Peace & Cohesion

FCDC SECTOR FORUMS

Peace and cohesion Coordinotor:Farhiya Ali

FCDC Sector Forum for Peace and Cohesion is an instrument to enhance cooperation, coordination and information flow between counties and with the national government and other stakeholders on issues related peace, cohesion and security. The Forum was established in 2020, and consists of the County Executive Committee members and other officials responsible for peace and cohesion from the member counties.

The FCDC region has a long history of ethnic conflict, violence and marginalisation, exacerbated by instability in the wider Horn and East Africa region. Recent political and economic developments in FCDC counties are not only changing the nature of longstanding conflicts but also generating new types of conflict associated with factors such as devolution, land and investment, extractives, terrorism, and drugs.

Peace Objectives

  • 1. To promote peace and cohesion in the FCDC region through proactive responses to peacebuilding initiatives.
  • 2. To harmonise peace and cohesion policies and plans amongst the county members, through joint planning, development and implementation.
  • 3. To coordinate peace dividend infrastructure in the FCDC region, through creating synergies to reduce duplication of efforts.
  • 4. To advocate for increased financial and technical support to the County Directorates and/or Departments for Peace and Cohesion.
  • 5. To act as a forum for the exchange of information and knowledge through sharing of best practices.
  • 6. To collectively advocate on issues related to peace and cohesion in FCDC counties and in Kenya in general.

Membership and collaboration

The members of the SFPC are the 10 FCDC County Departments responsible for Peace and Cohesion represented by their County Executive Committee Members and/or Directors. Additional staff members, representatives from the national government, experts and partner are often invited for deliberations on specific thematic areas of their specialization.

The SFPC Secretariat are also in close contact with development partners and ensure proper cooperation, coordination and information sharing with various national, subnational and regional bodies.

SFPC Priority Areas for 2020/22

1. Enabling policy and legislation

The SFPC has developed a regional Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Policy and a Bill on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management to harmonize policy across the counties to improve coordination, enhance inter-county cooperation among others.

The FCDC Policy will borrow from the National Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Policy (Peace Policy) and existing county level policies and bills. Each county will use the prototype bill to develop their own county specific bill to address the conflict challenges identified as prevalent in the respective county.

The policy and bills will facilitate the development of County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) that incorporate development priorities/plans that are conflict sensitive and mainstream peacebuilding principles across the CIDPs and other county plans.

2. Strengthening inter-county coordination

The SFPC will meet on a quarterly basis to review actions and undertake planning for priorities

Identified at the start of each year. The SFPC has elected a Chairperson and Vice Chair person who are responsible for development and implementation of the plans and priorities working closely with the FCDC Secretariat.

The meetings are hosted on a rotational basis by the respective members. The meetings provide a coordination forum for sector activities and a platform for monitoring forum activities and providing policy direction to the FCDC Secretariat in implementing the strategic priorities of the Forum.

3. Capacity strengthening of county officers through training

FCDC has partnered with Garissa University to establish the Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), to be a premier institution of providing peace and security training in the FCDC region. The first batch of students were sponsored by FCDC, DLCI and the County Government of Mandera to undertake a 6-months training course in peace and conflict management.

The purpose of the training is to enhance the capacity of local national government and county government actors (staff) to facilitate peacebuilding at ward and locational levels.

4. Conflict Analysis

Availability of conflict data is important in the development of appropriate strategies and plans to address conflict in the FCDC region. The SFPC will undertake collection of conflict data and undertake an analysis of the data to provide trends and incidences of conflict.

The data will be used internally to undertake planning for the sector forum and externally to engage government peace and security structures on prioritization of security initiatives and collaborative response.

5. Advocacy and Learning

The SFPC will organize a peace conference at the end of each year that will act as a lesson learning and reflection forum. The forum will bring together representatives from county and national leadership, development partners, members of the SFPC and the FCDC Secretariat. In the Forum, lessons from year one of implementation will be shared and draft plans for year two developed.

FCDC SECTOR FORUM FOR PEACE & COHESION

Sector Coordinator: Farhiya Ali

Key Achievements

  • In 2019, with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through Saferworld and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), DLCI worked with FCDC to set up the Sector Forum for Peace and Cohesion (SFPC).
  • In order to inform the priorities of the SFPC, FCDC with DLCI conducted a study titled “Analysis of the Institutional, Legal and Policy Framework for Peace Building and Social Cohesion in the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) and Amaya Triangle Initiative (ATI) Counties” (P & C Study) between May and December 2019. This Study provided an analysis of the contextual issues, Institutional, legal and policy framework in the Counties.
  • With the support of FCDO, Conciliation Resources, SDC and DLCI, FCDC Sector Forum for Peace and Cohesion managed to develop Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Policy and Bill. Both the policy and bill sets out the interventions required to address the policy and institutional gaps that hinders the region’s peace and cohesion
  • Two counties Turkana and Lamu County have so far passed the Bill. The rest of the counties are yet to pass the bill as it is at the respective county assemblies.
  • In collaboration with NCIC, the sector forum was able to convene several professional meetings from different communities in Marsabit County to negotiate on the conflict amongst the communities living in the area. There has also been meetings with elders, women and youth from all the major communities that have been fighting each other.
  • The sector forum comprising of CECs, Chief Officers and Directors of peace was able to act as mediators in both Intra and Inter Clan Conflicts. For example bringing peace between the communities in Wajir and Marsabit and between Isiolo and Garissa.
  • With support of SDC, Garissa Institute of Peace and Security Studies was formed and it sponsored several county peace officers from all the 10 FCDC member counties.
  • The sector forum was able to develop a list of Independent Panel of Eminent Persons (IPEP) from the region with support from the Swiss Embassy through the Sector Forum for Livestock. The overall role for the IPEP is to champion and promote peace through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. The group of the eminent persons will be soon be launched.

SECTOR FORUM FOR PEACE AND COHESION ABOUT download pdf

Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC)