CPS Partners Test the “Do No Harm” Approach Tool in Communities

By Abdul Kaprr Dumbuya

“It is really important for communities to be involved at every stage of development work; as long as it has to do with their lives”, noted Mariama Kargbo from the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL).

As part of a particular support programme addressing “Peace and Conflict Sensitivity Assessment”, local partners and National Coordinators should be enabled to analyse conflict and local capacities for peace by using methods and tools adjusted to the specific context. This principally includes tasks like strengthening methodological skills for analysing socio-political conflict with local partners; jointly Identifying local capacities for peace; assisting National Coordinators to gain an understanding of already existing capacities of local partners for conflict transformation and their focus on conflict in their specific field of work; and identifying and practicing opportunities for joint conflict analysis.

In January 2020 therefore, BftW started a process of training activities for partners in Kenema, which eventually formed the knowledge foundation of the “Do No Harm” approach among the CPS partners, and led to concrete recommendations on how to implement programmes that are compatible with the complex situation in Sierra Leone.

After a number of follow up virtual sessions with trainees on the application of the tool, a member of the BftW Support Team, Dr. Rolfe Grafe from Germany assisted by John Okanga from Kenya, held a week long face-to-face follow up training and practical application sessions for about 15 participants. The follow up training drew participants from network partners who were part of the training conducted in Kenema, and was hosted at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown from 26^th – 28^th November, 2021. This was meant to be a refresher period for the trainees, during which they were taken through the key aspects of the approach, including clustering trainees by regions of origins and operations to develop work plans of how they intended to implement the approach in their respective organisations and operational communities across the country.

The tool for the practical sessions was targeted at analysing the context of a project being implemented in the Western Area Peninsula National Park by one of the network partner organizations, the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL). The team was divided into four groups, each of which was led by a designated staff of CSSL. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with key relevant government stakeholders, media representative, key community stakeholders and various interest groups at Big Water, Tokeh, Tombo and York communities around the National Park where the project is being implemented.

Certificates of participation were distributed to the trainees at the end of the exercise. Participants expressed profound gratitude to BftW, the trainers and the National Coordinators for supporting and organizing the training for partners. Most said, they had learned a lot of lessons from particularly the practical sessions in communities that, if applied in their programmes, would help them in achieving their respective programme objectives. Ms. Salamatu Haja Lahai from the Young Men’s Christians Association (YMCA) in Kenema said, “I learned a lot from the entire exercise. It is really important for communities to be involved at every stage of development work; as long as it has to do with their lives”, she noted. 

Bread for the World (BftW) is the globally active development and relief agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany. In more than 90 countries all across the globe the organization empowers the poor and marginalized to improve their living conditions. Among others, BftW is implementing a programme of the Civil Peace Service in several African countries, one of them Sierra Leone. This programme is jointly run with partner organisations in areas of crisis and conflict. Within this framework, BftW promotes non-violent conflict transformation by local partner organizations.