concluded, I grew increasingly concerned with figuring out exactly on what day Eid al-Fitr, the celebratory day after Ramadan, fell. Since the Islamic calendar is based on the cycle of lunar months, Eid (the first day of the month after Ramadan, Shawwal) is determined when the new moon is sighted.

As you can imagine, this is a tricky thing. What if the moon is new, but no one can see it because it rises before the sun sets? What if it’s cloudy that day? What if you can’t see it with the naked eye, but you can with a telescope? What about variations in location? Is it different in the States than it is in Kenya or the Polynesian Islands, for instance? How do you know?

Further complicating matters is the fact that it is forbidden for all Muslims to fast on either of the two major Eids (plus a few days afterward, too). In the case of Ramadan’s Eid al-Fitr, it’s a health thing. Since people have just fasted for 29-30 days straight, it’s a good idea to make sure that everybody recalibrates their system with some high-quality noms. So, fasting on a day that you think is part of Ramadan when it is actually Eid presents a bit of a conundrum. It’s kinda important to know.

To find out, I did some Googling. Unfortunately, the two major groups that people follow based on their sighting of the moon invariably present contradicting information. And before we get too excited, this isn’t a Sunni-Shia thing: it’s an I’m-getting-hungry-and-want-to-feast-so-I-calculate-Eid-sooner-rather-than-later thing. The biggest problem of all was that neither group offered Kenya-specific information, so I had no real way of knowing when it was happening here. The Kenyan government had already declared for Tuesday, but the moon-sighting maps (yes, such things exist) seemed to support Monday. Confusing, right?

In times of shenanigans and hijinks, I find it’s best to follow the advice of our mothers. Mine has always said that if anyone declared Eid in her neighborhood as a child, her family would not fast that day in the event that it actually was Eid. But as of Sunday night, I had no knowledge of anyone in Kenya declaring Monday to be the day. So I went to bed, woke up to eat in the morning as if planning to fast, and went to bed again. As I awoke to go to work, something magical happened.

There’s a specific supplication that is done on Eid day prior to the main prayer. No matter where in the world you are, people recite this supplication on Eid as Muslims gather and wait for the prayer to start. Since the main prayer happens before noon, the supplication fills the morning with sound. Over the loudspeakers from the nearby mosque, I heard that supplication; I could tell that somebody nearby had declared Eid. That was the magical thing.

Without maps or fancy algorithms, without seeing the moon myself, and without even speaking the major language of this country, I knew that Ramadan was over for a local community. And if it was over for them, then it was over for me. That universality and connection, produced by a single moment of sound in this case, is one of the coolest things about our world. Wherever we go, aside from our humanity, we have at least one thing in common with other folks. Whether it’s religion, language, culture, experiences, family, aspirations, hobbies, or something else altogether, we are all strands of the same web. In difficult moments such as the ones facing our world today, it might not be such a bad idea to remember that we’re all in this together.

The Best Laid Plans

Bujumbura — Burundi: In any and all research I’ve conducted, I’ve noticed the tendency for the entire process of interviews to eat up massive amounts of time. This evaluation continues to follow that pattern. Sure, you might get a positive response back, saying that someone is willing to be interviewed, but the process of arranging a time to meet may take another three weeks. And when you’re interviewing a bunch of people in a short window of time, scheduling becomes a nightmare. It turns into this awkward dance where you want to be accommodating to other people’s schedules, especially if all you’re doing at that time are interviews. But then two people want to talk Wednesday afternoon, and you asked the first person a week ago and he never got back to you, so you had to give that time slot to this other person who responded right away, and suddenly your dance card is not just full, but it’s oddly overbooked in some places while remaining sadly vacant in others.

While I had hoped to have finished all of my interviews by the end of this week, there is no helping that they will spill over into next week. As expected, all the planning I did for the evaluation has largely fallen by the wayside and I am behind schedule. I anticipated this, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, and allotted significantly more time to write the report than was necessary. In fact, I gave myself a month to write up the report, so the fact that it has whittled away to two weeks isn’t all that terrible.

However, it’s difficult not to get frustrated when things get off track, especially when it feels like you could or should be doing more. There has been a big ebb and flow to the work these last 8 weeks; times when I’ve been exceedingly busy, and other times when I’ve been stuck waiting on a crucial bit of information to take the evaluation to the next step. There are many factors that slowed down the process of the evaluation. But that’s just life. Problems arise and you have to find a way around them, often at the sacrifice of expediency. And at the end of the day, if delays are your only problem when you’re working in conflict and post-conflict settings, well, things are pretty good.

So, what does that mean for the evaluation? I’ve already started writing the report and will continue to incorporate data from the interviews as they happen, rather than finish collecting all data and then starting to write. I’m exceedingly grateful that in the Monitoring and Evaluation course at Georgetown, Dr. Kadayifci chose RealWorld Evaluations as a major part of our syllabus. It not only had really useful information about how to conduct and design an evaluation in an ideal setting, but it also incorporated a lot of problem solving tools for when you run up against constraints, like not enough time or money. Yes, it is important to learn how an evaluation should look in an ideal situation, but let’s be honest, how often does that happen? It’s equally important to know how to work with the situations that are less than ideal, because you can’t let something unforeseen and unexpected cause failure.

