Democratic Republic of Congo

Our programme in Democratic Republic of Congo

Building upon over 15 years of experience in the region, LPI supports and works with Congolese peacebuilding civil society partners. Alongside our partners, our work in DRC has relied primarily on Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a method to promote conflict transformation. 

DRC, and specifically, Eastern DRC, has been caught in a cycle of violence. The result of a long history of tensions and violence is a profound lack of trust between communities, and between communities and political authorities. North and South Kivu, where LPI’s work has focused, continue to experience periodic clashes and military confrontations involving several old and new armed groups and the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique de Congo (FARDC). Aggravating factors which perpetuate conflict include the competition for valuable natural resources which involves private and state actors, conflict entrepreneurs. 

The conflict transformation processes LPI’s partners facilitate in Eastern DRC therefore seek to address deep-seated inter-community conflicts evolving around the complex inter-relationship of land access, power and identity. 

Partners are key to our success 

We have collaborated with a number of civil society organisations for more than a decade. We do not currently provide financial support, but we engage in knowledge partnerships through a collaborative learning process.

• Action pour le Développement et la Paix endogènes (ADEPAE). Established in 1997 in response to the climate of mistrust and suspicion between communities in South Kivu Province, DR Congo. ADEPAE’s mission is to accompany the population in the positive transformation of conflicts and the promotion of good governance to contribute to peace and sustainable development in Eastern DRC. 

• Réseau d’Innovation Organisationelle (RIO). Established in 1999, as a technical service of the Eglise du Christ au Congo, and since 2018 registered independently as a non-governmental organisation (ASBL), RIO...

• Reseau des Cadres de Concertation Intercommunitaire (RCCI). In Uvira and Fizi territories, platforms of inter-community collaboration were created as part of PAR processes supported by RIO and ADEPAE. These included Cadre de Concertation Inter-Communitaire (CCI) in Bukavu, Uvira, Minembwe and Baraka. In 2016, the CCI structures have evolved into a network which is in the process of being formally established:  the Réseau de Cadres de Concertations Inter-Communitaire (RCCI). Further platforms were created in more rural areas, namely 18 Comités Mixtes de règlement des litiges (CM), dealing with disputes between farmers and herders at grassroots level.

Our work 

In early 2019, we engaged a series of reflection sessions to document experiences with bottom-up policy engagement around land management in the framework of Participatory Action Research (PAR) processes. 

'Collaborative Learning from the Bottom-up: Identifying lessons from a decade of peacebuilding in Eastern DRC through ‘bottom-up evaluation’, funded by Sida. (July 2019-June 2020) 

Through collaboration with our partners and peacebuilding practitioners, guided by an external evaluation team, we seek to draw lessons from peacebuilding efforts from various actors in North and South Kivu from 2008-2018 to generate knowledge, best practices and contribute to collaborative learning.

This links to our Strategic Objective 3: Knowledge and Learning

Approaches and methods 

It was in Eastern DRC where we first adopted the use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodologies to address conflicts. Using PAR in the communities that are part of and affected by a given conflict enables them to engage in the identification of the underlying issues of a conflict and work with others to resolve their differences non-violently and build constructive relationships.

Our donors

Read more about LPI's funders on the funding/finance page. LPI currently receive funding from Sida and Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Democratic Republic of Congo - Bukavu

Postal Address
Life & Peace Institute, P O Box 64 Cyangugu/Rwanda

Visiting Address
N°047 avenue du lac Tanganyika (Bâtiment B de Search for Common Ground), quartier Nguba, commune d’Ibanda, ville de Bukavu.

Phone + 243 (0)81 568 43 49 or +243 (0)99 807 26 47

Email info@life-peace.org