The one element of all this that has me worried is how little I can work on the evaluation outside of the office. Where I’m staying in Bujumbura, power frequently cuts out sometime in the early evening. If I’m lucky, that would give me maybe three hours of time to continue working on my laptop. However, for the last few days, I’ve been completely without power. Sure, I can charge my laptop at the office, but it means that all-nighters are out of the question. And it’s really hard to read my handwritten notes by headlamp light. I don’t think there was a chapter on that part in RealWorld Evaluations (but, in all fairness, that book was also about 700 pages, so I might be wrong).

RE: Request for photos & other things

Thanks for your photo requests and numerous questions about Liberia! Just a reminder, I do tweet articles/facts about IREX’s projects and post photos on Instagram on a regular basis. It’s also a great way to find out about the numerous NGOs working in Liberia as I always try to tag them.

Follow me & let’s continue the conversation!

Twitter: @V_heck                Instagram: V_heck

The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Myanmar has never been a paradigm of journalistic freedom, but in the past few years freedom of press has become a real (albeit somewhat truncated) thing. Or rather, had become a  more real thing. Recently, journalists were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for publishing a report on chemical weapons. Local protests over the verdict have been ineffectual and only highlight the sometimes superficial nature of the many structural, legal, or other changes taking hold in Myanmar.

People in Myanmar talk about the changes all around the way most people talk about the weather. It is an easy, obvious way to engage in small talk. Changes hit you in the face so hard that you can keep a conversation going for a long time. But underneath all the construction, influx of donor money, opening up of new telecommunications networks, and promises of improved infrastructure lies trepidation. The recent jailing of journalists is just one of many data points that illustrates reforms have clearly stalled and democracy is losing its luster. And if reforms are reversed, all the good changes can quickly dissipate.

November 2015 is a source of all this trepidation. The jockeying for power and resources in advance of the elections, not the mention what will occur in the actual elections, creates uncertainty. For example, the recent uptick of interreligious violence is seen by some of my Burmese friends as the government laying the groundwork for excuses to take back control and reduce reforms further. They believe this violence did not occur organically; it was stoked with the help of government officials. Whether or not this is true, the distrust is understandable and valid. Members of the US Congress now echo these sentiments. Sometimes in Myanmar taking one step forward means taking two steps backward.

All of this is really to say that change has been on my mind a lot this summer. Which makes sense because fundamentally the role of a conflict practitioner is to effect, instill, create, understand, or impact change. But, Myanmar was closed for so long that the influx of those wanting to make or capitalize on changes in a recently (relatively) open environment can be overwhelming. For example, in the non-development world, the number of conversations I’ve had with young Burmese who have come back from abroad with the sole purpose of becoming millionaires – because it is easy if you have the right connections and background – is astounding.

June was mostly spent traveling to various sites throughout the country to facilitate capacity building workshops with local partners and field offices. I agree on the buzzwordy nature of capacity building and have also come to appreciate how it can be a positive, sustainable change agent. Funding for projects is so short, the air of uncertainty so foreboding (and in complete tension with a simultaneous, overriding sense of almost blind optimism), that sometimes real change seems impossible.

I return to Taunggyi this week to gather data for case studies. I will be interviewing community and government leaders involved in our projects who have resolved disputes using tools they learned from our capacity building workshops. A lot of high level changes have been occurred in Myanmar recently. But the multitude of changes that occur at lower levels are just as important. Sometimes, like in China, the small changes have an incredible ripple effect and mean the landscape is forever altered.

UPDATE:The Drums of War (In memory of the Shujaiyya massacre – Gaza City – 20/7/2014)

UPDATE: While I was writing this post, the Israeli army has unleashed a massacre on the Shujaiyya district of Gaza City. So far 60 have been confirmed to be amongst the dead and hundreds of women and children were injured. The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are uncovered as a result of the humanitarian cease-fire. My heart breaks. Even the Aljazeera Arabic reporter could not bear to continue his reportage after witnessing the carnage and massacre in Shujaiyya.  http://t.co/tXsXwUQ24c Journalists amongst the dead as well.

 

Pictured: These children are what is left of the Battsh family that was wiped out by an Israeli strike on Gaza. They mourn their father, their mother and 18 family members.

Pictured: Jews Against Genocide’s memorial for Palestinian children killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrike. They held the memorial in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel. In their statement, ‘We brought dolls to symbolise the children of Gaza, and tried to bring a glimpse of the horror that Gazan’s face, to Israel’s doorstep. We hope to show Israel, and the world, the absurd reality of using the memory of one genocide to justify another.’
Read full statement of the Jews Against Genocide org here: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/activists-childrens-protest.html

When war erupts, it is an essential time for peace building organizations to mobilize. However, it is also usually when CR and peace organizations are the first to go. The drums of war are far louder than the calls for peace.

I admit, even I am skeptical of the definition of ‘peace’. This is the third war on Gaza that has erupted since 2009. Same tactics, same deaths, same war rhetoric. My heart constantly breaks for the people of Gaza who admittedly have paid a terrible and heavy price. Skepticism has seized the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people, and the Israelis have gotten a taste of what it’s like to live in fear.